It's five oh five, and welcome into a Monday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour on Charlotte's FM News Talk one hundred seven point nine FM. WBT. I am Nick Craig. Good morning to you.
Well, for months we have been telling you that the North Carolina General Assembly was not slated to come back to Raleigh and do any additional work or pass any additional legislation until after the November the third midterm elections.
However, that all changed this weekend as Senate Leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Destin Hall both took to social media on Saturday, saying that they have agreed to call the North Carolina General Assembly into a special. Session to provide relief from high gas and diesel prices across North Carolina. Details on when exactly lawmakers are going to come back and what exactly they're going to do does remain unclear as of this morning.
However, more and more evidence leading to votes this week, potentially as early as Wednesday. Burger wrote in part: "North Carolina families and farmers are feeling the impacts of rising fuel costs every day. They need real relief, and they need it now." House Speaker Destin Hall said that the rising fuel costs are squeezing North Carolina's families' pocketbooks and creating challenges for farmers across the state, noting that North Carolinians can't afford to wait. The gas tax is the most obvious. A thing that the lawmakers could move forward with.
The state's rate is around forty-one cents a gallon, with AAA putting the statewide average for regular at four dollars and two cents as of this morning, which is below the national average, which which currently sits at four thirty-six. Diesel at six o three after a September peak around six twenty-five. Suspending the state's gas tax now they could either suspend it wholly or cut a certain a number of cents off of it. But if they went with a full suspension of the gas tax, that would take roughly forty one cents off a gallon of gas, which as of right now would drop it to around three sixty a gallon, which is still well above where those prices were a year ago. The federal gas tax is eighteen dollars and four cents on regular unleaded gasoline.
A twenty Four point four cents on diesel. Obviously, that is outside of the general assembly's reach. Members are already talking in those terms. We saw a plethora of posts on social media over the weekend from Republicans in the North Carolina General Assembly encouraging Hall and Berger to call and convene a special session of the legislature. We did also see some of our neighboring states.
A Georgia Governor Brian Kemp suspended the state's gas tax for 30 days back last week. That runs through the end. Of October and the money, well, it's not set to be small. The fiscal year twenty six twenty seven budget expects the gas tax to bring in just under two point six billion dollars for the highway fund and the highway trust fund. The Department of Transportation's combined budget is about almost six billion dollars in the state budget, and the fuel taxes, of course, are a main way for the the department or the the DOT to a Income and it is a main.
It is the main road building and maintenance source of revenue across the state. A suspension would likely have to be backfilled, time limited, or paired with a cut somewhere else. We expect to learn more details from lawmakers this week. Prices have been consistently climbing on gasoline since February, when fighting involving Iran went forward and caused a major. Disruption in traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
Diesel has roughly doubled from a year ago, in some local reports, and the that war continues to rage in the Middle East with no end in sight. As state lawmakers now, as we saw in Georgia, and could potentially see here in North Carolina this week, look to provide some level of relief. Leaders to this point have not set an official start date or said whether they would cut the full gas. A partial rollback or any sort of temporary suspension. We will be awaiting details from lawmakers, potentially as soon as today, with votes taking place in Raleigh this week.
We'll be keeping a close eye on those details throughout the day. We'll have the breaking news as we find out about it over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. In some other statewide news this morning, the Senate Leadership Fund, known as the SLF, has paused further ad spending in North Carolina on the highly important U.S. Senate race between former North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper and Republican nominee Michael Wattley, who formerly served as the head of the RNC and the North Carolina Republican Party, after spending more than thirty million dollars. On the race, the Senate leadership fund is putting further ad spending in, pulling further ad spending in the state and moving some of those dollars to other high-profile Senate races across the state, across the country.
I should say, Andy Jackson, the director of the Civitas Center for Public Integrity at the John Locke Foundation, told the Carolina Journal there have been adjustments in independent expenditures earlier in this race. This looks like a real withdraw.
