Phil Berger -- who tried to sneak four new private industry gambling casinos into rural North Carolina, while his own son who's chair of the Rockingham County Commission was rushing through a rezoning of some prime property already picked out for the Rockingham casino -- Berger got his ears pinned back on that deal. A hardcore group of Puritans in the NC House said no way, and the popular sheriff of Rockingham, Sam Page, led a protest of hometown Rockingham Republicans to Raleigh to denounce Berger's scheme in front of the legislative building. Page is now running against Berger in next March's Republican primary.
What's the saying? Once bitten, twice shy.
When News and Observer reporter Avi Bajpai asked Berger if casino legislation could be revisited this year, "Berger said he isn’t working on it, nor is he aware of any other lawmakers planning to introduce legislation on it." “
I don’t think it’s something that will see the light of day as far as the legislative session we’re in,” Berger said.
Just a week ago Berger
was telling the NandO's Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan that he saw no reason to talk yet about his plans for 2026 -- “I don't want to prejudge any decision that really doesn’t have to be made until later in the year,” he said -- but then Sam Page made a splash with his announcement that he intended to take out Phil Berger in the next election. Suddenly Phil Berger
was announcing his plans to run for reelection.
“My intent has been, all along, to run again, and I felt that the appropriate thing would be to make the announcement of that closer to the filing period [December],” Berger told reporters. “But, you know, I intend to run, I intend to continue to be the senator from the 26th district.”
Sounds nervous to me.
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