My story on Monday's State Board of Elections hearings regarding Gov. Mike Easley's campaign finances is here. Also worth reading, the N+O's Rob Christensen's take here.
Update: This statement came from AG Roy Cooper, following up Gov. Bev Perdue's release:
“In the interest of public safety and to ensure that sentences and release dates are properly calculated according to law, we have advised the Department of Correction that no prisoners have to be released until further direction from the courts. We continue to believe that these prisoners need to remain behind bars as we have argued for more than two years to the courts.”
Much has been written about 20 North Carolina the inmates who were serving life sentences but about to be sprung because "life" didn't really mean "life" back when they were sentenced. (Backgroundhere, here and here.) Now comes this release from Gov. Bev Perdue, in which she declares there is a "real question" whether the prison system properly applied "good time" rules to the inmates and says, "Until these new legal issues have been resolved by the courts, Mr. Bowden and the other violent offenders will not be released." The full release is below:
When I learned that the Supreme Court had issued a ruling that meant offenders serving life in prison would be released after a mere 35 years, I was appalled. Like most of my fellow North Carolinians, I believe life should mean life, and even if a life sentence is defined as 80 years, getting out after only 35 is simply unacceptable.
Since that ruling, my staff and I have been doing everything we can to stop the release of these rapists and murderers. These are people who have been denied parole repeatedly, and many who have numerous infractions during their prison stay. I do not believe they are ready for release onto the streets of our communities.
While I understand the decision of the Supreme Court, I believe there remain unresolved legal issues that were not addressed. Before Mr. Bowden or any other offender affected by the Court’s decision is turned loose, these issues must be heard.
At issue is the application of good behavior credits to these violent offenders serving life sentences since the 1970s. Since last week, we have been scrutinizing the good behavior credits applied to the 20 inmates eligible for immediate release. This morning, legal counsel and Department of Correction staff met with officials who oversaw the application of those behavior credits during the 1980s. At the time, the DOC gave inmates day-for-day credits under the authority of the then-secretary. There is a real question whether the General Assembly intended for the DOC to have that kind of authority. I do not believe they did, and my legal counsel agrees. This raises the very real question that these inmates should not be eligible for early release.
Mr. Bowden’s case is in the process of being sent back to the trial court to recalculate his sentence. These issues can be resolved by the courts.
Until these new legal issues have been resolved by the courts, Mr. Bowden and the other violent offenders will not be released.
Perdue talked about efforts to block the prisoners' release on a call with reporters this morning. You can find audio from that conversation here.
Gov. Bev Perdue spoke to reporters from China this morning. In addition to giving an update on her trip, she took questions.
A lot of the questions and comments focused on high tech job recruiting. But since the High Point Furniture Market is in full swing, I asked if she was having discussions over there about North Carolina’s traditional industries. After all, China wasn’t so much viewed as a potential partner during the late 1990s and early part of this decade. Many executives and workers here in North Carolina saw the country and its ultra-cheap labor force as a large contributor to the decline of the textile and furniture industries.
“It has been the elephant in the room if you will,” Perdue said. She added that her discussions with Chinese leaders thus far have emphasized that the trading relationship with North Carolina needed to be a two-way street.
This first recording picks up with my question and captures a couple of the other economy and business-recruiting-related discussions Perdue had with reporters.
The recording below picks up with some of the “off-topic” questions that Perdue fielded. Among the other questions, she’s asked about how she’s perceived as a female head of state, about the imminent release of prisoners who had been given life sentences and about her appointment of a commander to the highway patrol.
It’s time to round up the flotsam that’s been meandering through the political jet stream this past week as I’ve been, um, distracted…yeah, that’s the ticket.
Taxing issues
Dome has already mentioned (Click here) Sen. Phil Berger’s wheelbarrow full of fun. But the Senate Republican leader had a few other things on his mind at Tuesday’s news conference, including tax reform.
Berger sounded cautious but open to Democratic efforts to remake the state’s tax system. (Click here for background.)
But upon further questioning, Berger laid out two big Republican “must-haves” that seem unlikely to come about when the Democrats who control the legislature dive into tax reform.
