POLITICAL WRAP: Voter ID; Pelosi Delay; Charlotte Homicides

Featured at WCCB Charlotte

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – It appears North Carolina voters will not have to show ID in March’s presidential primary. A Federal Court temporarily blocked new requirements set to go into effect next year. The decision can be appealed but that would be up to Democrat state Attorney General Josh Stein.

U.S. Senators return to Washington at the end of the week. But the question remains, how longer will Nancy Pelosi wait to deliver the articles of impeachment? Senate leaders remain at an impasse over whether there will be new witnesses and testimony in a Senate trial.

Closer to home, this year’s homicide rate in Charlotte is on track to be the worst since 1993. CMPD has investigated 108 murders so far. Mayor Vi Lyles says Charlotte is looking at data from other cities for ways to curb the violence.

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POLITICAL WRAP: Impeachment Process On Hold For Holiday Break, McCrory Eyeing Senate Run

Featured at WCCB Charlotte

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The impeachment process for President Trump is on hold for at least now during the holiday break.  But, staff for the key house committees are expected to work over the holiday recess and could be prepping for a trial as early as the week of January 6th.

Former Governor Pat McCrory announced Thursday he won’t be running for his old job.  But, he says he will consider a U.S. Senate bid for 2022.

WCCB Charlotte Political Contributor Mary C. Curtis weighs in on those stories and more during this week’s Political Wrap.

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POLITICAL WRAP: Impeachment Trial; Voter Rights; UK Election

Featured at WCCB Charlotte

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – After this week’s impeachment vote, debate will continue over a possible Senate trial. Majority leader Mitch McConnell says he’d like it to go quickly. But President Trump has talked about calling witnesses, ranging from Hunter Biden, to the whistleblower, to Congressman Adam Schiff.

Also, this week voting rights are back in the spotlight after a ruling by a circuit court judge in Wisconsin. 234,000 voters, flagged as having possibly moved, will be taken off the registry. The ruling is expected to hurt Democrats in a state President Trump won in 2016.

And in the UK, a landslide victory for Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the Conservative Party. Johnson is promising to “Get Brexit Done,” while President Trump calls the election result a possible “harbinger of what’s to come” in the 202o U.S. election.

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Voting rights, a partisan issue? Yes, Republicans have fallen that far

Featured at Roll Call

OPINION — Stacey Abrams has it right, for right now. She lost her 2018 race to be the governor of Georgia to Republican Brian Kemp, who as secretary of state was in charge of the election, a situation that would not pass the sniff test in North Korea.

OK, that comparison is a little far-fetched, but only a little.

Since then, though, she’s been plenty busy, confirming that, yes, she would be open to a vice presidential spot on the 2020 Democratic ticket and locking down a network TV deal for a drama based on one of her novels.

Most importantly, though, through her group Fair Fight, she has been fighting for voting rights, an issue that’s bigger than one election and always has been.

Despite the GOP talking point that the impeachment inquiry is crowding out important work, under Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the House has been passing legislation, only to see those bills die in the Senate under the strict command of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Last week, another proposed bill joined the list, with little doubt that it too would meet the same Senate fate. The two parties can’t even agree on what to call it. For Democrats, and officially, it is the Voting Rights Advancement Act. Republicans have dubbed it the “The Federal Control of Elections Act.”

Not too subtle.

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Dec122019 TAGS: , , , ,

Mary C. Curtis: Articles of Impeachment Debate

Featured at WCCB Rising

CHARLOTTE, NC  — Now that house democrats have laid out impeachment charges against President Donald Trump– the debate officially begins.

Political contributor Mary C. Curtis discusses what’s next in the process.

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POLITICAL WRAP: Lack of Diversity on Democratic Debate Stage?

Featured at WCCB Charlotte

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Next week, the democratic candidates for president will meet again on the debate stage. But now the field is beginning to narrow. So far, only six candidates have qualified.

And with California Senator Kamala Harris dropping out of the race last week, some Democrats worry there will be a lack of diversity on the stage December 19th.

WCCB Charlotte Political Contributor Mary C. Curtis has more in this week’s political wrap.

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Dec092019 TAGS: , , , ,

Buttigieg Seeks Black Voter Support as Presidential Race Shifts

Featured at WCCB Rising

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Though his support has surged in early caucus and primary states Iowa and New Hampshire, 2020 Democratic hopeful Pete Buttigieg has low polling numbers in states with a more diverse voting base. In South Carolina, he is polling in the very low single digits, which is a step up from his former number of 0%. Though he has funds and momentum, the South Bend, Indiana, mayor might hit a wall in a party that depends on a strong African-American and Hispanic voting base.

Minority voters — African-American women in particular — were key in recent elections that turned Virginia state government blue and re-elected a Democratic governor in Louisiana after President Trump campaigned for his opponent. Can Buttigieg solve this problem and save his chances to be the nominee?

And what does it say about the 2020 race on the Democratic side, which started out with such a diverse group, now that California Sen. Kamala Harris has dropped out and the slate for the December debate has narrowed to top candidates who do not reflect that party’s racial diversity. (Mary C. Curtis)

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Dec042019 TAGS: , , , ,

POLITICAL WRAP: Impeachment Hearings Move to Judiciary Committee

Featured at WCCB Charlotte

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The White House now has until Friday to decide whether or not to participate in the next round of House Impeachment Hearings. The deadline comes just days before the first hearings with the House Judiciary Committee get under way. Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham responded to the invitation, saying the offer is being reviewed, but that the President has done nothing wrong.

Click above for more with WCCB Charlotte Political Contributor Mary C. Curtis.

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Dec012019 TAGS: , , , ,

Mary C. Curtis: Bloomberg, Impeachment

Featured at WCCB Rising

Michael Bloomberg says he knows what it takes to beat President Trump. Meanwhile, the House Judiciary Committee will hold its first impeachment hearing on December 4th. Political contributor Mary C. Curtis is covering it all.

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Bloomberg, Biden, Buttigieg and the bunch apologize. Should black voters listen, forgive and vote?

Featured at Roll Call

OPINION — Of course, Michael Bloomberg went there — there being a black church to ask for forgiveness. As he tentatively dips his toe and his billions into the Democratic presidential race, joining a scrum that expands even as it shrinks, Bloomberg, perhaps realizing that the path to the presidency must include the enthusiastic support of black and brown voters, has rethought his enthusiastic support of “stop and frisk.”

“I got something important really wrong,” he told the congregation at the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn on Sunday. “I didn’t understand back then the full impact that stops were having on the black and Latino communities.”

As New York City mayor, Bloomberg insisted that in order to fight crime, police must have the power to stop anyone judged a potential lawbreaker, which translated to ritualizing a practice that humiliated hundreds of thousands of black and brown New Yorkers who were detained, questioned and patted down because of “furtive movements” or some other vague justification. The number of stops rose to more than 685,000 in 2011, with no citations made or charges brought nearly 90 percent of the time.

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