Politics

April 1 marked the beginning of Ron Carlee's tenure as Charlotte City Manager, the first person from out of town to hold the position in more than 30 years. Mr. Carlee brings experience both as a former county manager (Arlington Co., Virginia) and as the COO of the International City/ County Management Association, where he was able to see the operations of cities all over the world. We'll sit down with Mr. Carlee and Mayor Anthony Foxx to talk about how he plans to tackle the city budget, transit and the streetcar debate, the airport situation, and the day-to-day operations of the city, when Charlotte Talks.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that politics in Washington has gotten pretty brutal along party lines, and getting anything done is nearly impossible. But there's a ray of hope among a group of freshman congressmen from both sides of the aisle who want to find solutions to the nation's problems, and are willing to look to their political opponents for collaboration. We'll talk with District 9 Representative Robert Pittenger – a Republican, and Florida Representative Patrick Murphy - a Democrat, about the United Solutions Caucus, a group that they co-founded and now co-chair, which focuses on building relationships and looking for bipartisan solutions to problems facing lawmakers, when Charlotte Talks.

The NAACP held marches across North Carolina Sunday to voice opposition to a potential voter ID law. The organization also commemorated the 48th anniversary of civil rights marches in Alabama.

The Republican-run General Assembly has been busy in North Carolina. Less than half-way through the six month session and we've no shortage of controversial topics to tackle. Voter ID laws and tax reform are biggies. Then there's the frost relationship between Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx and his predecessor who's now in the Governor's Mansion. Charlotte finds itself scraping for state support to renovate Bank of America Stadium and prevent a takeover of the city-owned airport. We take it all in with a panel of political experts, when Charlotte Talks.

There is an ongoing debate about how we seat judges in North Carolina. On one side are supporters of partisan judicial elections, on the other the appointment of judges by the sitting Governor. Other scenarios have been introduced as well. Last year Governor Perdue issued an executive order creating an 18 member committee to select a slate of judges for the Governor to choose from. One of Governor McCrory's first acts was to repeal that order. We'll look at how we choose judges in our state and some of the most popular suggestions for reform, when Charlotte Talks.

  Our guest today suggests that our problems in Washington can be fixed by adapting our democracy to new information technology. John McGinnis, former Justice Department official in both Reagan and HW Bush Administrations, is now a law professor and author of a book that argues better decisions can be made about government policies when citizens are able to access information to bet on the consequences of specific decisions. We'll talk about Accelerating Democracy: Transforming Governance through Technology.

Last weekend, a report in the Raleigh News and Observer caught our attention.  State Senator Fletcher Hartsell of Concord had apparently spent nearly $100,000 of his campaign money to pay personal credit card bills over the last two years.

Former South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford is the latest fallen politician to attempt a comeback from the realm of late-night joke fodder.  He announced today he'll seek the 1st District Congressional seat vacated by Republican Tim Scott who was chosen to replace recently-retired Senator Jim DeMint. WFAE's Julie Rose has the story.

Mark Sanford sort of always kept the door open to this day.

During an exit interview as Sanford was leaving the Governor's office two years ago, I asked if he'd considered that maybe his political career wasn't over?

Republicans now hold the North Carolina Governor’s Mansion and have majorities in both the state House and Senate for the first time in more than a hundred years. This week, Pat McCrory was sworn in as governor and the General Assembly convened its 2013 session. So now, the question is, “what will the GOP do now that it has control in Raleigh?”

Professor Michael Bitzer talks to Morning Edition host Duncan McFadyen.

Former Nebraska Republican Senator Chuck Hagel is the President’s choice to be the next Secretary of Defense. This bi-partisan appointment is not being well-received on the GOP Side of the aisle. An outspoken critic of some Republican ideas, he didn’t support John McCain in 2008. We spoke to Senator Hagel just days before the 08 election and talked about many of the things that concern Senate Republicans today. We'll hear part of that conversation, then political analyst Michael Bitzer joins us to discuss why the President's nomination of Hagel has turned out to be so controversial and the process that the Senator will have to endure before ultimately being confirmed or rejected as Defense Secretary.