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It's 505 and welcome in to a Wednesday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour on Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 WBT. I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you.
Some monumental political news to kick off the program this morning on the Carolina Journal News Hour after serving in the North Carolina Senate since the year 2000 and being the Senate leader for the last 15 years. Senator Phil Berger, the Republican out of Rockingham in northern Guilford County, has officially conceded in his race to Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page. We have got a lot of details to dive into to walk us through it. Mitch Cokey from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Mitch, yesterday we saw a process unfold with sample hand-eye recounts in Rockingham and northern Guilford.
There was no movement for Berger or Page. In either of those recounts, the numbers stayed exactly the same. There were about 13 or so voter protests that remained to be dealt with over the next couple of weeks. It wasn't long after the recount that Berger and his team put out statements on social media announcing that he was officially conceding right off the top. What do you make of the statement from Senate leader Phil Berger?
Interesting to me, Nick, was that the statement, although short, had quite a bit of very interesting information. First of all, there's the bottom line that we avoid what could have been a lengthy and potentially costly court fight. We saw just in the last election cycle that a dispute over an election can last for months and take up a lot of time, a lot of the candidates' time, a lot of the election officials' time. We're not going to have that with Phil Berger basically ending the process at the end of the recounts. He's not going to go forward with these election protests that you mentioned.
He's not going to file a court case and say that there was something wrong with how the election played out.
So we avoid that. That is the number one thing that I take out of this. But there are a number of other things. One is that part of his statement is that the voters have spoken. And I think that's significant.
We hear that quite a bit from the losing candidate, sometimes from the winning candidate too, when they want to talk about a mandate. But we hear that sometimes from the losing candidate saying, you know, we waged a tough fight and it was a close race or a tight battle, but the voters have spoken. I think By Senator Berger including that statement in there, that is a signal that he is, while disappointed, confident in how the election process played out. And that's something that has been a source of concern in recent election cycles is the concern about the way the elections are handled and whether everything has been handled on the up and up and above board. By Phil Berger saying the voters have spoken, he's basically admitting that this election played out the way that it was supposed to.
All of the votes that were supposed to have counted counted, and that it was essentially the voters and not some backroom election official that's deciding this.
So I think that is significant too. Let me jump in on that because I think there's a really relevant point there as well, right? With this recount that we saw play out yesterday, with there being a little more than 1,200 ballots as part of the 3% sample handeye that took place in Rock. Buckingham and Guilford counties, there were no discrepancies, no issues, no questions about any of those ballots.
So I think, you know, obviously, you don't necessarily want to extrapolate throughout the entire state what happened in Senate District 26, but at least voters in that area of the state of North Carolina should feel pretty confident today that elections are being run in an efficient manner with the utmost trust and transparency from election officials because there were no discrepancies or issues in multiple recounts, whether it was machine or this sample hand eye that we saw on Tuesday. Yeah, that's definitely a positive point about how it plays out.
Now, the machine and a hand recount, you always can expect that there's going to be some difference. And we remember that when you had the initial machine recount in one of the counties, both candidates ended up losing a vote.
So there was a difference, but it didn't change the overall margin. And it's to be expected that if you looked at it over the entire course of the state, if you had the initial count and then put every ballot for every race through another machine recount, there would be a handful of votes changing here and there, but not anything of major significance if the elections are run properly, which we assume that they are. And by Phil Berger saying that the voters have spoken, I think that is his recognition that the election was handled in an appropriate way. Going beyond that, there are some other interesting messages within his statement. One is that he talks about how the Republicans, since they took over the General Assembly in 2011, and he was part of that, they have fundamentally redefined the outlook and the reputation of the state.
