Understanding the North Carolina Senate

Important post by KMR on BlueNC this a.m., about why an increased Democratic majority in the NC Senate has actually led to less progressive legislation getting out of that body.

KMR is, we believe, an old hand at covering the state legislature, so we tend to listen closely to what he has to say about the workings of those particular cogs 'n' wheels.

KMR focuses on two main glaring areas of failure, an energy bill with lots of "lovely perks" for Duke Power and Progress Energy and "health care bill after health care bill gutted or skewed." The pro-business Dems, led by Sen. David Hoyle (pictured above), have sided with the Republican minority in the Senate to stop or sideline anything the big money boys don't like.

KMR writes, "Hoyle, a finance co-chair and a key member of the Senate leadership team, has long had a way of sounding the alarm that too progressive a tack would mortally wound him politically. This even though he ran unopposed in 2006 and won by a handful of percentage points in 2004 when George Bush carried his Gaston County district by more than 2 to 1. Yet Hoyle, now in his eighth term, seems to always be firmly focused on his next election. And since, like most of the leadership, he contributed tens of thousands raised for his '06 cakewalk to senators in close races, he's got the ear of many."

So what's Hoyle doing with those boxes and bags full of ears? Keeping 'em damp and buried in horse manure?