The first was a “stable” economic environment. I don’t know that anyone is going to feel the economy is really stable for a few years and this is a project that Democrats want to take on post haste.
Secondly, Berger emphasized that he would want to see measure to reign in spending attached to any tax package.
“There needs to be as serious commitment to controlling spending as the commitment that we seem to see from the Democrats to adjusting the tax policy of North Carolina,” Berger said. What would such a “serious commitment” look like? Berger said it would have to be a formal, legal mechanism more than just a handshake agreement.
Thus far, that doesn’t seem to be an idea that Democrats are embracing.
Click below to listen to the Q&A on this issue:
Erratic statements
Berger’s office has taken to using the word “erratic” to describe Gov. Bev Perdue and her policies. For example, in a release this week, Berger said that while Perdue is dismayed by a technicality that will lead to the early release of prisoners serving life sentences, she signed legislation that will revise sentencing guidelines lower for some crimes. From a release last week.
“Governor Perdue’s erratic behavior continues. In August, over Republican objections, Perdue signed two bills reducing the prison sentences for criminals convicted of rape and murder. Now she complains about convicted murderers being released from prison. This is just another example of Perdue’s hypocrisy…”
That “erratic behavior continues” line is something that Berger’s office has been using a lot. Recently, some bit of book-learnin’ (probably imposed, as my conservative friends would say, by some pinko-liberal psychology professor) began bugging me about the phrase. Not only is erratic pejorative but it seems to hit on the current governor’s gender, as in “Oh, the lady governor can’t make up her mind what she wants to do.”
Berger, however, had a great comeback for my question when asked about that.
“Gary Pearce was the first person who used the word “erratic” in conjunction with the governor,” Berger said. “And it struck me if a well known, very experience, Democratic political consultant – If he felt like what she was doing was erratic, that was a good enough word for me too.”
Pearce indeed described the governor as “erratic” in an Aug. 14 post (click here) “talking about Perdue hiring Pearse Edwards as her new communications guru. He wrote: "You’ll work for a governor who has a reputation for being tough on her staff – and erratic.”
Point Berger.
Burr statements
Dome and the AP (Click here and here) noted that Sen. Richard Burr came to tout federal money coming to a local fire station from the federal stimulus package which he opposed in Congress. From the AP report:
Burr appeared last week with local officials in Alexander County who were receiving $2 million in federal grants to help build a new fire station, according to the Hickory Daily Record. The money came from a federal stimulus program touted by Democrats and President Barack Obama.
Now, the following is not to say the story isn’t on the up and up or based on inaccurate information, but there is a back story here.
The DSCC and other Democratic political functionaries took the lead in pushing that story out to the news media, making calls and sending e-mails. Then once the story gained traction, they sent out a second round of news releases (click here) touting how all the MSM were reporting this story. Basically, they’ve laundered a talking point so it looks like it’s coming from reporters.
To be clear: Republicans do this sort of thing as well. Democrats are probably going to do more in the context of the coming U.S. Senate campaign because they’re aiming to take down an incumbent.
But for those who will be following the 2010 campaign, it’s worth being on the look out for this sort of thing. The tactic was used quite a bit during the 2008 Hagan-Dole race with varying degrees of results.
And for those in Greensboro, this is a charge that gets leveled at Rep. Howard Coble quite a bit. Coble, a Republican, often votes against spending bills but will tout the earmarks he got inserted into those bills.
Third party poopers
As editorial writer Doug Clark notes (click here) the Libertarian and Green parties lost a Court of Appeals decision (click here) challenging North Carolina’s ballot access laws.
The decision was a split decision so the defendants have a right of appeal to the North Carolina Supreme Court.
Perdue in Asia
Gov. Bev Perdue has been blogging her way through a two-week trip in Asia. You can catch her updates here.
Veterans
A veterans group has been pushing federal energy policy reform legislation here in North Carolina and elsewhere (click here) In addition to a multi-city bus stop, I caught a radio commercial this morning that featured Rep. Grier Martin, a Wake County Democrat, who was not identified as a legislator in the commercial. Martin urged Sens. Hagan and Burr to support the climate change bill. (A sample radio ad is here.)
