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Medicaid Expansion North Carolina

Republican legislators reach Medicaid expansion deal

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RALEIGH — North Carolina legislative leaders announced last Thursday an agreement to expand Medicaid to hundreds of thousands of additional low-income adults through the Affordable Care Act.

The deal, which likely won’t be voted on until later this month at the earliest, marks a milestone for Republican lawmakers, most of whom opposed expansion for a decade until recently.

North Carolina has been one of 11 states that has not adopted Medicaid expansion. If the deal goes through, the state would start providing expansion coverage to people starting next January.

“This is something that we can all be very proud of,” House Speaker Tim Moore said at a Legislative Building news conference with Senate Leader Phil Berger. “What a huge announcement this is for North Carolina. What a huge policy direction this is that will provide help for so many in this state, but it’s going to do it in a way that’s fiscally responsible.”

Expansion gained momentum last year when the GOP-controlled state House and Senate approved, with strong bipartisan support, competing legislation addressing it, but they failed to reach a deal. The key differences stemmed around other initiatives Senate Republicans insisted were needed to increase the number of medical providers to cover the additional enrollees.

Under the new agreement, senators obtained the loosening or elimination of “certificate of need” laws that require health regulators to sign off on plans to offer hospital beds for mental health and substance abuse patients, build ambulatory surgery centers or purchase MRI machines. But their demand that advanced-practice nurses be able to treat patients without a doctor’s supervision was left out.

“There are still some things that need to be done, but this is our agreement and I’m very comfortable with it,” Berger said.

The negotiated measure, built in part on an expansion measure approved overwhelmingly by the House two weeks ago, was still being drawn up and will need affirmative votes in both chambers.

The federal government covers 90% of the cost of Medicaid recipients under expansion. Potentially 600,000 people in North Carolina could receive the benefit — those who make too much to qualify for conventional Medicaid but not enough to receive heavily subsidized health insurance that President Barack Obama’s signature 2010 law provides.

Under the agreement, the state’s 10% share would be paid through assessments paid by hospitals, which in turn benefit from getting reimbursed as they cover patients with Medicaid.

Officials say the state also would get an extra $1.8 billion over two years through a financial sweetener in a COVID-19 federal relief package from Congress for states that hadn’t accepted expansion.

And the package will include provisions that would result in higher reimbursements for hospital systems when they treat Medicaid patients — resulting in at least $3.2 billion in reimbursements during the next fiscal year for traditional Medicaid patients alone. That should help rural areas, where hospitals have closed or are in danger of closing.

Democratic North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, who has sought expansion since taking office in 2017, would be asked to sign any final measure into law. He tweeted that the agreement “is a monumental step that will save lives” but wants it effective immediately to tap into more federal funds, making “sure we leverage the money that will save our rural hospitals and invest in mental health.”

Even if the law is approved this spring, Moore and Berger said it wouldn’t be effective until a separate state budget is enacted, likely by the early summer.

Cooper wasn’t involved in recent negotiations that lasted about four weeks and led to an agreement finalized late Wednesday, the legislators said.

The North Carolina Healthcare Association, representing hospitals and health systems, commended legislators for Thursday’s agreement. The group backs certificate of need laws but offered some ways to scale them back in negotiations last year.

“Expanding Medicaid will improve the health of our people, our economy and our entire health care system,” said Abby Emanuelson, executive director of Care4Carolina, a coalition of over 165 groups that has worked for expansion since 2014.

For years, Republicans in charge of the General Assembly since 2011 had been suspicious of expansion, even passing a 2013 law to block the executive branch from trying to accept expansion on its own.

But GOP lawmakers slowly came around as the Affordable Care Act and the 90% federal share didn’t get repealed by Congress, diminishing worries that state government would have to foot ever more of the costs. And local Republican county leaders endorsed expansion.

A turning point came last spring when Berger explained his switch to supporting it, adding at the time: “If there’s a person in the state of North Carolina that has spoken out against Medicaid expansion more than I have, I’d like to meet that person.”

North Carolina currently has 2.9 million Medicaid recipients. The state Department of Health and Human Services has said up to 300,000 current beneficiaries could lose full coverage as states soon must conduct annual eligibility verifications again following the COVID-19 pandemic. Many being removed would requalify through Medicaid expansion, DHHS said.

Election 2022 North Carolina Supreme Court

High stakes in NC Supreme Court races

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RALEIGH — The two North Carolina Supreme Court seats up for election in November have taken on extra significance as the outcome could flip the court’s partisan makeup during a period of political polarization.