And he talks about being glad to have played a role in that transformation. That to me signals that Phil Berger, despite being probably disappointed, maybe angry about how this election has turned out, is looking at what Republicans have done since he has been a part of that leadership and is happy about the changes that have been made, wants to make sure that his political legacy is tied to that. and not being tied to a person who's fighting tooth and nail to remain in office, even when every piece of the electoral puzzle is against you. And I think it also signals that he's going to be maintaining the priorities that he has seen in terms of what Republicans are up to leading the General Assembly as he moves forward. The next piece of this that I think is very important is that he mentions that he'll be continuing to work with his colleagues in the short session.
That had been a point of discussion quite a bit, ever since it looked like Phil Berger had the potential of losing this race, that what was he going to do if he ended up losing? Would he resign from the leadership of the Senate? Would he resign from the Senate entirely? Would he stay in the Senate, but then try to kind of stop everything else from happening because he's angry about what transpired with the election? Election.
It sounds as if, from this statement, that he's going to continue to hold his job, that he's going to continue to work through the short session, and that he's going to continue to push for these priorities, which probably means not a major shift. In how the Senate is approaching the House over the budget stalemate. Maybe that's not. True, maybe he takes a different tack. But this statement would suggest that he is going to continue.
On the same path that he has in recent years, and will try to continue to push for from his vantage point and from the Senate's vantage point, keeping a lid on taxes and try to continue the tax cuts that the General Assembly has been pushing at least since 2013. And then the final thing I think that was important in that statement that he put out is that he said he's going to be working to support all Republican Senate candidates. In the fall, and trying to help the Republicans maintain the Senate supermajority. Remember that right now, in the 50 seats in the state Senate, there are 30 Republicans, 20 Democrats. That's 60% for the Republicans.
That's exactly what they need to have a veto-proof supermajority. Phil Berger says he's going to continue to work to help preserve that supermajority, which suggests to me, to the extent that he still has a war chest, that he is not going to. Take his ball and go home and be mad about what happened, but that he's going to continue to try to support his colleagues, especially in those races where there could be some strong chances of Democrats making a really good run. And we know that there are at least two or three of those Senate seats where in a strong Democratic year, Democrats could have a good chance of flipping a seat. And so if Phil Berger.
is, as he says in this statement, going to continue to work for that. That makes it a little bit better on the Republicans as they try to maintain that supermajority.
So lots of interesting information in what is a very short concession statement. Yeah, Mitch, I didn't do a word count as to or a character count as to how long the statement was, but as you were unpacking the comments, there are a lot to dig into. And Mitch, you know, Senator Berger highlighted something, and you mentioned it as well. There's been a lot of growth in North Carolina over the last 10 or even 15 years. A lot of folks just moving to North Carolina.
Mitch, you've been a longtime political observer. The state has not always been in the position that it is right now. But if you've just moved into North Carolina over the last decade, you would have said to yourself, this is always how the state of North Carolina has been. That was not the case prior to 2010 when the state was fiscally bankrupt, owed a bunch of money to the federal government as it related to medical debt. North Carolina had some of the highest taxes in the southeastern half of the United States.
It was a very different North Carolina just 15 or 16 years ago. That's right. And to some extent, Phil Berger may have been a victim of the Republicans' success in his reelection bid.
Now, we know that there were other factors at play, the concern about the casino that cost him so much in Rockingham County, maybe some concerns among Republicans that he'd been in office too long, the Medicaid expansion, some other things that the General Assembly had done in recent years that didn't seem to be quite in line with the Republican priorities that we remember from when they took over in 2011. But as you point out, there have been a lot of significant changes. The state's fiscal house has been in much better order in recent years than it was when Republicans took over. And we remember that Democrats had a multi-billion dollar debt to the federal government, that they engaged in a lot of budget shortcuts that you would say, okay, well, we're going to pay someone on this date instead of that date.
So it'll look like we have more money than we do. We'll pass a budget and then immediately after passing the budget, make some rescissions so that the budget will look like it's higher than it is, even though we don't have enough money to pay for it and we know we don't. Those sorts of budget shenanigans really went away under the Republicans. And though you can quibble with whether they have actually always stayed on point with trying to limit the growth of government, they have certainly at least early on kept to the idea of limiting the growth of government and have at least kept to the idea of limiting the growth of government in recent years. And that has been something that has helped North Carolina build its reputation and bring in a lot more people and a lot more business than we would have otherwise had we continued on the unsustainable path of Tax and then spend all the tax money you get.
