• Two North Carolina House members got their chance Tuesday to grill controversial former Obama administration health care consultant Jonathan Gruber: Reps. Patrick McHenry, R-10th, and Mark Meadows, R-11th. Meadows’ encounter is below.
• In an interview with WCHL radio, Public Policy Polling chief Tom Jensen says North Carolina Democrats have reasons to be optimistic as the 2016 campaign approaches.
• The New York Times reports something unsurprising: Spending by independent groups on the recent federal campaigns for the House and Senate set a record of at least $814 million, roughly $40 million more in inflation-adjusted terms than was spent in 2012.
• Political observer Stuart Rothenberg says the defeat of Mary Landrieu in Louisiana’s U.S. Senate race shows that the U.S. has entered fully an era of “parliamentary politics,” in which the national political parties’ positions often trump the local perspectives of individual candidates.