Registered Democrats hold a 4-3 advantage on the court, but Republicans would retake the majority for the first time since 2016 should they win at least one race. The seats carry eight-year terms, so barring unplanned retirements, Republicans would be assured of keeping the upper hand for at least 4 1/2 years if successful.

Outside groups are spending big to influence the races. In the two largest television markets alone, two super PACs have committed spending roughly $3 million on ads, according to documents filed with the Federal Communications Commission.

In keeping with nonjudicial elections this year, ads have focused on crime and abortion.

Court of Appeals Judges Richard Dietz, a Republican, and Lucy Inman, a Democrat, are looking to succeed retiring Associate Justice Robin Hudson. And Associate Justice Sam Ervin IV, a Democrat, is seeking reelection against Republican Trey Allen, currently general counsel for the state court system.

State Republican Party materials label Allen and Dietz as “conservative judges.” And at a recent Democratic Party rally, Gov. Roy Cooper urged Inman and Ervin’s election “because they are going to be fair and follow the law.”

Beyond usual legal conflicts, justices could hear challenges to policies enacted by a Republican-controlled General Assembly that could earn veto-proof majorities in November. Those could include legislation on voting, guns and abortion that Cooper has stopped by threatened or actual vetoes since 2019. Lawmakers also must redraw congressional districts, which aren’t subject to veto.

North Carolina Republican leaders plan to consider further restrictions on abortion in 2023 but haven’t reached a consensus.

The liberal-leaning North Carolina Families First PAC jumped on the abortion issue, running a television ad accusing Allen and Dietz of having “extreme views” that “could allow lawmakers to criminalize abortions, forcing women and girls to give birth.”

Judges and judicial candidates are subject to rules designed to ensure impartiality on issues they could rule on. Allen and Dietz said they would approach any case without presumptions on how they’d rule.

“When I see ads like that, I am disappointed because I think it is reinforcing this idea to the public that judges have already made up their minds,” Dietz said.

Commercials from the outside group Stop Liberal Judges contend one ruling written by Inman and another agreed to by Ervin that blocked certain convicted child sex offenders from being tracked electronically for decades are proof they’re “not protecting our children.”

Inman, who joined the Court of Appeals in early 2015 and ran unsuccessfully for Supreme Court in 2020, called them a “false and misleading smear” that belies her record as both a trial and appellate judge.

“It is wrong and the antithesis of the law to exploit child victims for political gain,” she said.

The elections come near the end of a two-year court term marked by several high-profile split decisions — favoring the Democratic majority — involving redistricting, voter ID and criminal justice cases.

Democratic politicians and allies have praised such majority opinions as victories for equality and justice. Dissenting opinions from Republican justices have been acerbic at times, accusing the other side of judicial activism.

While not speaking about specific cases, Ervin pushed back on the idea that partisanship has seeped through majority opinions.

“To say that a group of people who votes together are voting for partisan purposes is not really a fair accusation in the absence of some showing that the decision that’s under consideration was not legally supported,” said Ervin, who if reelected would have to step down in late 2027 for mandatory retirement at age 72.

Allen and Dietz have highlighted the court’s perceived public image.

“I’ve become increasingly concerned about what I believe is a growing public perception that the court is acting or has been acting more as a political body than as a legal body,” said Allen, who as general counsel works under Republican Chief Justice Paul Newby.

Dietz said he’s never written a dissenting opinion since joining the Court of Appeals in 2014, which reflects his willingness to work with colleagues.

“How you get stronger decisions and also how you reassure the public that justice is being done is by bringing people together and reaching that result that everyone agrees on,” Dietz said.

Inman said there’s been good reason for her dissenting opinions, some of which were ultimately adopted by the Supreme Court.

“It’s better to have experience knowing when you have to stand up for the law, and going along to get along does not serve that purpose,” she said.

Election 2022 Senate North Carolina McCrory

Decade since NC governor win, McCrory trounced in Senate bid

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RALEIGH — A decade ago, Pat McCrory was king in North Carolina’s Republican Party. The former Charlotte mayor became the first GOP governor in two decades when he won in 2012 by 11 percentage points.

Today, the moderate has been tossed aside in state GOP politics, trounced by 34 percentage points in the U.S. Senate primary by Rep. Ted Budd, who was a little-known congressman outside his district until former President Donald Trump endorsed him last June.

The Trump shift within the Republican Party is making casualties nationally out of politicians like McCrory, who says he supported many Trump policies but did not care for his style — a nuanced view that apparently did not help him in a state the former president won twice.

