Free Republic

Numerous sources say Gov. Bev Perdue will not seek re-election in 2012. Perdue will turn 65 this month. Her likely opponent in the next campaign will be Pat McCrory, former Charlotte mayor and a Catawba College graduate. Sources at the Associated Press are working on a story at this time. The Raleigh News & Observer is reporting Perdue is expected to make an announcement this afternoon. The News & Observer is also reporting that Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton has about $600,000 in the bank, according to campaign finance reports. Others likely to make a run include current Charlotte Mayor Anthony...

If you listen to the lies spewing forth from the lips of the Obama Administration, the US economy is improving, millions of jobs are being “saved or created” and we’re well on our way to a strong recovery. But, the volatility of the numbers that Obama and economists in his pocket use to try and convince us that our financial situation is improving tell an entirely different story. Ex-Clinton Democrat and co-Chair of Obama’s so-called debt commission Erskine Bowles recently warned that our nation’s debt is a fiscal cancer that threatens to devour the nation from within, if left unchecked....

Here is video of Democrat Erskine Bowles on Fox News Sunday today where he said President Obama told him and former GOP Sen. Alan Simpson that, "Everything is on the table," as they do their work as Co-Chairs of his "bi-partisan Debt Commission," tasked with coming up with a report on how the solve the U.S. Debt problem. Fox News' Chris Wallace had asked Bowles if tax increases were on the table in light of Obama's pledge during the 2008 Campaign that he would NOT raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year. Bowles said both cuts in...

Amidst the usual fanfare, President Obama signed the executive order deputizing Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson to head up his Debt Reduction Commission. "Without action, the accumulated weight of that structural deficit, of ever-increasing debt, will hobble our economy, it will cloud our future, and it will saddle every child in America with an intolerable burden," Obama exhorted the signing ceremony spectators. Of course, he is conveniently ignoring his own obese budget unveiled a few days before, while still cheerleading his party's grotesque cap-and-tax and health care monstrosities that have little hope of passage against daunting odds. Bowles and Simpson...

The chancellor and provost at N.C. State have been ordered to appear before a federal grand jury meeting in Raleigh this week, according to federal records released Tuesday afternoon. Chancellor James Oblinger and Provost Larry Nielsen were asked to bring documents related to the hiring, promotion and salary of former first lady Mary Easley. The subpoenas follow reports in The News & Observer about the circumstances surrounding Easley's hiring at N.C. State in 2005 and the expansion of her duties last year, which raised her pay to $170,000. Mary Easley has come under pressure to resign her position from Oblinger...

CHAPEL HILL - UNC-system President Erskine Bowles wants a commission to determine whether every state university campus in North Carolina should establish a university code that blocks hate speech. No such rules now exist at UNC campuses, Bowles said. Bowles' decision came less than a month after four N.C. State University students spray-painted political statements, which many deemed racially inflammatory and threatening, on the Free Expression Tunnel on campus. Bowles met Tuesday afternoon with leaders of the state chapter of the NAACP. After the meeting, he declared the graffiti hate speech. "I find this whole incident to be deplorable," Bowles...

When the always provocative American Council of Trustees and Alumni issued its critical report of the Universities of North Carolina, the group’s typically thorough review got a surprising fan letter. “As I prepared for this job, I read your report [Governance in the Public Interest: A Case Study of the University of North Carolina System] thoroughly some time ago,” the incoming president of the UNC system had written. “There are many recommendations in this report that I agree with totally.” “Thank you for doing it; it has been an extraordinary help to me.” In its first decade of existence, ACTA...

Erskine Bowles, a Charlottean whose career has taken him to the White House and the United Nations, will become the next president of the University of North Carolina. Bowles won the unanimous recommendation of the university's search committee this week. He's expected to be appointed by the full Board of Governors Monday in Chapel Hill. He will take office on Jan. 1, his 61st birthday. Bowles will oversee the 16-campus system with an operating budget of nearly $5 billion. Brad Wilson, chairman of the board and the search committee, said Bowles' "total life portfolio" was the deciding factor. "The important...

Charlotte Democrat Erskine Bowles has gone to work for his old boss Bill Clinton, this time as a deputy United Nations special envoy to the Indian Ocean region devastated by December's tsunami. "The United Nations will greatly benefit from Mr. Bowles' extensive experience in international affairs and his deep commitment to ensuring that the world does not turn its back on the tsunami victims," Secretary General Kofi Annan said in a statement. Annan said Bowles will work with Clinton, who was supposed to start his job as U.N. Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery this month. Clinton is recovering from surgery...

