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12/22/08 Longtime NC political consultant, and former adviser to Mike Easley and Beverly Perdue, Mac McCorkle tells Herget that he initially warned Governor-elect Perdue that her biggest campaign challenge would likely be to overcome whatever prejudice might accompany the notion of electing the state's first female governor. McCorkle also gives an insiders view of Perdue's successful campaign.

Listen to SGR exclusive with Mac McCorkle

12/15/08 NC Common Cause director Bob Phillips tells SGR editor Barlow Herget that North Carolina has greatly improved its ethics laws during the Mike Easley administration. The so-called “goodwill” loophole - that allowed lobbyists to wine and dine legislators and government executives without reporting those expenses and legislative leaders - has been closed. Meantime, leaders who may have benefited from such loopholes such as House Speaker Joe Hackney and Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand actually helped with the adoption of a gift ban.

Listen to SGR exclusive with Bob Phillips

12/01/08 Gary Bartlett, executive director of the NC Board of Elections, tells Barlow Herget the state could not have handled the 4.3 million votes cast in the Nov. 4th election had it not been for early voting. The turnout - estimated at 69.5 percent - was the best since 1948. Bartlett also says that North Carolina came in first or second in the nation in the number of newly registered voters this year, and expresses satisfaction that his office only counted some 20 calls on Election Day concerning voting problems.

Listen to SGR exclusive with Gary Bartlett

11/24/08 ESC Chairman Harry Payne tells host Barlow Herget that when he took office, 21 percent of the state's jobs were in manufacturing, but now they comprise about 13 percent (and falling) in the current recession. Urban areas are faring better than rural counties, and Chairman Payne advises Governor-elect Bev Perdue to be tough in her response to the hard times.

Listen to SGR exclusive with Harry Payne

11/17/08 John Hood, president of the conservative think tank, the John Locke Foundation in Raleigh, tells host Barlow Herget that the Republican Party is going through a cyclical "down" period but remains strong as the closeness of the elections in the state show. He anoints US Sen. Richard Burr as the titular head of the NC Republican Party and sees the old divisions between the Jesse Helms' and Jim Holshouser's wings of the party as politics of the past.

Listen to SGR exclusive with John Hood

11/10/08 Governor Easley's principal education adviser, and Deputy State School Superintendent, J. B. Buxton reviews the Governor's education record and urges Governor-elect Beverly Perdue to protect the public school system's teachers and principals during the likely difficult times ahead.

Listen to SGR exclusive with J.B. Buxton

11/03/08 Attorney Larry Robbins of Wyrick, Robbins, Ponton, and Yates tells Barlow Herget that there is little chance of shareholders, or others, retrieving some of the golden parachute money paid to Wall Street bankers and business executives who helped cause the U.S. financial crisis. But, Robbins says some of those people may be spending that money battling criminal charges and that new limits on executive pay in the $800 billion rescue legislation will affect corporate pay in dramatic ways.

Listen to SGR exclusive with Larry Robbins

10/27/08 Dan Gerlach, new president of the Golden Leaf Foundation and former senior budget adviser to Gov. Mike Easley, tells host Barlow Herget that the state "cannot tax or cut its way" out of the current economic recession but will have to “grow its way” through the coming hard times. Gerlach has been through a $1 billion budget shortfall and says the Governor is doing the right thing to cut spending now, and insists the next governor will have to continue to invest in programs that provide a smarter workforce.

Listen to SGR exclusive with Dan Gerlach

10/06/08 State House Majority Leader Hugh Holliman (D-Davidson) tells host Barlow Herget how the state employees Health Plan showed a $65 million deficit rather than $45 million surplus in June and what Plan overseers must do to fix the Plan. Holliman says the Plan will look at higher deductions and fees from members and big infusion of money from state, which pays 90 percent of Plan's costs.

Listen to SGR exclusive with Rep. Hugh Holliman

09/29/08 Congressman Brad Miller, D-NC, says the country's credit crisis is drying up business activity and says conservative House Republicans are delaying the bipartisan rescue plan drafted by Treasury Secretary Paulson, FED Chairman Bernanke and congressional Democratic leaders. Miller says executive compensation will be restricted in the plan but he wants more help for homeowners losing their homes to foreclosure.

Listen to SGR exclusive with Congressman Miller

09/22/08 Republican political consultant Carter Wrenn - veteran of five U.S. Senate campaign victories - tells SGR.com's Barlow Herget what is likely happening at this point in the campaign offices of U.S. Senate candidates Kay Hagan and Sen. Elizabeth Dole. Wrenn says that Democrats have exploited the internet's fund raising potential much the way Republicans earlier developed direct mail solicitations. Both, Wrenn says, are the cleanest way to raise political money.

Listen to SGR exclusive with Carter Wrenn

09/08/08 Dr. Gene Conti, vice chairman of the Global Transpark Authority, tells SGR.com listeners he believes the airport’s new tenant that starts construction next week on a $600 million, one-thousand job, high-tech operation may be — finally — the breakthrough company that will attract more traffic and jobs to the nonperforming state-run Transpark. Conti tells Barlow Herget the company has the potential to do for the Transpark what IBM did for Research Triangle Park in the 60s.

2008 Archived Shows