Carolina Politics Online

This guy has an impressive resume!

Montrio Belton will formally announce his candidacy today for the state House seat being vacated by Bessie Moody-Lawrence. The public is invited to the noon event outside City Hall.

Belton will face John King in the Democratic primary, with the winner to take on Republican candidate Marvin Rogers. A political newcomer, Belton graduated from Winthrop University and is principal of Monroe Middle School in Monroe, N.C.

In 2006, King lost to Moody-Lawrence by nine votes in the general election. District 49 stretches across predominantly black neighborhoods in southern York County and has long been considered a Democratic stronghold.

The Herald

Gov. Mark Sanford’s chief of staff resigned his post Tuesday evening and plans to make a run at Catherine Ceips’ state Senate seat.Tom Davis, 47, a partner at downtown Beaufort law firm Harvey and Battey and a key architect of both of Sanford’s gubernatorial campaigns, said though he hasn’t filed his election forms, he fully expects to run for the District 46 Senate seat that represents most of Beaufort County.The Beaufort Gazette

Trackback: Sanford Chief of Staff May Primary Ceips

Kay Hagan enjoys a comfortable lead over Jim Neal in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate, according to new poll results from Public Policy Polling.

PPP surveyed 521 likely Democratic primary voters on March 17. It found that Hagan is the choice of 22 percent of those surveyed, while Neal was the preference of 11 percent. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points.

But the majority of voters - 57 percent - are undecided.

The News & Observer

Under the belief that there may be more people than the two already arrested involved in the murder of UNC Student Body President Eve Carson, Governor Easley has issued a $10,000 reward to anyone that can provide information to any further alleged connections. What happened to Eve Carson is tragic, but I have to ask why Mike Easley is offering a reward in this particular case and not in any of the other murders or disappearances that have gone in North Carolina? I have a theory on that. It’s all politics.

This case has received national attention because of who Eve Carson was, how young she was, and she was also a pretty face. The coverage of this has spread all over the country and as a result there is a nationwide focus on North Carolina. Obviously, this is negative attention just on the surface, but it’s even more uninviting when you dig deeper and reveal the nasty little facts about her killers.

Whenever there’s been a crack to fall through in North Carolina’s legal system, Laurence Lovette and Demario Atwater have found it.

The high school dropouts were convicted of crimes but put back on the street by a system that failed to notice when they were arrested again.

Both are now behind bars, held without bail and charged with murdering two college students.

AP

This reveals the failure of the liberal mindset of the state’s government and judiciary that does not go far enough in punishing criminals in North Carolina. These two guys have a list of crimes going back quite a while and yet time and time again they have been back out on the streets, but it’s not just Lovette and Atware. This is endemic in North Carolina, especially in Mecklenburg County where I live very close to.

Easley’s issuance of this reward is political cover. He has to give a false impression to all of America that he is a tough on crime governor and that North Carolina is a tough on crime state.

In the Charlotte Observer’s financial section today there is an announcement that Ken Lewis, the CEO of Bank of America, headquartered in uptown Charlotte, received a $4.25 million bonus for the 2007 fiscal year.

Bank of America experienced a 30% drop in profits in 2007. They experienced a fourth quarter loss. Their 1 year EPS Growth rate is in the red at -28.08%. They laid off several thousand employees.

In light of all of this, why on Earth is this man getting a dime more than his standard compensation? The former CEO of Home Depot last year walked away with a $210 million golden parachute for being fired due to practically running the company into the ground. Let’s also not forget Lee Raymond, the former CEO of Exxon who walked away with a $400 million retirement package while gas prices are at record highs. CEOs getting away with raping the share holders and screwing their employees is exactly why the American public is losing faith in the free market.

WASHINGTON – Craig Schirmer, who managed Barack Obama’s successful campaign in Wisconsin, will head the presidential candidate’s efforts in North Carolina and will help open an office in Raleigh this week.

Asheville Citizen-Times