There are two ways to tell when a political party thinks it is losing an election. The obvious one is where the candidates are choosing to campaign. If they’re stumping in their own backyards and shoring up their bases, while the other side is on the attack, that’s a clear sign. But so is the level of lying. When all is almost lost, the unethical campaign will haul out the lies – the bigger the better. Others have commented on the political geography of where Bush and Kerry are respectively campaigning in the closing days of this campaign. This comments...

RALEIGH, N.C. - A $10 billion payout from a Republican Congress to tobacco growers this week and a tidal wave of television advertisements have elevated Rep. Richard Burr (news, bio, voting record) into a neck-and-neck race with Democrat Erskine Bowles, former President Clinton (news - web sites)'s White House chief of staff. For months Bowles held an 8 percent to 10 percent point lead, an advantage many credited to name recognition from his unsuccessful 2002 Senate campaign against Elizabeth Dole (news - web sites). Among other things, the candidates are battling over who should get credit for a tobacco quota...

<p>CARY, N.C. -- Erskine Bowles pledged to fight privatizing Social Security, saying Monday that his Republican opponent for the U.S. Senate is treading dangerous ground by supporting partial privatization.</p> <p>Bowles used a black marker to sign a pledge that he will oppose partial or total privatization of Social Security.</p>

Bowles 2002 October 4, 2001 To: Campaign Staffers&nbsp; ***For your eyes only*** Now that I've announced that I am running for Senator from North Carolina, it's time to get this campaign going!!!!!&nbsp; The bad news is, of course, that everyone thinks I am a Clinton lap dog.&nbsp; But the good news is that I have done a package deal with the Clintons to come to North Carolina to support my campaign!&nbsp; Yeah!&nbsp; Here is what the deal looks like - everyone pay special attention. The A Team Bill Clinton:&nbsp; Bill provides major firepower for the primary where our nation's first ...

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. -- U.S. Senate candidates Erskine Bowles and Richard Burr battled Monday night over trade and health care, accusing each other of harming North Carolina workers and seniors. Each of the candidates, participating in a broadcast debate at the University of North Carolina television studios, charged the other with failing to represent the state's citizens. On the issue of trade, the Bowles accused Burr of continuing to support expanded free trade. Bowles, who helped advance free trade deals while in the Clinton administration and later as White House chief of staff, said he won't support additional treaties...

Washington, DC, Sep. 9 (UPI) -- The North Carolina Senate race heated up Thursday as the GOP accused Democrat Senate candidate Erskine Bowles of avoiding his party's presidential nominee. Bowles, former President Clinton's chief of staff, "has made a habit of refusing to publicly appear with John Kerry and John Edwards, usually by having an event somewhere far away," said a spokesman for GOP Senate candidate Richard Burr. While Kerry campaigned in North Carolina Tuesday, Bowles was raising funds in Washington. The Bowles campaign told UPI the charge was "ludicrous" and he was merely doing what must be done to...

<p>As former White House Chief of Staff Erskine B. Bowles makes his second run for a North Carolina Senate seat, he faces a $120 million lawsuit from the state of Connecticut for bad investments made while a top official at the Forstmann Little investment firm.</p>

RALEIGH — Erskine Bowles, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in 2002 and the likely one again in 2004, is no fool. As President Bill Clinton's chief of staff in the White House, Bowles was one of the few grown-ups picking up the beer cans and broken lamp shades after the adolescents occupying the place. Having proven himself on Wall Street and in the North Carolina business world, Bowles didn't need the Washington power trip the way others around him did. But in 2002, the level-headed Bowles got bad advice, tried to be something he was not, and got thoroughly...

Former N.C. Rep. Dan Blue, a 2002 Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, said he will meet with advisors today to decide if he should make another bid for the Senate this year. Blue, 54, who would be running against his former 2002 primary opponent Erskine Bowles, said he would make an announcement about his candidacy before the candidate filing period begins Feb. 9. Both would be vying for the seat being vacated by U.S. Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C. "I have no particular date to announce, but I know time is running short," Blue said from his residence in Raleigh. Blue, an...

''I have never been so excited about a campaign.'' That was the declaration of Erskine Bowles, once again a Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, before the NC Black Leadership Caucus (NCBLC) two weeks ago. Obviously buoyed by early polls that give him a double-digit lead over probable GOP opponent Congressman Richard Burr, Bowles came before NCBLC, at their invitation, with enthusiasm and promises to represent the black community's interests if elected this time. ''I do think we are going to win,'' the Charlotte investment banker and former Clinton White House chief of staff said emphatically. But to do that, Bowles admitted...

Will former NC Speaker of the House Dan Blue once again mount a vigorous campaign against Democratic rival Erskine Bowles for the U.S. Senate? After months of speculation, the answer will come the week of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, Blue told The Carolinian exclusively Tuesday night. ''I think that's an appropriate time to announce my decision,'' Blue said, noting the significance of the state and federal holiday honoring the slain civil rights leader. ''I am closer to a [final] decision.'' What that ''final decision'' is Blue won’t publicly reveal now, but there's no question the Bowles camp is...

