Politics

New leadership and a surprise merger of sorts. No we’re not talking about the latest on Chiquita banana.  In this installment of our Thursday political conversation Morning Edition host Kevin Kniestedt and WFAE's Tom Bullock talk about a week of good and bad news for the North Carolina Democratic Party. 

More than a third of North Carolina's counties are asking for an exemption from part of the sweeping election overhaul the General Assembly passed last year. Those exemptions would allow counties to cut early voting periods beyond what the new law already does.

The Slow Food movement argues that the concept of fast food is a symbol of what’s wrong with the world today- centralization, top-down homogeneity, mass produced… and that we should embrace Local. Our guest today says that same philosophy should be applied to government. With government mistrust and low approval ratings for members of Congress at a near all-time high, Susan Clark, author of Slow Democracy, says we should pay attention our local government. Clark’s book outlines several guidelines designed to reinvigorate local democracy, and make local government relevant, citizen powered, and inclusive. We'll explore Slow Democracy and a future more focused on the local.

The private board that Governor Pat McCrory wants to take control of recruiting and retaining businesses in North Carolina met for the first time Wednesday. But there’s not too much that board can do until the state legislature gives it more authority.

In modern history, especially over the past six or seven decades, North Carolina has changed in many ways, in terms of growth, economy, race relations, and education. These changes were all affected by politics and political shifts throughout the years. A new book on North Carolina political history goes into great depth in explaining how intertwined many of these changes were with each other and how that depended on who was in office. We’ll be joined by the author of The Making of a Southern Democracy: North Carolina Politics From Kerr Scott to Pat McCrory, Tom Eamon, who will take us through some of the turmoil and political change to explain why elections and people in office matter, how race relations have changed the state and its politics and about the change in party balance from the 1950’s to today.

With Republicans in control of the legislature and Governor’s office, North Carolina has made a turn to the right. But that turn runs deeper than just the ideology of our elected representatives. There are some lesser-known organizations and individuals exerting influence and helping to set the legislative agenda. The influence of money on policy happens on both sides of the aisle and we take a closer look.

By most accounts 2013 was a tumultuous political year. At the national level, bi-partisanship reached an all time high and a major battle ensued over the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. The IRS was embroiled in a scandal over targeting the tea party on tax status and the White House was accused of spying on foreign dignitaries. Closer to home we had a feud over who should control the airport, lawmakers comparing the ACA and President Obama to Hitler and Nazism and the rise of Moral Mondays. We'll look back at a wild year in politics and ahead on what to expect in 2014.

Republican congressmen held a hearing in Gastonia on Friday on the problems people in North Carolina are having with the Affordable Care Act. But it served as more of a political rally for people who oppose or support Obamacare.

A more analytical approach to a massive budget, more input from a neighborhood before closing a school, and a lot more lawmakers in Raleigh who agree with educators in Charlotte.

Those are a few things candidates for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board called for Thursday night at a public forum hosted by WFAE and MeckEd.

There are 12 candidates running for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board’s six district seats.

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper has been speaking out lately on a range of issues, at times disagreeing with laws signed by Republican governor Pat McCrory.    Cooper is a Democrat who plans to run for governor in 2016.   His public comments of late have sparked tensions with the McCrory administration and criticism from state GOP leaders.   For some analysis of the attorney general's role, WFAE's Mark Rumsey spoke with James Tierney, a former Maine AG who now heads the National State Attorneys General Program at Columbia Law School in New York.