As lawmakers move forward with plans to expand taxpayer financing of election campaigns, Carolina Journal columnist Andy Taylor, N.C. State University’s political science chairman, is discussing the negative consequences of that financing. The Leland Tribune published his Carolina Beat on the topic. Meanwhile, CJ Associate Editor David Bass‘ efforts to expose questionable spending connected with a North Carolina state government air-quality lawsuit attracted the attention of the Carolina Politics Online blog. In other news, a recent Robesonian article highlighted the Robeson County manager’s use of data from the John Locke Foundation’s annual By The Numbers report. (The data [county manager Ken] Windley cited actually came from the John Locke Foundation — a conservative think tank — not the N.C. Association of County Commissioners, according to an association spokesman. The information
was included in the foundation’s report “By The Numbers: What Government Costs in North Carolina Cities and Counties FY 2007.” … Windley said that the data he presented to commissioners was included in an e-mail sent to him by a N.C. Association of County Commissioners employee.)