Late yesterday afternoon it was announced that Gov. Bev Perdue had appointed Rep. Lucy Allen (D-Franklin) to the Utilities Commission (with its $123,198 salary — not bad for a commission that has only met 6 times so far this year). In 2008, Allen, the former mayor of Louisburg, won the district by 59-41 margin, but [...]
- Mar31
It’s Your Fault, Bev!
Oh poor Gov. Perdue. After President Obama announced that he was allowing offshore drilling to begin to proceed off the east coast (including North Carolina), she has the audacity to say that it is happening “with or without us.” Well, Governor, who do you think has drug her feet on making a decision on offshore [...]
- Mar23
Gambling OK — As Long as it is State-Sponsored (Part 4)
In what seems like a never-ending series (see parts 1, 2, and 3), we are informed once again of another effort by the state-sponsored gambling authorities to tell NC citizens that other types of gambling are not just wrong, but illegal. From WRAL: The North Carolina Education Lottery has sent warning letters to retailers who [...]
- Mar22
Support for “Reform” Does Not Equal Support for Obamacare
There were many media outlets over the weekend touting the results of an Elon University poll (and I use the term poll very lightly, see my real thoughts on it here) that showed that 78 percent of North Carolinians supported reforming the health care system. Somehow, media members took that to mean that 78 percent [...]
- Mar18
Race Baiting — Democratic Primary Style
The Democratic primary in Senate District 3 is setting up to be a doozy. Incumbent Sen. Clark Jenkins is facing a primary challenge from African-American businessman Frankie Bordeaux. The district, encompassing all of Edgecombe and Martin counties and most of Pitt county is roughly 50% black by voter registration. Jenkins, in his fourth term, is [...]
- Mar12
NC Used Once Again
Since most companies know our state’s leadership are a bunch of suckers for incentive packages and will throw taxpayer money around chasing the elusive score, North Carolina has once again been used as the rabbit to run up the incentive package for another state — this time, Radio Shack has made NC its tease. RadioShack, [...]
- Mar12
AFP’s New Healthcare Ad
Our friends at Americans for Prosperity are up with a new health care ad featuring a breast cancer survivor reminding us the ramifications of passing Obamacare.
- Mar09
Father Sirico vs. Charlie Rangel
On March 25, the Civitas Institute is sponsoring a lecture by Father Robert Sirico, President of the Acton Institute who will be speaking on “Does Social Justice Require Socialism?” Too see a bit of what Fr. Sirico is about, check out his “Tangle with Rangel” from a House Committee hearing in 2007. To attend the [...]
- 2Mar04
Cocaine for Monkeys Getting Media Attention
WSOC in Winston-Salem did a story last night on Civitas’ Brian Balfour’s Top 10 Worst Federal Stimulus Projects in NC:
- Mar03
Tiger Woods More Popular than Bev Perdue
I know, it’s a running joke, right… But according to a new poll by ABC News, Tiger Woods’ favorable rating is higher than that of our own Gov. Bev Perdue. In a basic measure of popularity, just 39 percent express a favorable opinion of Woods overall, essentially unchanged from its level just before his apology [...]
- Mar02
Privatizing ABC Faces Deep Divides
In our poll this month, we once again tested voters’ opinion on privatizing the ABC system of government-run liquor stores. While we found increased support for privatization, some very deep divides emerged in the crosstabs that present some fairly large hurdles for privatization advocates to overcome. While privatizing was supported by 47% of North Carolinians [...]
- 4Feb23
Your Tax Dollars at Work
Pretty neat video of 58 million of your tax dollars hard at work. Some aerial footage of the new data center being built by Apple in Catawba County. I’m still waiting for all the greeny environmentalists to put down their iPhones or iPads long enough to notice the number of poor defenseless trees who gave [...]
- Feb22
Your Beach House is Safe Now
I know how concerned many were about their beach house been eaten by the ocean due to rising sea levels. Well, nothing to fear anymore. Turns out, rising sea levels, like much of the global warming catastrophe scenarios, just isn’t grounded in science. Scientists have been forced to withdraw a study on projected sea level [...]
- Feb22
NC DOT Gets One Right
Late last Friday, the NC Department of Transportation released a new report that represents a major step forward for the department — they are now using a “data-driven approach is being used to score projects across the state” as opposed to its previous scoring system relying on political favor and cronyism for transportation projects. This [...]
- Feb10
Assessing the Legislative Districts
With filing now open and candidates announcements coming fast and furiously, it would be a good time to remind everyone out there about our NC Partisan Index, which rates every House and Senate district according to its partisan voting patterns. If you’re familiar with Charlie Cook’s PVI for Congressional races, our NCPI is modeled similarly. [...]
- Feb03
“Jobs Governor”? Only 12% Think So.
In our poll this month, we asked voters if Gov. Bev Perdue nicknaming herself as the “Jobs Governor” was an appropriate title for the Governor given her first year in office. Only 12% of voters said yes. 68 percent said no. As for her favorability rating this month it comes in at a -5 (43% [...]
- 1Feb02
Obama Favorable Up in January
NC voters’ opinion of Pres. Barack Obama inched up in January and now is at 52% favorable, 37% unfavorable or a +15 spread, the widest its been since the beginning of the health care debate last summer. Obama’s favorability rating basically fell off a cliff once the health care reform measure was launched last July [...]
- Jan28
What a Waste of Money
If you wanted to increase travel efficiency between Raleigh and Charlotte, what is the better use of $520 million? 1. Upgrade a rail line (but not fully) that serves a few hundred people per day that could possibly grow to a couple of thousand people per day. 2. Replace the Yadkin River Bridge ($300M) and [...]
- Jan28
Most Interesting Poll Result
If you missed the monthly poll luncheon yesterday at the Clarion, you missed out on probably the most interesting poll finding we’ve had in our nearly 5 years of polling. We asked voters if they had a favorable or unfavorable opinion of our good friend, Dallas Woodhouse: And interestingly enough, Dallas is actually more popular [...]
- Jan26
Where’s Gov. Perdue? Shhh! It’s a Secret.
Wow, when the media starts teeing off on a politician like this, they’re doing something wrong.