<p>RALEIGH, N.C. — Former White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles (search) announced Thursday that he will run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards (search).</p> <p>Bowles, a Democrat, said if elected he would focus on trying to right the economy.</p>

Bowles to run for U.S. Senate To enter race to fill Edwards' seat Charlotte investment banker Erskine Bowles plans to announce his entry into the U.S. Senate race Thursday, The Observer has learned. Bowles, a former White House Chief of Staff, is poised to join the race for the seat now held by fellow Democrat John Edwards. Edwards said this month he would not seek re-election and concentrate instead on his run for the presidency. Bowles ran in 2002 but lost to Republican Elizabeth Dole. It's unclear whether he'll have a primary challenge. Republican U.S. Rep. Richard Burr of Winston-Salem...

Tuesday, September 9, 2003 7:08AM EDT Blue-Bowles contest looms Edwards' Senate seat up for grabs By ROB CHRISTENSEN, Staff Writer With Sen. John Edwards not seeking re-election, North Carolina's Senate Democratic primary next year could, in the immortal words of Yankee great Yogi Berra, be deja vu all over again. Two big-name Democrats, who battled for 11 months during last year's Senate race -- former state House Speaker Dan Blue of Raleigh and former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles of Charlotte -- are considering a rematch No other major Democratic names have surfaced as potential candidates for the...

Burr bid receives a boost As Democrats wait to see whether U.S. Sen. John Edwards will seek his Senate seat in addition to his run for the White House, Republican Richard Burr's Senate campaign is gaining steam. In fact, two fund-raisers who helped Democrat Erskine Bowles in last year's Senate race have now agreed to aid Burr's campaign. On Monday, James Hance, Bank of America's chief financial officer, co-hosted a fund-raiser for Burr's campaign. And this weekend, R.V. Owens, a restaurant owner on the Outer Banks, will host one as well. While the two influential figures are joining forces with...

Filed at 3:56 p.m. ET Clinton administration veterans grabbed New Mexico's governorship and an Illinois House seat, but four others went down to defeat, closing out an election year that once saw about a dozen Clinton alumni bidding for elective office. In New Mexico, former Energy Secretary Bill Richardson overwhelmingly defeated Republican John Sanchez and will become the state's first Hispanic governor in two decades. In Illinois, former Clinton aide Rahm Emanuel won the 5th District seat in Chicago vacated by Rod Blagojevich, who was elected governor. There, though, the Clinton aides' victories on Tuesday came to a halt. Perhaps...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 2 — State polls showing that more than half a dozen Senate seats were still within either party's grasp prompted Republicans and Democrats today to intensify their feverish campaigns for control of the chamber. Seeking to influence the truly undecided voters — and to make sure those who have made up their minds go to the polls — both parties marshaled volunteers to ring doorbells and hand out leaflets. They also paraded big-name politicians and star-quality supporters before the cameras and drowned out commercials for consumer goods with advertisements extolling their candidates and assailing their opponents. Politicians and...

In a published manifesto last month, former Clinton chief of staff and current U.S. Senate candidate Erskine Bowles firmly declared, "Companies must go beyond the law to adapt best governance practices without waiting to be told to do so." If only he had lived up to that standard when he was in the private sector.In a year when "corporate accountability" has taken on unusual importance, Bowles has tried to convince North Carolina voters that not only could he crack down on the WorldComs and Enrons of the world, but that Bowles is a paragon of corporate virtue. His track...

Erskine Bowles, State Democrat Party Forced to Pull "Misleading" Ad; "Admitted Liar" Scott Falmlen Up to Old Tricks Deceiving Seniors (Raleigh) - Erskine Bowles and the North Carolina Democrat Party launched the first negative attack ad of the U.S. Senate general election on Tuesday but were forced to pull the ad later in the day after the Charlotte Observer complained that it was "misleading." "Erskine Bowles is lying about Elizabeth Dole and, given the fact that Scott Falmlen was involved, it's not surprising," said Bill Cobey, Chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party. "Scott Falmlen has lied to seniors in...

Bowles trailing in Senate race by 14 points, poll director says Republican Elizabeth Dole holds a 14 percentage-point lead over Democrat Erskine Bowles in the race for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Jesse Helms, according to a statewide poll released yesterday. Dole had the support of 49 percent of likely voters, and Bowles was supported by 35 percent, Libertarian Sean Haugh by 1 percent, and 15 percent were undecided, according to the poll by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. With just 12 percent of voters holding negative views of her, Dole is so popular that it...