Now McCrory’s long electoral career appears over at age 65.

“I’ve played the game. I’ve been played by the game. I’ve won the game. But I’ve lost the game,” McCrory said in his concession speech on primary night, recalling his first Charlotte City Council victory in 1989. “Politics is a tough sport, a very, very tough sport.”

Budd and his allies successfully painted McCrory as weak on conservative principles. Trump called McCrory someone who didn’t “stand for our values.” They pointed out that he lost gubernatorial general elections in 2008 and in 2016, when Democrat Roy Cooper beat him by just 10,000 votes.

Two super PACs spent over $12 million largely to vilify McCrory, calling him a liberal ready to embrace President Joe Biden and accusing him of raising gas taxes and opening the door to critical race theory in schools.

McCrory’s “not a conservative fighter,” Budd said in an interview last month. “He’s been unreliable as a conservative and he’s lost this state twice.”

It’s a striking descent for McCrory, whose 14 years leading North Carolina’s largest city showed Republicans could win in cities that were turning more liberal.

During four years as governor, McCrory signed laws cutting taxes and regulations, prohibiting “sanctuary cities” and directing transgender people to use the public bathroom for their sex at birth.

McCrory accused Washington-based Club for Growth, whose affiliated super PAC spent the most on attack ads, of buying an election for Budd.

“When I saw the Club for Growth and my worthwhile opponent Congressman Budd say that I’m a Republican in name only I went, ‘Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?’” McCrory said. “We did a lot for the state and for the city, implementing good conservative measures that I think made a difference not just for the next election, but for future generations.”

The super PAC ads at times omitted context that would have favored McCrory. But McCrory had not endeared himself to enough people voting in GOP primaries.

“He was not an avid, strict Republican,” said state Rep. George Cleveland, an Onslow County Republican who voted for Budd. Cleveland said he and his constituents believed McCrory “would not follow the Trump agenda.”

When the North Carolina Values Coalition endorsed Budd, group executive director Tami Fitzgerald ripped into McCrory as someone “who barely tolerates pro-life, pro-family evangelicals and Catholics in the conservative movement because he needs their votes.”

Some voters bore out indifference to McCrory. Republican voter Frank Self, 61, of Apex, said before voting last week for Budd that McCrory’s time as governor failed to warrant much consideration for him.

“I do remember when he was governor — not that he was necessarily bad, but I don’t remember anything outstanding,” Self said.

And a Club for Growth Action ad featured actual North Carolina voters, some of whom referred to McCrory as a “RINO (Republican in name only) Republican” and a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” when it came to conservatism.

McCrory warned against such rhetoric, saying it treats him and the 25% of primary voters who voted for him like pariahs. He said that could come back to hurt Budd and future Republican nominees who need the votes of Republicans and registered independents in general elections.

McCrory is holding back for now an endorsement of Budd in the fall election against Democratic nominee Cheri Beasley. He said he wants assurances that his bloc is treated with respect.

“What are they going to do with the people who are like me?” McCrory said in an AP interview late last week.

McCrory said he hoped to remain in the political conversation, whether it be through business, teaching or returning to the airwaves as a radio host.

“I’m going to be searching for other ways to have a voice,” McCrory said, but “I don’t know how that’s going to be.”

Election 2022 Crossover Voters

Democrats voting in GOP primaries might have tilted results in some races

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — An Associated Press analysis of early voting records found more than 37,000 people who voted in Georgia’s Democratic primary two years ago cast ballots in last week’s Republican primary, an unusually high number of so-called crossover voters. The data reveal crossover voters were consequential in defeating Donald Trump’s endorsed candidates for secretary of state and, to a lesser extent, governor in the Peach State. 

Gov. Brian Kemp did not ultimately need Democrats in his blowout victory against his Trump-backed opponent, but Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger probably did. The Republican secretary of state cleared the 50% threshold required to avoid a runoff election by just over 27,000 votes. Based on early voting data alone, 37,144 former Democrats voted in the Republican primary. The total number of crossovers including Election Day votes, set to be revealed in the coming weeks, may be even higher.

Crossover voting is not exclusive to Georgia. The phenomenon is playing out in multiple primary contests, sometimes organically and sometimes in response to a coordinated effort by Trump’s opponents.

There is nothing illegal about crossover voting. Dozens of states make it legal for voters to participate in either party’s primary. 

Trump warned conservatives about crossover voting while campaigning Saturday in Wyoming, another state where the former president’s opponents are calling for Democrats to intervene — this time to help save Rep. Liz Cheney from a Trump-backed primary challenger. 