And then, when you run out of the money you got from the higher taxes, raise the taxes again, which was what we saw under Democrats for many years. We'll continue the conversation with Mitch Coke from the John Locke Foundation coming up after this. You're listening to the Carolina Journal News Hour. The Bleacher Report app is your destination for sports. Right now, the NBA is heating up, March Madness is here, and MLB is almost back.
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It's 5:21. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT. Major North Carolina political news as Senate leader Phil Berger has officially conceded in his race to Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page. Mitch Coke with the John Locke Foundation continues with analysis and coverage. Mitch, the question going forward is one that you highlighted and I want to dig into with you.
We have been without a budget going all the way back to July the 1st of 2025. This has become a real black eye from my vantage point for the Republican-led North Carolina General Assembly. You've got House Speaker Destin Hall, a Republican in the House. Phil Berger, the leader in the North Carolina Senate. They've continued to argue over tax triggers and tax cuts that are set to play out in North Carolina.
The short session is set to kick up here in the next couple of weeks. How do you think we move forward on this issue that I would argue there's some growing public anxiety over of when is a budget finally going to get passed? And that also might have been a factor in the election that just cost Phil Berger his job ultimately, is the fact that some people may have looked at this and said, wait a minute, you guys are down there and can't even get a budget done. That's your only real job is to get the budget passed. And I think it remains to be seen.
From the statement that Senator Berger put out conceding the race to Sam Page, I get the impression that he is not really changing his mind about what he wants to do. Remember that the fight between the House and the Senate on the budget comes down to more than just taxes, but it's mainly taxes and what to do about the tax rates. The Senate says, look, we have this long, successful history of cutting tax rates, seeing revenues grow when we do, and then moving forward and being able to go through the process again and try to get our tax rates as low as possible so we could be as enticing as possible to people and companies from across the country who'd like to relocate to a high growth and well-run state like North Carolina. That has been the Senate's position. The House has basically said, look, because of the higher than expected inflation and because of revenue projections that are looking much less rosy than we've seen in recent years, we really need to put the brakes on these tax cuts.
We're not going to raise taxes, but we want to just keep rates where they are. And that has been a major bone of contention between the House and Senate. From Senator Brueger's statement, I don't get the impression that he's changing his mind on this, that he's looking at what has been done on taxes as part of this major change in the outlook and reputation of the state, part of his legacy as one of the initial leaders of the so-called Republican Revolution of 2011 in North Carolina. And I, based on this statement, don't think that he is going to move from where he stands on this. I don't think the House is in any mood to.
change from where it stands. And that doesn't bode well for Republicans if they don't come up with some sort of deal.
Now, maybe the politically minded folks within their camps, either they're heads of their caucuses or the people who are up for election who have potentially tight races might get to Senator Berger and Speaker Hall and say, look, you know, we got to have a budget. I mean, you got to come to some sort of deal so we can get a budget so we take that off the table. And the Democrats don't have that as a talking point as we get into November.
So maybe we see because of the need to have political wins in what is looking like it could be a strong Democratic year that they will come up with the budget and take that issue off the table for Democrats. But right now, based on the statement from Senator Berger, it doesn't look like the Senate is looking at making a major change from its stance anytime soon. Mitch, you bring up a lot of great points there, and we've seen even just over the last couple of weeks, Democrat Governor Josh Stein at a variety of different events that are not even related to a budget or fiscal responsibility or anything like that. Business announcements continuing to hammer the Republican-led General Assembly over the lack of a budget. Fortunately, North Carolina has a provision in which the government doesn't shut down like we see and saw last year in Washington, D.C.