However, while the gap between Watley and Cooper will almost certainly diminish in the closing weeks of this campaign, it is a sign that national Republicans believe that Watley cannot close it enough to win. This also clears the way for Democrats to spend their money elsewhere, according to Semaphore Magazine, who reported this on Friday. According to Ad Impact, a Trump-aligned group, also Has no further scheduled spending in North Carolina past last week. A spokesperson for the Senate Majority Pack told the Carolina Journal: "Senate Republicans are bailing on North Carolina after sinking more than thirty million dollars into Michael Wattley. Their top tier pack just hit pause in North Carolina, abandoning a fundamentally flawed candidate who was unable to make any sort of compelling case to." Families.
Watley is a D.C. political insider who is extremely unpopular in North Carolina after failing Western North Carolina families following Helene appointing a child sex predator to political office and cashing in on rake heights that drove up North Carolinians' electric bills. Those comments coming from the major Democrat pack, the Senate majority pack. No surprise there. Hammering Watley while the Senate.
Leadership Fund, the Republican arm, has paused ad spending in North Carolina. It does plan to invest seven figures in. In Kansas, in a race between Republican incumbent Senator Mike Senator Roger Marshall and Democrat nominee Adam Hamilton, the decision to bolster Marshall while scaling back ad spending in North Carolina signals a significant shifting in the Senate battlefield as Watley faces a difficult contest against Cooper, according to numerous polls that we have seen over the last couple. Of weeks, the shift also follows another Republican group's decision last week to reduce its North Carolina advertising reservation by millions of dollars in the weeks leading up to the election. At the same time, some GOP strategists have encouraged allied groups to direct more resources towards other Senate contests, according to a regional press secretary for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
The NRSC that is Nick Puglia. He told the Carolina Journal, "Roy Cooper spent 40 years in office enriching himself while pushing healthcare costs to the highest in the nation and releasing of violent criminals from prison early." Michael Wattley will put North Carolina families first by cutting taxes and keeping criminals locked up. Going back to our most recent Carolina Journal poll that was released on September the seventeenth, Cooper in our poll holds a fifteen point one percent lead at forty nine point two percent of likely North Carolina voters saying that they would intend to vote for Cooper, while thirty four point one percent said that they would vote for Watley, the Libertarian candidate, and Shannon Bray receiving two point nine percent. Green Party candidate Michael Du. Dublin at one point five percent and twelve point three percent of the voters remaining undecided.
That poll surveyed six hundred and eight likely voters across North Carolina, with a margin of error of plus or minus about four percentage points. Even adding a full four point margin of error, it is still a very high ceiling for Cooper at this point and a huge disadvantage. For Watley, the major news a tracking over the weekend. The Senate leadership fund announcing that they will not be spending any additional dollars in North Carolina, at least as of right now. The group had already spent more than thirty million dollars on the race.
Presumably, that has to do with some of these polling numbers that we've been tracking over the last couple of weeks. Early voting kicks off a week from a Thursday. We will continue to track everything as it relates to the midterm. And of course, this a highly important and majorly talked about U.S. Senate race between Cooper and Watley.
We'll keep you up to date with all the details right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour, and always as over on our website, carolinajournal dot com. Without LifeLock, fixing identity theft on your own sounds a lot like this. There are There are seventy-seven callers ahead of you. That's why LifeLock has experts who make the endless calls if your identity is stolen, so you won't have to, and restores your identity backed by up to three million dollars in coverage. There are seventy-three callers ahead of you.
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Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, one hundred seven point nine FM, WB T. Don't forget if you miss any any of our program here this morning, you can head on over to your favorite podcast app, search for the Carolina Journal News Hour. You can also watch the show live and on demand over on our Carolina Journal YouTube channel.
Some pretty big news out of Washington D.C. Congress has approved legislation off. Authorizing the federal land transfer needed for a new state veterans home near Fort Bragg. The legislation advances the forty million dollar Fayetteville Veterans Home project authorized in the North Carolina state budget over the summer. The facility would provide long-term nursing and residential care to eligible veterans.
The U.S. Senate unanimously passed House Resolution ten fifty-nine on September the twenty-ninth, authorizing the Army to transfer approximately twenty. Acres of Fort Bragg property in Harnett County to the state of North Carolina for the construction of the new veterans' home. The House approved the legislation on September the fourteenth, which then, of course, sent its way and made its way to President Donald Trump's desk for a signature. The federal action follows approval of the project at the state level.