“Don’t let the Democrats do what they did in another state last week,” Trump told Wyoming supporters, complaining about what happens “when you allow Democrats to vote in a Republican primary.”

While the practice has Trump’s attention, it is often ineffective.

On the forefront of the crossover movement, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) has called for an “uneasy alliance” between Democrats, independents and Republicans to take down pro-Trump candidates in GOP primaries whenever and wherever possible. Some states have open primaries like Georgia that allow people to vote in either primary, while other states have more restrictive rules.

In an interview, Kinzinger said he was pleasantly surprised by the Democrats’ response in some races. He said he never expected the movement to be an “earth-shattering game-changer” right away.

Kinzinger’s political organization, Country First, targeted thousands of former Georgia Democrats with mailers and text messages urging them to support Raffensperger for the sake of democracy. 

Trump allies in the state, caught off guard by the crossover trend, were furious.

“It was a Democratic version of ‘Operation Chaos,’” said Debbie Dooley, president of the Atlanta Tea Party, referring to the secret Nixon-era push to infiltrate liberal groups. “I did not realize just how heavily the Democrats were going to cross over.”

Dooley launched a petition late last week to close Georgia’s Republican primaries to non-Republicans. More than a dozen states have closed, or partially closed, primaries that block members of opposing parties from participating.

Meanwhile, Kinzinger said he’s already crafting plans to execute a similar playbook in coming primaries in Michigan, Wyoming and Alaska. In addition to helping Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the Alaska Republican who voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial, Kinzinger said he’s weighing whether to invest resources in trying to block former Gov. Sarah Palin’s congressional bid.

Biden

Abortion adds to Biden’s stalled to-do list

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Joe Biden’s list of impossible tasks keeps getting longer.

Despite lofty promises he’s made, from the campaign trail through his first year in office, he has made limited progress to enact his party’s agenda.

It’s a disorienting and discouraging state of affairs for Democrats, who control both Congress and the White House for the first time in more than a decade.

Biden’s pledge to codify Roe v. Wade into law seems destined for the same rocky shoals where other parts of his agenda, like tax credits for clean energy or legislation that would preempt state voting restrictions, have already run aground.

Perhaps the most succinct explanation came from Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., earlier this week.

“We’re stuck,” she said.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has scheduled a vote on abortion for Wednesday, but it’s almost certain to fail. Republicans are united in opposition, and a handful of Democrats may not support it either.

The impasse is forcing the White House to reopen its backup playbook — scrounging for ways to make a difference through executive action or regulatory steps while criticizing Republicans for the lack of broader action.

“The White House is under enormous pressure to be more forceful and vocal,” said Lawrence Gostin, who runs the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health at Georgetown Law.

But Gostin, who is advising administration officials on next steps, said, “Biden needs to stick with winnable battles” by focusing on “low hanging fruit.”

One of those ideas involves making abortion medication more accessible by mail. The Food and Drug Administration has already eliminated the requirement to pick up the pills in person, and Gostin said the practice will need an aggressive defense as it faces conservative attacks.

The Justice Department has already gone to court over abortion access, suing Texas last year in an effort to stop a law that would ban most abortions.

Another concept, Gostin said, would be allowing Medicaid to pay for travel if a woman can’t get an abortion in her own state. Such a plan might run afoul of the Hyde Amendment, which bans federal funding for abortions, so it would require careful wording.

For example, the policy could say Medicaid would pay for travel for authorized medical treatment if it’s not legal where the patient lives — making no mention of abortion.

None of these proposals are foolproof, and they will likely face Republican challenges in the courts or through legislation.

These kinds of administrative steps are similar to what Biden has done when other initiatives have stalled on Capitol Hill.

“The president is incredibly proud of what he’s already accomplished in 15 months of his presidency,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday.

Asked about Biden’s struggles on Capitol Hill, Psaki pointed to his long experience as a senator.

“He knows and understands it sometimes takes more time than he would like to get your agenda forward,” she said.

However, abortion stirs even greater passions than other issues across the political spectrum, and frustration about inaction is bubbling up.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who wants his state to become a refuge for people seeking abortions, said this week that Democrats are falling short.

“Where the hell is my party?” he said. Abortion opponents are winning, Newsom added. “We need to stand up. Where’s the counteroffensive?”

Democrats seem likely to lose control of Congress in the November elections, especially with Biden’s sagging approval ratings. However, some hope that the Supreme Court decision will fire up their voters.

