Naughty & Nice | Eastern North Carolina Now

Naughty and Nice: North Carolina had plenty of both this year. Here is our list!

• Naughty: Bob Hall of Democracy North Carolina, for making false claims about the 2014 elections in order to undercut NC's common-sense election reforms.
• Nice: The State Board of Elections and most county elections boards, for conducting a highly contested midterm election, which took place with record turnout and no major glitches.
• Naughty: The Natural Resources Defense Council and the Southern Environmental Law Center, for deceiving voters about the real funders of misleading campaign-related ads. Plus, lumps of coal for California billionaire Tom Steyer and other wealthy out-of-state environmentalists, for their part in trying to quash energy exploration here, efforts which would denying working people a chance at good jobs.
• Nice: Gov. Pat McCrory and a majority of state lawmakers, for standing firm behind state tax reforms that will deliver another tax cut to all NC taxpayers in the coming year.
• Naughty: The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, for dragging its feet on investigating the fake-classes scandal that has festered for nearly two decades.
• Nice: Dale Folwell, for spearheading efforts in the Division of Employment Security to reduce the state's debt to Washington for unemployment funding, thus removing a major burden from employers and the state's finances.
• Naughty: The U.S. Supreme Court, for refusing to review lower court marriage rulings that struck down North Carolina's law, thus opening the door to same-sex marriage in North Carolina.
• Nice: The U.S. Supreme Court, for ruling correctly that North Carolina's voting reforms were indeed a constitutional way to fix our election system and protect the integrity of the ballot box.
• Naughty: State schools chief June Atkinson and state Board of Education Chairman Bill Cobey, for ignoring powerful critiques of the unproven Common Core Standards, which would transfer decision-making authority from the local level to Washington.
• Nice: Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, state Sens. Jerry Tillman and Dan Soucek, and Reps. Bryan Holloway and Craig Horn, for leading the fight to replace the Common Core Standards.
• Naughty: North Carolina NAACP head William Barber, for traveling to Ferguson, Mo., to stoke racial tensions and try to draw more attention to himself.
• Nice: State Auditor Beth Wood, for firing disgraced health care guru Jonathan Gruber — whom she had hired about a year earlier to help her office study the Community Care of North Carolina program.
• Naughty: Attorney General Roy Cooper, for refusing to do his job of defending state law — when that law defined marriage as being between one man and one woman.
• Nice: Civitas supporters and contributors, for making our work possible!