Prisoner release
Families and policy makers are upset that prisoners who supposedly got life sentences are due to be released in the coming week. (Click here.)
I don’t have much to add to this story, other than that I’ve heard from multiple departments and folks at the legislature who are working on trying to keep these guys behind bars.
Sitting in
As I mentioned in my Washington Watch column and editorial writer Allen Johnson mentioned in a recent column (Click here and here) U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan said today that she would be introducing legislation to mint a commemorative coin in honor of the 1960 sit-ins at the Woolworth’s lunch counters. Proceeds from the coin would help support the International Civil Rights Museum in downtown Greensboro. Hagan said that Rep. Howard Coble would introduce a companion measure. (Update: It turns out that the museum is in Rep. Brad Miller's district. Hagan's staff says that since that's the case, it will be Miller who introduced the bill in the House.) The only resistance, she said, would come if there were multiple projects competing for a slot among the limited number of coins the mint would issue in any one year.
On October 10 (yes, that was a Saturday) states had to report to the federal government about how they’ve spent their federal stimulus money. And reporters across the land said, “Hey, that report sounds useful, send it to us.”
Yeah, more on that “useful” idea in a moment.
That data is due to roll out on Recovery.gov Thursday, Oct. 15 as an updated omnibus accounting of how stimulus funds have been spent so far. Background on that here and here. Here's hoping the data makes a little more sense when aggregated by the feds.
Unfortunately for those of us trying to understand this material at the state level, North Carolina's “report” wasn’t so much a single document as a series of documents that detail spending in a number of different ways. I’m still plowing through trying to figure out what they actually say. But why keep all the fun to myself.
I’m posting most of the files that I received – as long as they are discrete PDFs or other documents. If you're inclinded, take a look and tell me what you see. What questions would you be asking about all this.
That document suggests that the 24,442 jobs have been created or saved by the stimulus spending piped through North Carolina agencies thus far. (The number is higher if you take into stimulus spending writ large across North Carolina.)
This is a spreadsheet that is supposed to show how many jobs have been created per agency. Job Impact Spreadsheet
The remainder of the information came grouped by the department from which it was spent. Mostly, it is a set of PDFs that look like they were generated by the database interface from hell. I’ll let you tell me if you think there’s useful information in here.
The first agency up is the Department of Crime Control and Public Safety.
The case is McCracken & Amick Inc et al versus Perdue. The case number is 09-431 if you’re inclined to go look up the supporting documents at the Court of Appeals’ document site. (Click here.)
This case is one of three regarding video poker in the state and could have the most far-reaching effects of any of them. At issue is whether a state law passed in 2006 (click here) conflicts with a federal law governing tribal gaming rights (click here for more information).
Some gratuitous thoughts:
My favorite thing about arguments today was the fact that lawyers on both sides keep referring to a case known as “Artichoke Joe’s,” which apparently is one of the few pieces of case law out there directly on point.
The sheriff’s association and us scruffy media types showed up to watch the proceedings in force, overflowing the small temporary courtroom the Court of Appeals has been using while their permanent digs are renovated.
During the last legislative session, lawmakers decided that state workers who were over-weight or smoked should pay more for their health insurance. That idea grabbed the attention of the Today show, who ran this piece today:
The graphic was attention grabbing if only because it was playing with symbols that in a best case kind of scenario the authors didn’t understand and in a worst case scenario did.
Since wakeupamerica.com doesn't have the picture on its front (you can still see the post itself here), I’ve attached a screen grab of what they were promoting to this blog post. (If you're seeing the tiny picture up to the right, click on it for a bigger version. For an even bigger view, click on the picture again.)
I’m thinking there may be some objection to the use of the Star of David in place of the presidential seal used to festoon a picture that presents the sitting president as a tin pot dictator and alongside text that calls for a “bloodless coup.” I’m not really sure what they’re trying to suggest, only that it’s probably not respectful of either the president or the Jewish faith.