North Carolina Governor Josh Stein signed Senate Bill two fifty seven that was. North Carolina's biennial state budget into law back on July the seventh. The budget authorizes up to forty million dollars from the state capital and infrastructure fund for the Fayetteville Veterans Home project. The connection between the two measures is written directly into the state budget. State funding for the project is in was only contingent on the Department of Military and Veteran Affairs and Entering into an agreement with a federal agency to acquire property for the construction of the new veterans' home, the congressional legislation authorizing the Fort Bragg land transfer would authorize the Army to convey to convey that property and move it to the state.
The budget capital schedule anticipates ten million dollars for the project in the twenty six twenty seven fiscal year and. Then another thirty million dollars in the twenty-seven, twenty-eight fiscal year. With the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs required to repay the amount from the North Carolina Veterans Home Trust Fund in annual installments beginning the first year after construction is completely done, the governor highlighted the connection between the state budget and congressional action after the Senate vote, saying in a in part during a press release, "These brave men and women put their lives." On the line to defend our country and our freedoms, and our commitments to them must not end when their service does. This new facility will give veterans a home with access to care that they need. I thank our congressional delegation for their leadership in securing this land transfer.
U.S. Representative Richard Hudson, the one of the Republican Senator, Congressman, excuse me, here in North Carolina, introduced the House Land Transfer Legislation in August. With remaining members of North Carolina's bipartisan House delegation joining the legislation as co-sponsors. On the Senate side, Ted Budd sponsored the Senate version of the Fort Bragg Land Transfer for Veterans Act before the Senate. Ultimately passed Hudson's House bill, according to details from Senator Ted Budd.
In a statement, he writes, "North Carolina is the proud home of more than six hundred and twenty thousand veterans, and we have a responsibility to provide them with quality care that they have earned." After the Fayetteville State Veterans Home closed in twenty twenty four, our state lost critical capacity to care for our Veterans. Bud said that building the new facility near Fort Bragg would help replace some of that lost capacity. The former, the facility I just mentioned, the Fayetteville State Veterans Home, was a 150-bed facility located on the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs medical campus. State officials decided to close the home after identifying significant structural deficiencies and major repairs that needed to be completed.
It's a Five residents were relocated in early 2024. At that time, the Department of Military and Veteran Affairs estimated repairs would cost more than 20 million dollars and announced plans to, instead of completing those construction or repair projects, just replace the facility. The department later recommended renovating the existing building in late 2024, but the state budget enacted this summer instead authorized the new Fayetteville Veterans Home project and funding for a replacement facility. Congressman Hudson said, following the Senate's passage of his legislation, our veterans keep their promise to serve, and we have a responsibility to keep our promise to take care of them. With today's unanimous Senate passage, we are one step away from getting this bill signed into law and moving forward with a new veterans' home near Fort Bragg.
Under the House resolution, the approximately 20-acre parcel would be transferred to North Carolina at no purchase price. The property could revert to the federal government if is no longer used or activity related to the veterans' home does not materialize once this. This legislation is signed by President Donald Trump, which we do expect. The legislation would clear the federal land transfer requirement built into the state's authorization for the project, which would essentially greenlight allowing North Carolina to move forward with permitting and construction of the new facility. State veteran homes trace their roots to the post Civil War era and provide long-term skilled nursing care in a more residential setting.
North Carolina's homes offer twenty-four hour nursing care, rehabilitation therapies, dietary care, social services, and assistance with obtaining veteran benefits. Eligible veterans generally must have served on active duty for a purpose other than training. Received an honorable discharge. Lived in North Carolina for the previous two years. In need care because of age, illness, or disability.
This is a major announcement. This has been in the works and been a hot topic of discussion going all the way back to early 2024 when we learned about the closing of that previous facility near Fort Bragg in and around the Fayetteville area. While the legislation officially passed the U.S. Senate on September the 29th, we have not seen any action on it yet from President Donald Trump.
However, according to our sources over at the Carolina Journal, there is some discussion, and it is expected to be dealt with in the next couple of weeks.
So we will watch that take place, and then of course to see what the state brings forward in terms of actually bringing this brand new Fayetteville Veterans Home project from. From lines in the state budget to practicality, you can read more coverage of this story over on our website this morning, CarolinaJournal dot com. Look for the headline: Congress clears Fort Bragg land transfer for new NC veterans' home. My brother had his identity stolen. My neighbor did too.
