In 2010, Art Pope, the CEO of Variety Wholesalers – a discount store chain – began pouring money into statewide races in North Carolina. One of his groups, Real Jobs NC, helped pay for attack ads targeting Democrats. According to a lengthy profile of Art Pope by The New Yorker, Pope and allied groups spent $2.2 million on the 2010 legislative election.
Rand Paul was supposed to be a different kind of Republican -- a Republican who championed individual liberty, but who also did not wade into the culture wars or any war for that matter. He was supposed to be the Republican who could pull in younger and perhaps even more liberal voters frustrated by the lack of progress on civil issues.
The term "skills gap" is a common one in discussions about America's economic forecast. The notion is that job opportunities for skilled laborers exist, but that not enough laborers have the correct skills to fill the positions.
Oftentimes, talk of a skills gap crops up in reference to vocational jobs -- those requiring "middle skills," which can range from manufacturing jobs to some health care positions.
U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) formally announced her candidacy to replace outgoing U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D) on Thursday.
When it comes to campaigning in the era of social media, lighting can strike the same place (or more importantly, in the same faux pas manner) an infinite number of times. It seems like a candidate's public relations staff can put out an unlimited amount of "political" sounding rhetoric that is in reality only 140 characters of utter nonsense.
What the pundits and election watchers in traditional media didn't tell you about the 2014 general election was that it was the least competitive election season in 30 years. That's according to a new analysis authored by Professor Carl Klarner and published on Ballotpedia, which examines the number of competitive state legislative elections since 1972. An election that is won by 5 percentage points or less is considered competitive by their analysis.
In 1993, when Elsie Herring returned to the property that her grandfather – a former slave – purchased back in 1891, she discovered she had a rather odorous neighbor. In the 1980s, a hog farmer set up an operation on an adjacent property, complete with two barns, a lagoon (a man-made pond for pig waste), and a spray field. The spray field is where hoses pump the animal excrement when emptying the lagoons: the edge of this particular spray field is just eight feet from her home.
"I mean, it's evident that I'm irrelevant to society; that's what you're telling me, penitentiary would only hire me, " roars Kendrick Lamar, a rapper from Compton, who was the recipient of the Generational Icon Award in the California State Senate.
The Washington Post recently shared the story of Joseph Rivers, an aspiring businessman with dreams of hitting the big time. He set out for Hollywood with $16,000 in life savings, hoping to start his own music video company -- his shot at the American Dream. However, he never made it.
Painting your opponent as an indecisive flip-flopper has long been a successful strategy in presidential politics. From George H.W. Bush's famous ship-sinking statement, "Read my lips, no new taxes," to Mitt Romney's flip-flops on abortion, gay rights, and socialized medicine -- flip-flopping has never been a desirable trait with voters.