“What you’re looking for in politics is an opportunity,” said Cornell Belcher, a Democratic pollster. “There’s an opportunity that wasn’t there before this came out.”

Michael Beschloss, a presidential historian, compared Biden’s situation to President Harry Truman, who was floundering as he ran for reelection in 1948. He turned his campaign into an indictment of a “do-nothing Congress,” which was controlled by Republicans at the time, and he managed to pull off a narrow victory.

The goal, Beschloss said, is to “take a bad hand and play it perfectly.”

Biden is trying a similar tack ahead of the midterms, escalating his criticism of other Republican proposals.

He repeatedly points to a blueprint from the National Republican Senatorial Committee that would increase taxes on people at the lower end of the income scale and force federal programs like Social Security to be reauthorized every five years.

“I’ve offered a different plan — a plan rooted in American values of fairness and decency,” Biden said last week.

Sen. Rand Paul wants to investigate origins of COVID-19

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SMITHFIELD, Ky. — U.S. Sen. Rand Paul promised Saturday to wage a vigorous review into the origins of the coronavirus if Republicans retake the Senate and he lands a committee chairmanship.

Speaking to supporters at a campaign rally, the libertarian-leaning Kentucky Republican denounced what he sees as government overreach in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He applauded a recent judge’s order that voided the federal mask mandate on planes and trains and in travel hubs.

“Last week I was on an airplane for the first time in two years and didn’t have to wear a mask,” he said, drawing cheers from the partisan crowd. “And you know what I saw in the airport? I saw at least 97% of the other free individuals not wearing masks.”

Paul has clashed repeatedly with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, over the government’s COVID-19 policies and the origins of the virus that caused the global pandemic.

Paul, who is seeking a third term this year in Kentucky, said he’s in line to assume a committee chairmanship if the GOP wins Senate control after the November election. The Senate currently has a 50-50 split, but Democrats have the slim edge because Vice President Kamala Harris is a tie-breaking vote.

“When we take over in November, I will be chairman of a committee and I will have subpoena power,” Paul said. “And we will get to the bottom of where this virus came from.”

The senator, an eye surgeon, continued to offer his theory about the origins of the virus.

“If you look at the evidence, overwhelmingly, not 100%, but overwhelmingly the evidence points to this virus being a leak from a lab,” Paul said.

In the U.S., many conservatives have accused Chinese scientists of developing COVID-19 in a lab and allowing it to leak.

U.S. intelligence agencies remain divided on the origins of the coronavirus but believe China’s leaders did not know about the virus before the start of the global pandemic, according a Biden-ordered review that was released last summer.

The scientific consensus remains that the virus most likely migrated from animals in what’s known as a zoonotic transmission. So-called “spillover events” occur in nature, and there are at least two coronaviruses that evolved in bats and caused human epidemics, SARS1 and MERS.

At the Kentucky GOP rally for Paul, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, the state’s senior senator, also pointed to Paul’s opportunity to lead a committee if the GOP wins Senate control.

If that occurs, he said, Paul would become chairman of “one of the most important committees in the Senate — in charge of health, education, labor and pensions.”

McConnell was upbeat about Republican prospects in November.

“I’ve never seen a better environment for us than this year,” said McConnell, who is in line to again become majority leader if the GOP reclaims the Senate.

The rally featured a number of other prominent Kentucky Republicans, including several who are considering running for governor in 2023, when Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear will seek a second term.

In his speech, Paul continued to rail against socialism, saying it would encroach on individual liberties. The senator was first elected to the Senate in the tea party-driven wave of 2010.

“When President Trump said he wanted to ‘Make America Great Again,’ I said, ‘Amen,’” Paul said. “But let’s understand what made America great in the first place, and that’s freedom, constitutionally guaranteed liberty.”

In this year’s Senate race in Kentucky, Charles Booker is by far the best known of a handful of Democrats seeking their party’s nomination for Paul’s seat in the May 17 primary. Paul is being challenged by several little-known candidates in the GOP primary. A general election campaign between Paul and Booker would be a battle between candidates with starkly different philosophies.

Booker, a black former state lawmaker, narrowly lost a bid for the Senate Democratic nomination in 2020. He is a progressive who touts Medicare for all, anti-poverty programs, a clean-energy agenda and criminal justice changes. Paul, a former presidential candidate, has accumulated a massive fundraising advantage over Booker.

Kentucky has not elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since Wendell Ford in 1992.

Trump North Carolina

Trump’s bid to shape GOP faces test with voters in May races

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NEW YORK — Donald Trump ‘s post-presidency enters a new phase this month as voters across the U.S. begin weighing the candidates he elevated to pursue his vision of the Republican Party. 