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Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, one hundred seven point nine FM, WBT. I'm Nick Craig. Good Monday morning to you. Continuing our coverage of the twenty twenty-six midterm elections, we've got a very interesting story this morning over on our website, carolinajournal dot com. A group that focuses on election integrity out of the state of Virginia has identified.
More than twelve hundred duplicate voter registrations here in North Carolina. To walks through some of the details this morning, Teresa Opeka, CarolinaJournal dot com joins us on the News Hour. Teresa, we know election integrity's been all the rage over the last couple of years. Walks through some of the details out of this report out of Virginia. Yeah.
Good morning, Nick. Thanks for having me. Yeah, it's a very important issue. It's been brought to light for the last few years, and rightly so. And now with the November third's general election approaching, it's really an important issue as we get down to the wire.
So this group, which is called the Public Interest Legal Foundation, out of Alexandria, Virginia, and basically they're a public interest law firm that's focused on election and. Integrity. They said they have identified more than 1,200 duplicate voter registration records on North Carolina's voter rolls in ten of the state's largest counties. And to give you a perspective, Guilford and Cumberland counties had more than 50 percent of those duplicate registrations. Guilford has the Greensboro area, Cumberland is the Fayetteville area.
So we did talk to the research director for that organization last week. Oh. And basically said, duplicate registrations they stem from the same person being registered multiple times under variations of their own name. Could be a nickname. Could be that they left off their middle initial.
It could be you know spaces. There's all different reasons as to why. Another reason he said is because maybe they went ahead and registered to vote at the DMV. They've since moved.
Some canvasser walks up to them and says. Hey, would you like to vote? And they're like, "Oh yeah, you know, I moved. It better better do that." So they re-register to vote, and maybe they don't feel secure in putting their social security number down on the clipboard, and that's how another duplicate registration gets created because well, they're leaving off part of the very important information like the social. And this is just one of the examples that was given.
So it's could be a Pretty common, you know, problem, and maybe people aren't doing it on purpose, but it does happen. You know, Teresa, you have the pleasure of following a lot of the state board of election meetings that happen here in North Carolina. One of the things that they talk about, and we see this, and maybe I'll note this before we continue: there are 100 counties here in North Carolina, and each county has their own board of elections, their own elections director. They all run their own individual elections, but Teresa, they do something that is called list maintenance throughout the the entire year. It is a consistent task.
That we see that takes place. I was under the impression that these list maintenance activities were supposed to deal with things like duplicate registrations. Obviously, one of the other reasons that somebody would get removed from the voter rolls, of course, is if they pass away; they're no longer obviously going to be able to vote. Why was some of this stuff not caught? Yeah, yeah, that's that's a good question.
Not entirely sure. Basically, it. That you said they should be keeping up on all of that, but you know, one point he and his name, by the way, we're we're talking about him, Logan Churchwell. He is the research director for the Public Interest Legal Foundation. You know, he did point out that you know North Carolina is a dynamic state.
There is so many people moving around the state. That might be a problem as to the reason why, but I'm not entirely sure if if the you know the voter rolls are supposed to be taken care of at the county level why they're not keeping up with it. You know, it could be a mix of you know they're getting new employees and they're just not you know keeping up on everything. That might be a possibility as well, but nothing entirely was pointed out as to why they're not, but should be. Yeah, and we'll of course we continue to see some of those reports, Teresa.
This is not the first time that this organization that we're talking about, out of Alexandria, Virginia, the Public Interest Legal Foundation. This is not the first time that they've had some engagement here in North Carolina, is it? No, no. In fact, it dates back. They said they've been watching North Carolina and other states since 2019, but they called out the state in March of 2022 to clean up its voter rolls before the 2022 election.
Back then, they raised concerns about dead people on the voting rolls. The group reported about almost 8,000 people were still registered to vote in North Carolina in 2020, quote, long after death. It's a lot of people. Other issues they had: they were registered in more than one state, and also they left a state or renewed out-of-state voter registrations before 2020 election. Also, same issues going on right now: duplicate registrations.