NORTH CAROLINA REPUBLICAN PARTY 1506 Hillsborough St. • Raleigh, North Carolina 27605 Tele. (919) 828-6423 • Fax. (919) 899-3815 •www.NCGOP.orgFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 13th, 2002 Erskine Bowles' New Trade Ad At Odds with His Clinton Record, Family Business; Uses Family Textile Money to Flip-Flop on Trade with China, Fast Track, and NAFTA (Raleigh) - Adding insult to injury for the thousands of textile workers his family business put out of work, Erskine Bowles has launched a misleading new television ad in which he delivers a complete flip-flop of his support under the Clinton Administration for "fast track" trade authority,...

Erskine Bowles likes to say that he is not a politician--which might seem strange considering that he's running to replace Jesse Helms as a U.S. senator from North Carolina. But watching Bowles campaign at a nursing home outside of Greensboro one recent summer morning, it was easy to understand his oft-repeated disclaimer. Several dozen seniors were gathered in the facility's dreary dining room, more than a couple of them nodding off despite the breakfast cleanup loudly taking place in the adjoining kitchen. It was not an auspicious setting for a campaign stop, and as the event's starting time drew near...

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is based on a piece in the September 16, 2002, issue of National Review. In what state attorney general Richard Blumenthal described as a "virtually unprecedented" move, the state of Connecticut sued investment firm Forstmann Little for losing more than $100 million in pension funds of state workers. Suing over disappeared dough is nothing new, but this lawsuit has two highly unusual aspects.First, the suit put the fear of God into general partners (GPs) at investments shops everywhere because seven Forstmann Little GPs were separately named as individual defendants — putting them personally on the hook...

NORTH CAROLINA REPUBLICAN PARTY 1506 Hillsborough St. • Raleigh, North Carolina 27605 Tele. (919) 828-6423 • Fax. (919) 899-3815 • www.NCGOP.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 19th, 2002 NCGOP Chairman Wishes Bill Clinton "Happy Birthday" and Expresses Concern That Clinton's Old Buddy Erskine Bowles Seems to Have Lost Touch With Bill and Hillary Two round-trip airline tickets await Bill and Hillary so that they may catch up with Erskine and Crandall Bowles (Raleigh) - Today Bill Clinton turns 56 and yet his old buddy Erskine Bowles seems to have forgotten and lost touch with his old boss. The North Carolina Republican...

July 11, 2002 N.C. Sen. Hopeful Defends Biz Ties ASSOCIATED PRESS RALEIGH, N.C.- Ever since he entered the race for Senate last year, Democrat Erskine Bowles has boldly promoted his business experience. Now his opponents, seeing political advantage in the scandals rocking corporate America, are trying to turn his Wall Street past against him. Democrats and Republicans alike are taking shots at Bowles for his membership on the board of directors at pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co., which has come under scrutiny for accounting practices that inflated revenue. Bowles' opponents also are trying to tie him to the failed investments...

Raleigh) – In today’s Charlotte Observer, Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Erskine Bowles answers a series of questions sent in by readers, and in the process makes a statement so unbelievable one would think it came from Bowles’ former boss Bill Clinton. Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Erskine Bowles doesn’t want voters to know about his personal involvement in making risky investment decisions after being hired to “operate” the investment firm Forstmann Little – which led to the loss of $1.5 billion “almost overnight” for investors and even millions of a state’s pension fund which is now suing the firm. (New York...

Bowles, Dole draw riches from afar By ROB CHRISTENSEN AND DAVID RAYNOR, Staff Writers Republican Elizabeth Dole has raised more money in just one state, Texas, than her six GOP primary opponents have raised combined. And the money Democrat Erskine Bowles has scooped up from just one source -- Wall Street -- makes him the leading fund-raiser among the nine Democratic candidates. The connections that Dole and Bowles each have to the powerful and wealthy -- Texas oil barons, Wall Street financiers, lobbyists of Washington's K Street, and the monied set of Palm Beach -- have helped them to dominate...

Albright endorses Bowles'Erskine is the feminist in this campaign,' says ex-Cabinet official By IRWIN SPEIZER, Staff WriterGREENSBORO - Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright campaigned for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Erskine Bowles on Thursday, hoping her endorsement would give him a boost with female voters. Albright told a cheering rally in Greensboro that Bowles stands out from the crowded field of primary contenders for his commitment to women's issues. "I definitely can vouch for the fact that Erskine is the feminist in this campaign," said Albright at a evening rally at the Koury Convention Center sponsored by the Women for...

<p>CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Erskine Bowles served as White House chief of staff under former President Bill Clinton. But the Democratic front-runner in North Carolina’s U.S. Senate race makes no mention of his former boss in campaign ads.</p> <p>"I’m running on my own experience in this campaign," Bowles said. "I don’t think the people of North Carolina are going to vote for someone based on who their connections are with — although I have great connections in Washington."</p>