“The month of May is going to be a critical window into where we are,” said Maryland Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, a Trump critic defending incumbent GOP governors in Georgia, Ohio and Idaho against Trump-backed challengers this month. “I’m just concerned that there are some people trying to tear the party apart or burn it down.”

Few states may be a higher priority for Trump than Georgia, where early voting began on Monday ahead of the May 24 primary. He’s taken a particularly active role in the governor’s race there, recruiting a former U.S. senator to take on the incumbent Republican. For similar reasons, Trump is also aiming to unseat the Republican secretary of state.

While the primary season will play out deep into the summer, the first batch of races could set the tone for the year. If Republican voters in the early states rally behind the Trump-backed candidates, the former president’s kingmaker status would be validated, likely enhancing his power as he considers another bid for the presidency. High-profile setbacks, however, could dent his stature and give stronger footing to those who hope to advance an alternate vision for the GOP.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz predicted a strong month of May for Trump and his allies.

“The voices in Washington that want him to fade into obscurity or to be silenced are engaged in their own form of wishful thinking,” Cruz said in an interview. “That’s not going to happen. Nor should he.”

As Republicans grapple with Trump, Democrats are confronting their own set of revealing primaries.

Candidates representing the Democrats’ progressive wing are yanking the party leftward while offering conflicting messages about how to overcome their acute political shortcomings, Biden’s weak standing chief among them. History suggests that Democrats, as the party that controls Washington, may be headed for big losses in November no matter which direction they go.

Florida Sen. Rick Scott, who leads the GOP’s effort to retake the Senate, described the month of May as a brutal sorting period likely to be dominated by Republican infighting instead of the policy solutions or contrasts with Democrats he’d like to see.

“The primaries too often become sort of character assassinations,” Scott said in an interview. “That’s what has happened.”

He added, “Hopefully, people come together.”

No race may be messier than the Republican primary election for Georgia’s governor. Trump has spent months attacking Republican incumbents Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. He blames both men for not working hard enough to address election integrity issues relating to the 2020 presidential election.

Georgia Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, a frequent Trump critic who is not running for reelection, described Trump’s decision to back former Sen. David Perdue against Kemp an “embarrassing” waste of time that could undermine the GOP’s broader goals this fall.

Duncan predicted Trump would ultimately win some races and lose others this month, but he was especially optimistic about Kemp’s chances to beat back Trump’s challenge.

“If a sitting governor is able to defeat that whole Donald Trump notion by a huge amount — and others down the ticket — I think we’re gonna send a message that it’s gonna take more than a Donald Trump endorsement to call yourself a Republican,” he said.

Six months before the general election, the Republican candidates in key primaries have already spent mountains of campaign cash attacking against each other as Democrats largely save their resources — and sharpest attacks — for the November.

In the Pennsylvania, where Trump-backed Dr. Mehmet Oz and former hedge fund executive David McCormick are locked in a fierce fight for the GOP nomination, the candidates and allied outside groups have spent more than $48 million on television advertising so far. Democrats spent just over $10 million.

And in North Carolina, Republican forces have spent more than $15 million on a divisive primary pitting Trump-backed Rep. Ted Budd against former Gov. Pat McCrory. Democrats, who have united behind former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley, spent just over $2 million.

TCH 4 Leandro

NC judge drops price to cover school plan, omits spend order

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RALEIGH — A North Carolina judge cut the amount of money needed to comply through the middle of next year with a step-by-step plan to address state educational inequities. But he declined to leave in place the crux of another judge’s order that directed cash from government coffers be sent to state agencies to cover a fiscal gap.

Special Superior Court Judge Mike Robinson ruled in long-running public education spending litigation which he began presiding over last month. Judge David Lee had directed in November that $1.75 billion be moved from state coffers to three government agencies to carry out two years of an eight-year, $5.6 billion remedial plan that he also endorsed last June.

Robinson wrote that provisions within a two-year state budget — approved by the General Assembly and signed by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper a week after Lee’s order — reduced the amount now needed to carry out the plan through June 2023 to $785 million. But since a panel of the state Court of Appeals had already blocked the portion of Lee’s ordering directing the transfer because it said only lawmakers can appropriate money, Robinson said he was obliged to remove that directive from his amended order.

That part of the ruling is a setback for school districts and parents of students who are plaintiffs in decades-long litigation over school funding. They say the state keeps falling short of its constitutional duties to help at-risk children and those in poor counties.

