Todd's blog

The Republican efforts to pack loyal Democratic voters into as few, highly concentrated legislative districts as possible is underway. Their proposed VRA districts have been released.

27 House Voting Rights Act Districts:
http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/gis/randr07/District_Plans/PlanPage_DB_2011....

These districts voted 72% for Obama to 28% for McCain in 2008.
http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/gis/randr07/District_Plans/DB_2011/House/Lew...

11 Senate Voting Rights Act Districts:
http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/gis/randr07/District_Plans/PlanPage_DB_2011....

These districts voted 70% for Obama to 27% for McCain in 2008.

http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/gis/randr07/District_Plans/DB_2011/Senate/Ru...

Congressional Districts have not been released yet.

It must suck to have someone you live with disagree with you, Rep Stone.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20069530-503544.html?tag=stack

A North Carolina lawmaker doesn't think it was right for his daughter and her third-grade class to write to him and other elected officials protesting possible cuts in state education spending.

Republican state Rep. Mike Stone says his daughter asked in her note to "please raise the budget, dad" and help keep two teacher assistants employed.

Stone told WRAL-TV: "As I read through this (letter), anger completely shot through me, and I was trying to hold myself together. (It's unconscionable) to know any education system would use a daughter against her father."

He went a step further on Twitter, blaming the entire political opposition, when he wrote in response to WRAL's story: "The NCAE, Democrat Party & Bev Perdue have hit a new low."

In the wake of Republican candidate Carl Mumpower's suspension and resurrection of his campaign, the Republican organizations of three counties in North Carolina's 11th district are formally severing ties with the "unique" candidate:

Rep. Patrick McHenry (R) pre-empted an embarrassing cash-on-hand tie with his unknown general election opponent late last month, loaning his campaign $175,000 on June 30, the last day of the quarter.

In surprisingly blunt language, U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler complained this week of "a lack of maturity" in the U.S. House.

The North Carolina Democrat accused some of his fellow lawmakers of thinking they're "Hollywood stars" and said many of them spend more time playing politics than doing what's best for the country.

An Upset Bid Democrats Won’t Ignore This Time

Voters in the mostly working-class precincts of south-central North Carolina that connect Charlotte and Fayetteville were faced with a study in opposites in their candidates for Congress last year. The Democratic challenger was Larry Kissell, a social-studies teacher who also spent 27 years in midlevel jobs in a hosiery mill. The Republican incumbent was Robin Hayes, a millionaire hosiery mill owner and descendent of one of the region’s founding families. Despite being outspent 3-to-1 and being cut off from support from party headquarters in Washington, Kissell managed to come within 329 votes of one of the year’s biggest upsets — and created the second-closest House race in the country.

This time around, Democrats are betting heavy — and betting early — on Kissell.

A House Committee approved a bill to distribute NC's electoral votes proportionally, according to the vote in each Congressional District.

Now if it was just retroactive to 2000, we would have had President Gore...

Among the details: Transfer tax included, top income tax rate cut included, sales tax hike made permanent and could go higher.

With the GOP in charge in the Senate, I guess this is the best we can expect...

fp by gf :)

Liddy is in some pretty weak company. Now if she just had an opponent...

www.cqpolitics.com/2007/01/ratings_chart_2008_senate_race.html

Ratings Chart: 2008 Senate Races

CQPolitics.com’s first roundup of the 2008 Senate races — with earliest-ever Election Forecaster ratings by the CQPolitics staff — is based on this increasingly irrefutable principle: the concept of the “off-election” year is now an anachronism for Senate incumbents and candidates.

Republican Seats (21)

No Clear Favorite

Colorado (Wayne Allard, retiring)

Leans Republican

Maine (Susan Collins)

Minnesota (Norm Coleman)

New Hampshire (John E. Sununu)

North Carolina (Elizabeth Dole)

Oregon (Gordon H. Smith)

Here are the votes on HR-4, Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act.

The total votes were 255 votes "Yea," and 170 votes "No," which is 35 votes short of what it will take to override Bush's promised veto. Only Walter Jones crossed party lines on this one.

District 01 Butterfield, G K (D) - Yea
District 02 Etheridge, Bob (D) - Yea
District 03 Jones, Walter B Jr (R) - Yea
District 04 Price, David (D) - Yea
District 05 Foxx, Virginia (R) - No
District 06 Coble, Howard (R) - No
District 07 McIntyre, Mike (D) - Yea
District 08 Hayes, Robin (R) - No
District 09 Myrick, Sue (R) - No
District 10 McHenry, Patrick (R) - No
District 11 Shuler, Heath (D) - Yea
District 12 Watt, Melvin L (D) - Yea
District 13 Miller, Brad (D) - Yea

Once again, we see the Party of Greed following their marching orders from big pharma. If it's OK for the VA to negotiate lower drug prices, how can it not be OK for Medicare, too?