Max Borders says he feel's Pat McCrory's pain.

As a libertarian blogger and a devoted fan of "The Andy Griffith Show," Borders writes that he feels as torn as the Republican gubernatorial nominee over the actor's "shilling for leftwing candidates."

Borders also writes that Griffith's character would face modern challenges: 

A Sheriff Andy Taylor of today would be a more earnest and solemn man. He would find himself in a N.C. that in which summary executions occur perennially by members of foreign gangs. He would find himself cleaning up the Eve Carsons of the world, on the streets near Griffith's alma mater. He would find himself with very little prison space for Otis, because all manner of thugs and murders have pushed the town drunks into the arms of taxpayer-funded social workers.

Borders also writes that the times have changed since the show aired.

"Nowhere in N.C. is there a place that even vaguely resembles Mayberry (if there ever was)," he writes.

Republicans object to the so-called "sin taxes."

At a press conference this morning, Republican leaders of the state House and Senate said that the state budget should not raise taxes on alcohol and cigarettes.

"In tough economic times, it is not the time to raise taxes, particularly the taxes that hit the poorest people," said Senate Minority Leader Phil Berger.

He called the governor's budget "an attempt at legacy building."

For their budget priorities, Berger and House Minority Leader Paul Stam called for cutting spending, completely ending the annual transfer from the Highway Trust Fund, putting a roads bond before voters in November and not raising any state taxes.

On non-budget items, they called for lifting the cap on charter schools, putting constitutional amendments banning gay marriage and curtailing the use of eminent domain before voters, making the murder of an unborn child a crime and ending the de facto moratorium on the death penalty.

The Council of State won't budge on its approval of the state's revised execution protocol.

Attorneys for the council responded Monday to a group of five condemned inmates who appealed the council's approval of the protocol. Attorneys with the N.C. Department of Justice filed the response in Wake Superior Court, Titan Barksdale reports.

The inmates have said the council's approval in February 2007 was improper because it didn't hear from their attorneys first.

The council contends that the inmates don't have the right to challenge the protocol in court because the state Department of Correction offers inmates a way to challenge it. The council, a group of the state's top elected officials, added that the prisoners have failed to show they are harmed by the execution protocol.

"Injury only occurs if the execution protocol is improperly implemented," the council's response said.

More after the jump.

   Comments (0)

Beverly Perdue has apologized for a remark on the death penalty.

As a state senator, Perdue opposed a bill to phase out the gas chamber in state executions, according to a March 23, 1995, story in the Charlotte Observer:

Another death penalty backer, Sen. Beverly Perdue, D-Craven, suggested that doing away with the gas chamber would lessen capital punishment's deterrent value.

"I think we should make it painful and torturous," she said.

When the comment came up in a discussion on the liberal Web site BlueNC, Perdue logged on and apologized.

"I made that quote more than a decade ago, and I'm sorry," she wrote this afternoon. "I know that we must make sure that innocent people are not on death row and that's why I favor the current moratorium."

It's been 40 years since judges on the N.C. Court of Appeals began hearing cases.

Officers of the court will celebrate the 40-year anniversary at 2 p.m. Thursday in the Court of Appeals courtroom, Titan Barksdale reports. Among the guests will be former Appeals Court and state Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr, who is running for governor.

"I am looking forward to the ceremony at the courtroom and to visiting with colleagues and friends who have served on and worked for the Court over the years," he said in a statement.

The General Assembly decided to create the court in 1967 because the North Carolina Supreme Court had become overburdened. In October of the same year, the appeals court began taking cases.

The Court of Appeals has fifteen judges who sit in rotating panels of three. They decide questions of law on every case—except death penalty cases—appealed from the Superior and District courts.

Richard Moore took a strong stance for capital punishment.

In response to a question on the James Johnson case at today's debate, Moore cited his time as a federal prosecutor, saying that he believes it is necessary for some crimes.

"I do believe in capital punishment," he said. "I do believe that there is biblical evil that lives among us and for some crimes you give up the right to be here on the Earth with the rest of us."

However, Moore added, he does not think the system is currently being implemented fairly and he wants to make sure it is reformed.

Bob Orr said that he supports the death penalty in "limited circumstances," while Beverly Perdue said she supports capital punishment and the de facto moratorium currently in place.

The candidates were speaking in the sanctuary of the Historic Union Baptist Church.

State Sen. Ellie Kinnaird announced today she is running.

As recently as yesterday, the six-term senator, a Carrboro Democrat, had been coy about whether she planned to run for re-election, saying she had until February to decide, Lynn Bonner reports.

But potential successors had been announcing their interest in the seat, including Orange County commissioners Moses Carey and Mike Nelson, and Carrboro Alderman John Herrera.

Herrera said he will honor his promise and drop out of the race since Kinnaird has decided to run again.

Carey said he's still in.

"The fact that she's changed her mind doesn't mean I'm going to change mine," he said.

Kinnaird had discussed her retirement with potential candidates, but made it known she wanted a woman to run to replace her.

Kinnaird's campaign sent an announcement Tuesday saying that she wanted to work for affordable health insurance for everyone, focused economic development efforts in needy areas, and a ban on executing the mentally ill.

Update: Nelson said he's also out of the race.

Why did Republicans make the motion on the death penalty?

On his Political Connections blog, News 14 Carolina reporter Tim Boyum makes an interesting observation from Tuesday's Council of State meeting.

At the meeting, nine of the 10 top statewide officials voted to uphold a decision, including Gov. Mike Easley and two Democrats running to replace him, Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue and Treasurer Richard Moore. (Insurance Commissioner Jim Long cast the dissenting vote.)

But the motion was made by Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler and seconded by Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry, two of the council's three Republicans.

That's not all, Boyum notes:

Before the hearing, I could see Gov. Easley talking at length with Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler. After a brief discussion, Troxler spoke up and made the motion to essentially uphold the Council's original approval in February.

The Council of State refused to reconsider its approval of the state's execution protocol today, saying that Judge Fred Morrison Jr., an administrative law judge who ordered them to take another look, doesn't have jurisdiction over them.

In August, Morrison ruled that the council should have allowed inmates' attorneys to weigh in as the council considered changes to the the protocol for lethal injection.

The protocol, which the council approved Feb. 6, requires a physician to monitor a condemned inmate's "essential body functions" and tell the warden if the inmate shows signs of suffering.

A few council members mentioned that they had received hundreds of strongly worded e-mails prior to the meeting about the death penalty. But Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson said the only issue before the council was whether Morrison had jurisdiction.

N.C. Insurance Commissioner Jim Long cast the lone dissenting vote.

State Treasurer Richard Moore's campaign said Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue has flip flopped on the death penalty, among other issues. Perdue's campaign said that's nonsense.

In an e-mail to Dome, Moore's campaign manager, Jay Reiff, noted that Perdue once supported the death penalty, but is now calling for a moratorium on executions, Rob Christensen reports.

He cited a March 23, 1995, article in the Charlotte Observer. After a bill was proposed that would have abolished the gas chamber, Perdue, then a state senator, argued that it would have lessened the deterrent value of executions.

"I think we should make it painful and torturous," she told the Observer.

But in February, Perdue announced that she would support a moratorium while the state studies the issue.

A spokesman for Perdue said that she has always supported the death penalty but thinks it should be prosecuted aggressively but fairly. The current moratorium is necessary until the courts resolve the legal and medical uncertainties that have recently arisen, he said.