Still, Robinson wrote, Lee’s order should be amended to declare the state has failed to fully fund those two years of the remedial plan that Lee backed, and that additional money is “adjudged to be owed” to three state agencies.

The Supreme Court had ordered Robinson to review Lee’s order in light of the budget law and report back by April 20. The judge asked for and received an extra week, saying he needed more time to work through disagreements among state officials over how much money in the new budget law covered the remedial plan programs.

Landmark Supreme Court decisions in 1997 and 2004 declared there was a constitutionally protected right to obtain the “opportunity for a sound basic education” and that the state had not lived up to that mandate, especially for children in poor regions.

With Robinson’s ruling, the case now returns to the state Supreme Court, which could decide to what lengths the judicial branch can go to ensure schoolchildren have the opportunity to succeed when it determines the legislative and executive branches have fallen short of their duties. No date for oral arguments has been announced.

Lee said last year that the remedial plan — based on an outside consultant’s report and input from Cooper and the State Board of Education — could satisfy the rulings from the “Leandro” litigation, named for a plaintiff when the lawsuit was filed in 1994.

Lee wrote that other portions of the constitution addressing education access gave him the right to direct spending.

Lawyers for Republican legislative leaders — who only recently were added as formal parties in the case — had argued before Robinson that Lee’s order directing the transfer from state coffers should have been canceled altogether. But attorneys representing school districts, parents and state officials said Robinson’s job wasn’t to consider whether to throw out Lee’s order, but whether to adjust it in light of the budget provisions.

Robinson did write that it appeared that there would be enough unappropriated money — over $4 billion — in the state’s general fund to make a transfer like Lee ordered to cover the $785 million. That unspent balance would be sitting in a savings reserve that lawmakers say can’t be spent unless there is legislative approval.

Chief Justice Paul Newby named Robinson to review Lee’s order in light of the budget law on the same day the Supreme Court agreed to fast-track appeals over that order. In January, Lee had reached the mandatory retirement age for judges at 72. Newby had authority, however, to allow Lee to stay on the bench and perform the review. Lee had been monitoring the case since late 2016.

Joe Biden

Biden’s election year challenge: Blame GOP for nation’s woes

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Joe Biden has an election-year message for frustrated voters: At least he’s trying.

For those who think he isn’t doing enough to help Ukraine fend off the Russian invasion, Biden announced $800 million in new military support last Thursday. To ease the pain of high gas prices, he’s tapped the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and reopened onshore sales of oil and natural gas leases on public land. And to address historic inflation, Biden has tried to smooth out supply chain-crimping bottlenecks at the nation’s ports.

The president hopes the moves, which are being announced in near-daily rollouts and in a stepped up travel schedule, will present a contrast with Republicans — who, he argues, spend more time complaining about problems than proposing solutions.

“I mean this sincerely — name me something the national Republican Party is for,” Biden said at a recent Democratic National Committee meeting.

But it’s clear he’s not attracting much support. A new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds 54% disapprove of how Biden is handling the presidency. The approval rate in the poll taken from April 14-18 is about the same as last month, but down from the president’s 63% approval rating a year ago.

With crime rates rising and inflation at its highest levels since 1981, these don’t feel like boom times to many. Seventy percent of Americans call the nation’s economy poor. Further, just 33% say they approve and 66% say they disapprove of Biden’s handling of the economy, with about a third of Democrats, along with almost all Republicans, disapproving.

Primary elections that begin next month will help show whether Democrats are embracing Biden’s vision.

Biden has suggested that one way to address his political challenges is to get on the road and make the case directly to voters about the impact of his administration’s policies. He has increased his domestic travel lately to promote a $1 trillion, bipartisan infrastructure package that cleared Congress last fall. Biden has visited Iowa, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Oregon, and Washington state since last week.

But most top Democrats running for office aren’t clamoring for the president’s help. Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke says he has no interest in national Democratic figures visiting his state as he now runs for governor. Florida Rep. Val Demings, as she campaigns for Senate, was non-comital about Biden’s help, as was Ohio U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan.

Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris nevertheless plan on boosting U.S. trips in coming weeks, as well as stepping up their fundraising on behalf of the Democratic Party, according to administration officials and allies. But most of their activity is likely to take place in the late summer and early fall — after primaries are concluded and as voters will have their choice at the ballot box laid out for them.

At a Democratic fundraiser at a yacht club in Portland, Oregon, Biden predicted that Democrats would add two seats in November to secure a 52-48 Senate majority.

