Document Actions
Wednesday: Catching up
posted at 2007-09-19 23:54 | Last modified 2007-11-14 10:38
Beason in court
Former lobbyist and Jim Black ally Don Beason is scheduled to appear in Wake County District Court tomorrow at 9am on a misdemeanor charge of pointing a gun. The background is here.
Under state law, Beason could face up to 150 days in jail, but that’s unlikely. Only about a quarter of A1 misdemeanor cases result in actual jail time. Most get probation or community service.
There's no guarantee Beason's case will be heard tomorrow, docket or not. I'd guess it's a toss-up. But if there's a decision, I'll post it here.
Trivia kudos….
…to Jeff Mixon at Civitas, who was the first to correctly answer the question I posed Monday night. The original bill of rights had 12 amendments. Ten were approved, and two weren’t. One of the latter, Article 2 in the original version, eventually won approval (much) later on its own, Which amendment did it become?
Jeff got it right – Article 2 became the latest amendment, #27, ratified in 1992 - just 202 years after its introduction.
Jeff, if I had a T-shirt, I’d send you one. For now, you get bragging rights and a virtual ale on me – plus my sincere thanks for playing along.
Talking to “Cliff Bennett”
I had a call today from Julie White, the pseudonymous staffer/campaign worker for State Treasurer Richard Moore. She agreed to go on record to clear her fellow Moore staffer, spokeswoman Sara Lang.
If you remember, the complaint from Lt. Gov Bev Perdue’s office cited an email from a fictitious character named "Cliff Bennett" (which, as it turns out, is the name of White's father-in-law). The mysterious message included an article forwarded by Sara Lang from her personal email address.
White says she and Lang were talking one evening after work when she asked Lang to send her the clip. White says she forgot to delete Lang’s name when she cut-and-pasted the article into her Cliff Bennett email. She says Lang didn’t know about her assumed identity.
Lang agreed today that White’s explanation is an accurate account of how she got involved.
Poll position
A new Civitas Poll out today shows most voters aren’t paying much attention yet to state races. The September numbers put Bev Perdue at 29% among Dems, 8 points ahead of Richard Moore – a big enough lead to gain statistical significance despite the poll’s 3.75 % margin of error. The GOP race is a lot tighter – Orr has 12 percent, with Graham and Smith tied up just behind him at 11. So that one’s still a statistical dead heat.
Likely NC voters may be paying more attention to the presidential horse race, but that doesn’t mean they’re any more decided yet. Edwards is at 22, with Clinton at 20, and 19 percent for Obama – again, a tie, statistically. 40 percent went with “none mentioned” or “not sure.” On the R side, Thompson (25) and Giuliani (21) are ahead of Romney at 13 and McCain at 12. But like the Dems, most - 28 percent - are going with either “none of the above” or “undecided.”
But the big poll fight in NC these days is about who has the best approval numbers on Senator Elizabeth Dole. Dome's Ryan Teague Beckwith has more on that here.
The good news about polls these days is that they’re like the weather: if you don’t like what you’ve got, give it another fifteen minutes. PPP numbers are due out tomorrow, including a hypothetical matchup between Dole and a well-known but non-political Democrat.
Could it be Mrs. Easley? Now, THAT would be some race.
Media Bytes
- NYT gets less Select-ive, fanning an industry-wide panic over charging for content.
- Gunga Dan sues CBS for $70M, saying he was set up.
- Last but not least, if anyone said “Arrrrr” to you today, blame it on Dave Barry.
Comments? Drop me a line.
