It’s Phil Berger’s World. We’re just allowed (for a price) to live in it.

“Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” was a popular game making the rounds of pop culture some years back.  The object was to take any random individual or event or object and connect him/her/it  in the shortest path possible.  The “joke” was that you could connect just about anything to actor Kevin Bacon — if you really work at it.

In modern day North Carolina politics, you can play a quite similar game — replacing Bacon with senate president pro tem Phil Berger.

All In The Family.   If you’re going to control politics in the state, you’re going to need trusted hands in key positions.  Now, WHO can you trust more than family?

Berger has two sons and a daughter. One son – Kevin – keeps a watch on the family interests back home in Rockingham County. He serves on and has chaired the county’s board of commissioners.  Kevin Berger and his allies have been key players in laying the groundwork in Rockingham County for the casinos that the family patriarch has been working so hard in Raleigh to get approved.

Phil Berger, Jr. — the much better known brother — has been serving as an associate justice on the North Carolina Supreme Court.   From his perch there, justice Berger has quite a bit to say about the constitutionality and propriety of actions taken by the state’s executive and legislative branches.

Ashley Berger Snyder has been the state’s Codifier of Rules since 2021. What does the Codifier of Rules do? Let’s see:

[…] The Codifier enters rules into the North Carolina Administrative Code, publishes the North Carolina Register, and reviews emergency rules. In addition, the Codifier serves as the Director of APA Services by managing and directing the Rules Division. The Division provides legal and administrative support to the Rules Review Commission and publishes the North Carolina Register and North Carolina Administrative Code. […]

What does the Director of APA Services do?   THIS. 

Here’s what the state’s Rules Review Commission does.

Senator Phil Berger has served as senate president pro tem since 2010 — when the GOP took over the General Assembly.  Until 1988, the pro tem post was overshadowed by the elected lieutenant governor – the president of the state senate.

1988 was the year North Carolina elected its first GOP lieutenant governor to oversee a senate controlled by Democrats.  The position was stripped of most of its influence and the elected lieutenant governor was, for all intents and purposes, sat in the corner.

Since then, power has been gradually stripped away from the lieutenant governor and granted to the president pro tem.  Recently passed legislation strips even more power from the governor and elected attorney general and gives it to the senate president pro tem (Berger).

As the powerful head of one of the two legislative chambers in state government, Phil Berger has a monster-sized say in whether or not a proposal sees the light of day.

So, you could pretty well determine the fate of North Carolina’s economy and politics every night at the Berger dinner table. 

Politics.  House and Senate leadership has pretty well shanghaied the day-to-day operations of the state Republican Party.  Each chamber’s GOP caucus has a “political director” working under the aegis of the state party — managing shakedown funds.  These directors go out and recruit candidates to run in their respective chambers. Once IDed, the candidates are promised all kinds of fiscal and logistical support.  If the candidates win, they are reminded of how indebted they are to their respective chamber’s leadership.  And if they want to get reelected, they need to spend the following two years being very, very cooperative and agreeable. Dare to raise questions about state spending or any other type of shenanigans, and you’ll find yourself facing a campaign funding crisis and a likely primary opponent.

A partial merger between the legislative and executive branches?  The 2024 elections presented us with two victorious Council of State candidates — treasurer and auditor — who were recruited, funded, managed and are now likely *owned* by the Berger political machine.   The new treasurer’s top two aides include a former Democrat official and a former adviser to senator Berger.  The auditor has hired as his senior-most aides two people who have recently left senator Berger’s legislative leadership staff.

The long political knives are apparently still out against Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey (R).  When someone tried to bribe him, Causey made the *mistake* of reporting it to the FBI and wearing a wire.  Stuff like that makes you a marked man in Raleigh politics.

The Berger Team has not-so-subtly tinkered with Causey’s operation.  They’ve snatched the fire marshal operation from him and took away office space.  Causey has been subjected to some pretty vicious leaks to The N&O.  I anticipate it won’t be long before we see a competitive primary challenger — comfortably loaded with fiscal and logistical support — for Mr. Causey.

We need serious election reform.  We need help to bring down grocery and gas prices.  Instead, we get casinos, Medicaid, casinos, casinos, solar panels, casinos and whatever else *our favorite lobbyists* want. 

Raleigh may be even worse than DC.  No one seriously believes that it’s all about *public service.* It’s about using your government-provided power to enrich yourself and your friends until the great lobbying gods in the sky come down to Earth to rain $100 bills on you.

We get subjected to exactly what we allow.  (You folks in Rockingham County have an awful lot of power to bring all of this to a screeching halt.)