“The far right’s taken over that party,” he said of Republicans. “And it’s not even conservative in a traditional sense of conservatism. It’s mean. It’s ugly.”

But trying to blame the other side amid mounting problems can have its limitations. Democrat Terry McAuliffe attempted to make last year’s Virginia governor’s race a referendum on the dangers of modern day GOP — even branding Republican opponent Glenn Youngkin “Trump in a sweater vest.” McAuliffe lost in a state Biden had carried by 10 points barely a year earlier.

Some who would otherwise be the White House’s fiercest allies say it’ll be up to Biden to energize voters ahead of November — regardless of what Republicans do.

“He’s not an effective communicator,” said Wes Bellamy, founder of Our Black Party, which advocates for issues to strengthen African American communities.

The president “speaks in a tone that doesn’t really resonate with much of his base and I don’t think they do a good enough job of being active on the ground,” Bellamy said.

Adding to the challenge is the fact that, when the president addresses one problem, he may prompt another. Some of what the administration has done to tame prices at the pump, for instance, run counter to Biden’s promises about combating climate change — especially after his signature social spending bill, “Build Back Better,” collapsed in Congress.

“His midterm strategy with respect to the environment is pretty underwhelming and not likely to work,” said Brett Hartl, chief political strategist at the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki suggested Biden may help Democrats avoid a Republican midterm romp by evoking the phrase “Don’t compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the alternative.” That’s something Biden said frequently as vice president and while campaigning for the White House in 2020.

“Really, if you look at the other side, they have nothing in the cupboard. They have no plan,” Psaki said during a recent event for the liberal podcast “Pod Save America.” “We could be saying that more.”

Obit Disputed Election Dowless

Dowless, key figure in NC absentee ballot fraud probe, dies

RALEIGH — Leslie McCrae Dowless Jr., the key player in a North Carolina absentee ballot fraud probe that led to a do-over congressional election, has died.

His daughter, Andrea Dowless Heverly, wrote that her father “passed away peacefully” Sunday morning, according to a social media post. He had been diagnosed with an advanced form of lung cancer and died at his daughter’s home in Bladen County, his friend Jay DeLancy told The Associated Press in a brief interview. Dowless was in his mid-60s.

The political operative was set to go on trial this summer on more than a dozen state criminal counts related to absentee ballot activities for the 2016 general election and the 2018 primary and general elections. A half-dozen others were also charged.

Witnesses told state officials that Dowless, with help of his assistants, gathered hundreds of absentee ballots from Bladen County in 2018. Those workers testified they were directed to collect blank or incomplete ballots, forge signatures on them and even fill in votes for local candidates.

The 2018 general election results for the 9th Congressional District were ultimately thrown out and a new vote for the seat was ordered by the State Board of Elections, following an inquiry.

Dowless was working in the 2018 congressional race for then-Republican candidate Mark Harris. No charges were filed against Harris, who didn’t run in the subsequent election.

Dowless was later accused of charges related to the 2016 elections and the 2018 primary.

Dowless’ health had become an issue while receiving a six-month prison sentence for federal crimes involving benefits fraud that was tangentially related to the broader state probe.

A federal judge delayed Dowless’ reporting date from last December to April 1 after his defense attorney said Dowless had a stroke in August and learned in the fall about a potential cancer diagnosis.

Dowless’ federal attorney filed another motion in March that she requested be sealed “due to the inclusion of sensitive health information.” The Federal Bureau of Prisons never reported Dowless as being in custody.

Dowless’ state and federal attorneys didn’t immediately respond to emails on Sunday seeking comment. But with Dowless’ death, the absentee ballot case against him is now moot.

Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said legal delays caused by COVID-19 contributed to the inability to bring Dowless to trial sooner.

While expressing condolences to Dowless’ family, Freeman said Sunday her office would move forward with the prosecution of other defendants, even though Dowless had been seen as the principal in the probe.

“All of the other cases to some degree were derived from what the state thought was his master plan and coordination,” Freeman told the AP. She said each individual case would be evaluated before deciding how to proceed.

Dowless declined to accept a plea agreement on the state charges in November. The charges against him included obstruction of justice, possessing absentee ballots and perjury.

DeLancy, who saw Dowless last week, said Dowless “wanted the chance to defend himself against the state’s indictments” and rejected the plea deal “in hopes of being given his day in court.”

Dowless was “a man who was quick to trust and even love others by his acts of service,” DeLancy said in a text message.

Dowless had pleaded guilty last June in federal court to obtaining illegal Social Security benefits while concealing payments for political work he performed.

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