So, while the train continues down the tracks, there's no new raises that are being doled out to state employees. Any agencies that are looking to expand or do any additional financial work do not have those resources. To the credit of Democrat Governor Josh Stein and Democrats across the state, they've done a very good job at messaging this issue. And it turns out, regardless of party lines, people want a budget passed, Mitch, to the point you made. That's what we send you to Raleigh to do.
If you can't do that, why are you even there?
Alright. Yes, and remember that most people don't know about this 2016 budget provision that allows the old budget to remain in place. And so for those who are involved in the actual budget process, they realize that it's not necessarily as big a deal as it would be in the federal government not having the new budget passed. But it is a big deal to the extent that, as you said, people can't plan for pay raises or any additional needs that have cropped up from one year to the next. They can't really plan on what's going to happen in terms of making program changes.
And so having the lack of a budget creates all sorts of problems. And not just for state government, also for local government.
So there are a number of things that need to be done. And most people, if they know. anything about the legislature know that the legislature comes to Raleigh and writes a budget. And so if the legislature comes to Raleigh and doesn't write and pass a budget, then why are they there? What are they doing?
And I think a lot of people who don't spend a whole lot of time on this will say, well, they're just up there wasting their time and our money. And so they ought to at least do the basic part of their job and finish the budget. My guess is at least the most politically minded of the people within the House and Senate Republican organizations are going to be pushing that message, at least behind the scenes, to their leaders saying, look, this can't go on as long as it has and not cost us in the election. If you want to keep the majorities and the supermajorities, then you're going to have to do something and come to some sort of agreement on what to do moving forward. It is going to be an absolutely fascinating couple of months out of the North Carolina General Assembly.
We'll keep you up to date with all the details over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. We really appreciate the analysis. Mitch Kokai from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. It's 5:35. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9, WBT.
I'm Nick Craig. Welcome back. We're tracking some statewide news this morning as the North Carolina House and the Republican leadership in the House are escalating some of their scrutiny of the state's Medicaid program. In a recent letter, they have called upon Attorney General Jeff Jackson, as well as the Health and Human Services Secretary, to testify next month on what lawmakers describe as a failure to adequately police fraud, waste, and abuse. State Representative Brendan Jones, the Republican out of Columbus County, who is the chairman of the House Select Committee on Oversight and Reform, announced the move in letters calling both officials to appear on April the 16th.
The committee is also demanding comprehensive records from both agencies covering fraud investigations, referrals, staffing, budgets, as well as interagency coordination dating back to January the 1st of 2023. If that name in Representative Jones and the House Select Committee on Oversight and Reform Sounds familiar. This is the committee that we saw a couple of times over the last few months, a grilling of state education officials over inappropriate books in the classroom. It is the same committee that hauled in Sheriff Gary McFadden and other Charlotte and Mecklenburg County officials as well, that is now calling on the AG and DHHS secretary. Jones wrote in the summary of this: Amid rampant Medicaid fraud, waste, and abuse, failures, and lack of accountability is how state agencies are safeguarding taxpayer dollars.
The hearing sets up a high-profile test for two officials in Governor Josh Stein's administration as state lawmakers probe oversight of one of the state's budget's largest components. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, Medicaid accounted for more than $35 billion in expenditures in the fiscal year. which ended June 30th of 2025. North Carolina law assigns the Department of Justice, that's the DOJ, a central role in investigating and prosecuting Medicaid fraud throughout its Medicaid Investigation Division, as well as the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. Jones' letter to Attorney General Jeff Jackson asks the AG to explain how his office is carrying out the enforcement role, including details on staffing levels, coordination with DHHS, and the use of investigation tools such as subpoenas and search warrants.
