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Monday: Wright On
posted at 2008-02-11 23:48 | Last modified 2008-02-12 00:39
Sorry no Sunday round-up yesterday. I had plumbing issues at home, and when you’re up to your ankles in water, it’s hard to get too wound up about the weekend’s political coverage. Still, there was some good stuff you might have missed:
60 Minutes had a matching set of interviews with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. I’ll spare you my thoughts on who did better (hint: it’s the one who did 57 (!) interviews in one day), but I’d love to hear yours.
Meantime, Mike Huckabee actually made Tim Russert grin on Meet the Press.
And NCNN’s Matt Willoughby and I helped WNCN's Kim Genardo kick off the re-launch of NBC-17’s “At Issue” as an all-politics weekly - complete with a swanky new Danish-modern set and a dozen flat-screens. Nice. If you missed it, you can watch it here - it’s the 2-10 show.
In ink:
Wilmington’s Sam Scott had this report on the back-and-forth on the General Assembly’s authority to discipline its own membership. More on that below.
Char-O’s Mark Johnson and the N&O’s Rob Christensen weighed in on how a meaningful national primary might influence NC’s state-level races. I think they both make good points, but I have to say - I think the two who stand to gain the most from activity in their respective party primaries are Bev Perdue and Fred Smith.
Dem Bev Perdue does a little better than Richard Moore among women voters, and a lot better among African-American voters. So for her, it doesn’t matter whether Obama or Clinton has the lead - all she needs is a close contest. (PPP’s Tom Jensen agrees.)
Moore does better among independents, but he needs for them to request a Dem ballot – and that might get tougher if Huckabee’s still in the GOP race. If the battle between McCain and Huckabee is still in play, Moore could lose potential votes if independent supporters flock to the other side to back McCain in the higher-profile race.
On the GOP side, Fred Smith’s probably hoping Huck’s still racking up delegates come May. Smith needs conservative voters, but if McCain’s leading the ticket, they may not show up. If Huckabee’s still actively fighting for delegates, that could draw in conservatives, which would benefit Smith over McCrory.
Of course, a McCain/Huck faceoff might generate higher independent turnout, too, which could conceivably benefit McCrory. But a tight GOP race will almost certainly generate higher turnout among base conservatives than independents. And even if a lot of indies show up, McCrory will have to share them with Moore. So I’d bet the Mayor’s hoping the GOP dust settles well before May.
Wright On
The House Select Ethics Committee says the probe into Wilmington Dem Thomas Wright must go on. Today, the panel turned down about a dozen motions by Wright’s defense team to cancel or postpone its hearings on the matter.
Wright attorney NCCU Professor Irving Joyner argued that NC lawmakers can’t discipline Wright because they’ve never expressly given themselves the power to do so. Wright's other attorney, Doug Harris, argued that the headlines likely to be generated by the legislative hearings will taint the prospective jury pool for Wright’s criminal trial. And then there were the arguments about venue, laches (aka unnecessary delay to us non-lawyers), jurisdiction, etc.
You’ll be shocked to hear that none of the above proved persuasive to the House panel. The final ruling by chair Rick Glazier is that if Wright is on trial or has entered a plea by Mar. 3rd , the House panel will postpone its proceedings. But if Wright succeeds in his rumored request to postpone his Wake Co. trial, then the House will hold its own Mar 3rd hearing as previously scheduled. That question should be settled during Wright’s next criminal court date, a motions hearing set for Feb 25th.
Comments? Drop me a line.
