James's blog

I've taken a few days to digest all the post-primary chatter, and found myself distressed by the discussion as it relates to Kay Hagan and Bev Perdue. At the center of the distress is the presumption that candidates "owe" voters answers to whatever questions are asked. From where I sit, candidates don't owe voters anything. Just as we can choose or not choose to ask questions, so can they choose or not choose to answer them. I may be upset if candidates decline to answer my questions, but that's my problem, not theirs. I can either vote for them or not vote for them, but that's pretty much the extent of my power.

Which brings me to the real question: What do I do when they're silent ... or worse yet, when I don't like their answers?

Chris Fitzsimon at NC Policy watch has a concise preview of the upcoming legislative session and the fuzzy fuzzy budget picture.

It adds up to a challenging session for lawmakers, who will be meeting with one eye focused on their own re-election campaigns and in the shadow of a gubernatorial race that is almost certain to include misleading and simplistic rhetoric about budgets and taxes.

Thanks to everyone for the spirit of civility and generosity on display today. I was madly disappointed at some of the outcomes, yet I see no choice but to redouble my efforts to help North Carolina find its way toward a more progressive future. Got any suggestions?

I confess to not knowing a lot about Pat McCrory and the great state of Mecklenburg. But I do know this. Pat McCrory has a big ugly "they" problem, and it will be his downfall in November. From his victory speech last night, referring to his tenure as mayor in Charlotte:

"I plan to bring that leadership to the rest of North Carolina because they deserve it."

The politics of hope can be a hard road sometimes. One step ahead, one step backwards. The thrill of victory. The agony of defeat. What a crazy world we live in.

What's on your mind this morning?

This time tomorrow, the world will look like a whole different place and we'll all be gearing up for the run-offs. All politics all the time makes for crispy critters.

What's up?

This week brings us to the end of North Carolina's primary wars, thank goodness. To all the folks who frequent BlueNC as activists, candidates, lurkers, reporters, and more, please share what you may have learned over the past many months.

Elaine Mejia, the director of the NC Budget and Tax Center, has a short-but-excellent post up over at the Progressive Pulse. In the comments she responds to Max Borders, professional social-media mogul for the Puppetshow's Civitas Circus. This is the most compact and definitive rebuttal I've seen yet to the market-extremists' lying about North Carolina's tax policy toward businesses. Bookmark it.

Those pesky researchers at Ernst & Young and the Council on State Taxation have done it again. They simply refuse to develop a methodology for ranking state business tax burdens in such a way that North Carolina's ranking will come out where the state Chamber of Commerce and the free-market fundamentalist "think tanks" like to claim that it is - as in at the top of list.

Barbara Barrett and Martha Quillan wrote an excellent story in today's N&O about racial prejudice in North Carolina. It's a hard view of the sad reality in North Carolina.