Lawmakers are also requesting detailed data on cases that are opened and closed, civil and criminal enforcement actions, referrals received, and as well as any backlogs or delays within the various investigation units. From DHHS, the committee is seeking records on audits, program integrity reviews, fraud risk assessments, as well as internal policies governing the detection and referral of suspected fraud. The request also targets communications between DHHS and the DOJ, as well as the oversight of high-cost drivers in the Medicaid program, including pharmaceutical spending and drugs like GLP-1s. The document requests are due by noon on April the 7th, just a couple of days there before the committee hearing is scheduled to take place as the oversight push continues to come, as state officials have pointed to ongoing enforcement efforts earlier this month. Month, Jackson announced the sentencing of the final defendant in a scheme that defrauded North Carolina Medicaid of more than $12.7 million, with more than $15 million in restitution ordered.
In that case, the DOJ said that its Medicaid investigation division used various pieces from data analysis as well as coordinating with state and federal partners to undercover fraudulent billing practices that were taking place.
However, Representative Brendan Jones suggests that lawmakers believe more aggressive oversight may be needed or that existing means are not being fully utilized. Jones wrote in his letter to Jackson: the public has a right to expect that these authorities are used fully and aggressively to identify and pursue fraud and hold bad actors accountable. The April hearing is expected to focus not only on enforcement outcomes, but also show on how the The two agencies coordinate with one another. Both letters request communications, agreements, and protocols governing how DHHS refers suspected fraud to the Department of Justice and how cases are investigated and prosecuted. From the DHHS side, lawmakers are asking for details on how the agency identifies high-risk areas within Medicaid and on safeguards that are currently in place to prevent abuse across the program's various components, including things like managed care and pharmaceutical spending.
The new oversight push also builds on the concerns raised during a recent legislative hearing on sharply rising Medicaid spending for autism therapy. We covered this yesterday morning right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Earlier this month, lawmakers examined data showing spending on applied behavioral health analysis, also known as ABA, as well as some related services, and how that is expected to surge from $121.7 million worth of spending in 2022 to a whopping $1.1 billion by 2027. For those keeping track of the math at home, that is roughly a 425% increase, while the number of children receiving services has also climbed alongside increases in the intensity of care. The growth just in those numbers has prompted some level of bipartisan concern about both cost and oversight as lawmakers are now questioning whether existing safeguards are sufficient, with some noting that spending increases appear to outpace underlying diagnosis, raising questions that the services are not necessarily always being used appropriately.
State and federal officials are already investigating the issue. The state auditor has launched a detailed review of some of these ABA autism therapy spendings in North Carolina, while federal auditors have also identified improper payments and documentation failure in similar programs that are taking place in other states across the U.S. Those same themes, rapid spending growth, oversight gaps, and potential misuse of funds now appear to be driving the North Carolina House Oversight Committee's broader inquiry.
So this is going to be a very interesting hearing that we are likely to watch play out on April the 16th as Democrat Attorney General Jeff Jackson and the head of the, or the secretary, I should say, of health and human services, DHHS, have been asked to appear in front of the House Oversight Committee. That is co-chaired by Representative Brendan Jones, the Republican out of Columbus County. You can read not only more. On this ABA therapy that we talked about yesterday and some of the 425% increase in spending, but also more from this letter from House lawmakers. All of those details over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com.
The story's headline: North Carolina House Lawmakers Call for AGDHHS testimony on Medicaid. Good morning again. It's 5:50. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9. WBT.
We are tracking some interesting news out of southeastern North Carolina. An issue going on in New Hanover County with their brand new elections director. After less than three months on the job, Denae Harris, the recently hired New Hanover County Board of Elections Director, is currently in the process of being terminated by the same board who hired her. During a specially called meeting back on Monday, that was March the 23rd. The board immediately went into a nearly three-hour long closed session to discuss personnel matters as it relates to Harris.
After returning to public session, the board chair and Jamie Getty stated that Harris would remain on administrative leave and that the decision was not only bipartisan but unanimous on the board. It is a five-member board. Three Republicans, two Democrats. Getty stated during the public comment: Director, the director will remain on administrative leave until the conclusion of this review of this matter. This was a bipartisan and unanimous decision.