Update: Laura follows up with feedback from wakeupamerica here. The image is now gone from their site with an apology.
Update 2: Sen. Brock found my e-mail before I found his phone #. He writes:
Our internet vendor is new to politics and is ashamed and apologetic for not understanding those photos are offensive, and as our top official, I can say I was unaware of this and am trying to correct it again even now and will make sure even photos are approved from this point on.
Update 3: You know, all this wakeupamerica thing is missing is some righteous outrage from political opponents. Ahhhh, there we go. From a NC Democratic Party e-mail:
RALEIGH, NC -- Republican members of the North Carolina legislature Senator Andrew Brock and Representative Brian Holloway have gone too far and their leadership’s silence indicates their tacit approval, North Carolina Democratic Party Executive Director Andrew Whalen said today.
Whalen’s comments came after Wake Up America, a conservative website created by Brock and Holloway, posted two derogatory images of President Obama, one picturing him next to Adolf Hitler.
“There is no possible way to defend the actions of Brock and Holloway. Comparing the President or anyone to Hitler is too disgusting for words.” Whalen said. “I’m guessing that’s why we haven’t heard a word from Berger, Stam, or Fetzer. Those three need to immediately repudiate the actions of their colleagues. If they don’t, their support for these shameful actions will be clear to all North Carolinians.”
It’s the one question your humble Raleigh correspondent is asked more than any other -- more than who will win the next election or what exactly is in a Chelada.
“So, what’s the new food at the state fair?”
Well, I have an answer: chocolate-covered bacon.
Actually, it’s not bad. You don’t get so much a bacon flavor as a hit of saltiness. The chocolate is dark chocolate and is definitely the prevalent note.
But I have a weakness for bacon and chocolate, so I needed a third-party reviewer.
Enter Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler, who confessed to me he hadn’t tried the fair’s newest treat yet.
“Let’s go!” I said.
So we tromped over to the stand showing off the latest fair food to the media and quickly procured a piece.
“It’s actually very good,” Troxler said as several of us scruffy media types and state fair staffers looked on. “It may become one of my favorites.”
And Troxler said there’s actually a deeper message to having the bacon there.
“The reason I’m so excited about this is we’re the No. 2 pork producer in the nation,” he said. “And there happens to be an excess amount of pork out there right now. So it will be my undertaking at the state fair for people to eat all the pork that they can eat – outside of barbecue.”
To be clear, this is not a fried treat. Well, the bacon is fried, but then there’s a lot of chilling and dipping in chocolate and re-chilling. The “Pig Lickers” will be available at the Kerr Scott building and one other location at the fair.
For those seeking a deep-fried fix, the featured item this year is deep fried Ho Hos, a chocolaty cousin of Twinkies. I’m reliably informed that the Ho Hos made an appearance at the fair six or seven years ago but didn’t catch on back then.They'll be at a food stand on the midway.
And after you gas up on all that, you can go ride the new rides at the fair this year, which include a swing that takes you 86 feet up in the air and North America’s “longest portable slide.”
For those of you who (like me) spent more time outside this weekend than in front of your computer, here's some of what the News & Record served up:
My colleague Richard Barron asks "The Triad's allure: Have we lost it?" As anyone who was awake last week knows, Dell announced it would close its Forsyth County manufacturing plant. Local leaders spend much of the article saying, in effect, it's not us, it's them - we're still desirable even after being dumped. Dell just wasn't mature enough to appreciate us and really has to spend some time finding itself...now hand us the Ben and Jerry's! Click here for the whole story.
Insanity is famously defined as doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results. I'm not really sure why that comes to mind. At any rate, state leaders say that despite the implosion of the Dell deal, they will continue to aggressively recruit "big fish" to North Carolina. Click here for the whole story.
When I knew him, Jim Turner was chairman of the Guilford County Board of Elections and super-nice guy - courteous and fair almost to a fault. It turns out, I'm not the only one who thought so. Mr. Turner, a former state senator, passed away last week after battling cancer. Click here for Lorraine Ahearn's remembrance.
