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Posts Tagged ‘North Carolina’


NC: AG Won’t Join Health Care Suit

From Winston-Salem Journal:

North Carolina’s attorney general says the state will not join a lawsuit that seeks to overturn President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul.

Attorney General Roy Cooper said in a letter Friday to Gov. Beverly Perdue that health care is a policy decision that should be decided by elected representatives and not appointed federal judges. He said there’s ample time for elected officials to change the legislation since most provisions in dispute don’t take effect until 2013.

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NC: AG Won’t Say if He’s Interested in Becoming UNC System President

From Newsobserver.com:

Attorney General Roy Cooper won’t directly say whether he’s interested in becoming the next president of the UNC system.

Cooper’s name has floated around Raleigh circles for weeks as being interested in succeeding President Erskine Bowles, who is stepping down later this year. Asked whether he’s interested, Cooper offered non-denial denials.

“I like what I’m doing,” Cooper said.

Dome attempted a cross examination of the state’s top lawyer and pointed out that he didn’t quite answer the question.

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NC: SEIU Starting Third Party

From The Plumb Line:

In a shot across the bow of Dems, the labor powerhouse SEIU is starting a new third party in North Carolina that hopes to field its own slate of candidates, part of an effort to make the Democratic Party more reliable on issues important to labor, I’m told.

SEIU officials setting up the new party, called North Carolina First, are currently on the ground collecting signatures to qualify as a state party, SEIU officials tell me, adding that there are around 100 canvassers on the ground right now. The goal: To have the party up and running so candidates can run in this fall’s elections.

It won’t be lost on political observers that three House Dems who voted No on reform are from the state: Heath Shuler, Mike McIntyre, and Larry Kissell.

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NC: On Health Care Suit, AG Cooper is Still Silent

From NewsObserver.com:

There have been rallies, petitions, letters, news releases and political maneuvers meant to get Attorney General Roy Cooper to say “yes.”

So far, he has said nothing.

Cooper has been the focus of pressure, particularly by conservatives, to have North Carolina join a lawsuit challenging the legality of the new federal health care law. Attorneys general in 13 states, including South Carolina, have filed a suit that claims the law “represents an unprecedented encroachment on the liberty of individuals” and that the federal government does not have the right to force Americans to have health insurance. A 14th state, Virginia, filed its own lawsuit.

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North Carolina: Candidates Gear up in Swing Districts

From North Carolina Free Enterprise Foundation:

The North Carolina General Assembly could look much different in 2011. At least, that’s what Republicans hope. For the first time in over a century, the minority party has a shot at wresting control of the legislature from Democrats, and it’s banking on a string of competitive races to do it.

Retirements, resignations, and shifting political dynamics make 10 seats in the Senate and 20 in the House vulnerable to GOP challenges this year. Political experts say a sluggish economy, anger over health care reform in Congress, and corruption could propel Republican candidates into office. The GOP has fielded a record-breaking number of contenders — 223 compared to Democrats’ 170 — and secured at least one challenger in every Senate district and all but 10 House districts…

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NC: State GOP Leaders Challenge Democrat Attorney General

From Statesville.com:

While eight North Carolina U.S. Congress members voted against the health care legislation Sunday night, the five Republicans who did so are asking the state’s attorney general to challenge the constitutionality of the new law.

The Tar Heel State’s GOP congressional delegation drafted a letter to Attorney General Roy Cooper asking him to join 14 other states whose attorneys general have filed or are in the process of filing lawsuits opposing the new law.

The letter, which is dated March 24, is signed by Reps. Virginia Foxx and Patrick McHenry — whose 5th and 10th districts, respectively, cover Iredell County — as well as representatives Walter Jones (3rd District), Sue Myrick (9th District) and Howard Coble (6th District).

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NC: Democrat Pleads Guilty in Shooting Case, Gets No Jail Time

From TheTimesNews.com:

North Carolina’s longest-serving lawmaker won’t serve jail time after pleading guilty Thursday to misdemeanor assault for shooting a former client in a case that earlier had been deemed a felony.

Columbus County Superior Court Judge D. Jack Hooks accepted the guilty plea from Sen. R.C. Soles, D-Columbus, and fined Soles $1,000. Soles had been indicted last month on a felony assault charge. The state constitution would have disqualified Soles from public office had he been convicted of a felony.

First elected to the General Assembly in 1968, Soles is the state’s longest continuously serving lawmaker.

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NC: Poll Finds Distrust of Health Bill

From newsobserver.com:

Yet Early, 65, of Fuquay-Varina, doesn’t want Congress to touch health reform this year. Neither do half of the state’s other registered voters, according to a recent News & Observer/ABC11 Eyewitness News poll.

“I think they should keep their hands off of it,” Early said. “We have the best health care in the world.”

The poll found that 51 percent of registered voters in North Carolina think Congress should not change the U.S. health care system this year.

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NC Democrats Face Corruption Rap Again

From NewsObserver.com:

For the past decade, North Carolina Democrats in charge of state government have been successful persuading the public they’re unlike fellow party colleagues who’ve ended up behind bars.

Democrats have remained in power in the Legislature and at the Executive Mansion despite the news of illegal activities that sent then-House Speaker Jim Black, Agriculture Commissioner Meg Scott Phipps and Rep. Thomas Wright to prison.

They’ve done so while passing tougher ethics and campaign finance laws, and even expelling Wright from the Legislature. At the same time, they’ve had political advantages to get their message out, such as outraising Republicans on campaign dollars, pushing education initiatives and presiding during a span largely marked by growth and prosperity in the state.

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North Carolina: Republicans State Claim in Healthcare Debate

From Newsobserver.com:

Legislative Republicans previewed a proposal Tuesday that they say would “protect” state residents from Democratic health care proposals.

The Republican leaders said they intend to push a bill during this year’s legislative session that would declare that the federal government could not force state residents to buy health insurance, a key provision of the Democratic health care overhaul.

State Rep. Paul Stam, an Apex Republican and the chamber’s minority leader, said requiring people to buy health insurance is “an assault on the freedom of our people.”

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