Harris previously served as the director of elections and general registrar for Charles City County in Virginia. And as first was reported by WHQR public media, Harris's relationship with county staff was troubled from the start. Marked by allegations of email tampering, unauthorized access to election facilities, communication breakdowns, and other conflicts. Harris then went on to file an HR complaint with the county alleging that her email was being monitored, manipulated, and erased. She wrote in the complaint, quote, my emails are being deleted without being sent.
My emails are also being diverted to drafts and not sent. And I'm also noticing emails being opened and deleted. I have 191 emails deleted just today alone. My internal I.T. noticed this as well.
This is illegal, and I am requesting assistance on this immediately. The escalating tensions led board leadership to publicly address the controversy and distance itself from the director's actions. With sources close to the situation telling Carolina Journal that the board is currently in the process of filing a petition with the North Carolina State Board of Elections to remove Harris, who, as I mentioned, has only been on the job about three months. Getty also said during the statement on Monday: this board takes the confidentiality of personnel and personnel matters seriously.
However, we cannot control if the election director chooses to waive her confidentiality, but this board will continue to be bound by the law. First, public comments by election staff that disparage fellow county employees and public servants are unacceptable to this board. Getty then went on to apologize for Harris's comments, saying, quote, the board did not authorize nor does it endorse any such communications. To those whose characters and public service were maligned, we offer our sincerest apologies. After allegedly failing to report to work, deputies with the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office went to the brand new election director's home to retrieve her laptop, which was then turned over to the county for a forensic review.
A third-party review by two different cybersecurity firms which had access to the device found no evidence of tampering or access, not backing up any of the claims that Harris made. Getty also said in the statement, just eight months ago, this board was seated as the guardians of election administration in New Hanover County. Since that time, on a bipartisan basis, we have made significant progress in improving transparency, election security, and delivering of election services to the people of this county. We have successfully conducted two elections and were aided by the efforts of the county manager's office and other senior county officials. We thank them for working with this board to improve elections in New Hanover County despite a Prior history of division between the county and election leadership.
We are proud that these days are behind us and we will not go back. It is unclear when the petition will be officially filed, but state law does outline the process with a majority vote of the local board to petition for the director's removal. That is then sent to the state board of elections, more specifically the executive director, and that is currently Sam Hayes, who must notify the county director who has 15 days to respond to the petition. Then the executive director has 20 days to issue a decision, followed by a 20-day window for the state board of elections, the overall state board of elections, to intervene before it becomes final.
So that is a very interesting story unfolding in New Hanover County with the brand new elections director. You can read additional details by visiting our website, CarolinaJournal.com. Look for the story with the headline, New Hanover Elections Director on leave as board moves towards removal. Recapping our big breaking news on this Wednesday morning, the The longest modern serving leader in the North Carolina Senate, Phil Berger, has officially conceded in Senate District 26. That was a very tight race between himself and Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page.
A 23-vote margin is what we have been following over the last week and a half or so. A partial hand-eye recount taking place in both Rockingham and Guilford counties yesterday. With there being no discrepancies, no issues with the nearly 1,300 ballots that were counted as part of the recounted, I should say, as part of that sample hand-eye recount. Berger, not long after the recounts were official, put out a statement on social media saying, while this race was close, the voters have spoken, and I congratulate Sheriff Page on his victory. This has been a very interesting process to watch play out over the last couple of weeks.
There was some concern from officials across the state that Berger would decide to take this into a lengthy legal challenge. He has decided not to do that. Conceding that race, he will serve in the term, which runs all the way through the end of 2026. It will be Sheriff Sam Page, who will be the Republican on the ballot coming up in November of this year, looking to officially win entry into the North Carolina General Assembly. We will have continued coverage of this.
We've got...
Some statements from other state lawmakers, as well as all of those details and continued coverage over on our website this morning, CarolinaJournal.com. That's going to do it for a Wednesday edition. WBT News is next. Followed by Good Morning BT. We're back with you tomorrow morning, 5 to 6, right here on Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9, WBT.