They also. They also went in August of 2025, contacted the state board over several issues, including almost 30 thousand interstate duplicate registrants, over almost 13 thousand of same address duplicate and triplicate registrants, not just duplicate. Yeah, yeah, and and also fictitious dates of birth and placeholders.
So yeah, they've been you know on the ball as well as other organizations and contacting the state and. Then it was an entirely different made up. The state board was made up of different people. There was some of the same members, but there was a different executive director at that time. And really, since last year, and this was also noted by Logan Church.
Well, since Sam Hayes and the Newport took over last year, they've been really cracking down on trying to eliminate things like this. And it wasn't a slap on the hand. Basically, he said, you know, North Carolina is doing a good job since that. Voter, the registration repair project was put in place last year. A lot of things have been corrected, but just wanted to let them know about this.
He said they wanted to make them aware of the issues that they found. But yeah, a lot of things have been cleaned up. But yeah, it seems like the voter rules were in much worse shape over the past few years.
Well, Teresa, let's. I think it's only fair if we dive a little bit deeper into that. We covered back last year due to some changes in the North Carolina legislature. The appointment authority for the five-member North Carolina State Board of Elections went from the governor, who had previously been a Democrat and is currently a Democrat, to the state auditor, that is currently Republican Dave Bolick.
So, as you have reported to us numerous times over the last couple of months, many of those votes. Are three to two, the three Republicans voting in favor, the two Democrats voting against, and I think it's accurate to say, from a national level, these discussions over election integrity and voter rolls have been a major talking point for those within the GOP. Yes, they have. They have. You know, that's a definite point that has been brought up several times nationally and locally, and yeah, it, it, it.
You know, it's a You know, you hear the Democrats on the board now saying, "Well, this isn't fair, this is wrong, or whatever the point is." But you just have to flip it back to when it was the the opposite. You know, right? We had three to two with Democrats versus Republicans.
So, but then again, you you take a look at all the issues that were on that board at that time, as we just mentioned, and yeah, it's it's been a real problem. Voter integrity has been a very very. Popular issue, and again, rightly so. We've, you know, at Carolina Journal and also the John Locke Foundation's talked about this in for the many for the past many situations the past few years.
So, yeah, that is definitely something that's on the local, state, and national radar.
Well, and it's also important to note that under the previous Board of Elections, there was an issue for I guess about a decade, as I remember it, Teresa, as it related to the voter registration form. There was some information that should have been required. I believe it was either the last four of your social security number or the full driver's license. The form didn't make it immediately clear whether that was something that was optional or something that was mandatory, and that led to hundreds of thousands of people being. Registered without that information, as you mentioned a little bit earlier, that registration repair project that the state board has been recently rolling out.
Yeah, yeah, and that's partially why that came about, and that came about from a regular voter, Carol Snow, who noticed that on her own. You know, the missing information that should have been there, or information that maybe shouldn't have been there, that was brought up by her, and you know, she received a lot of significant heat over that. But it turns out that was the right action, the right thing to do, and alerting the state board about that.
So yeah, it just points to back to election integrity. We're talking about this group out of Virginia, the the Public Interest Legal Foundation. They're based in Alexandria, discussing and bringing forth some information about twelve hundred duplicate voter registrations here in North Carolina. Teresa, from your understanding, have they engaged with the state Board of Elections and provided them some of this information? And have we heard anything from the board?
Yes, they have sent them a letter alerting them to to this, alerting them about the ten counties. They also cede the other county boards, the county boards of elections, and make sure they got that letter as well to let them know about that. And they expect a response by October thirteenth. Otherwise, they would have to go a little bit further and request.
Some more information at that point. Did talk to Jason Tyson, who is a spokesman for the state election board, said that they were currently drafting a letter, should be getting that letter out to them in time. And what happens after that is they'll all sit down and meet with each other, where they can point out, you know, from the this organization from Virginia can point out what they found exactly, taken through a step by step process in order to help, you know, the state board fix this. Or maybe maybe as they were saying, put a patch on it. There may not be enough time to fix everything before the election, but they want to make sure that they're fully aware of it and try to get as much as much as this taken care of as possible before November's election.
Yeah, and we do know that when you get, I think it's within what a 90-day window of the election, Teresa. There are a lot of rules and regulations as it relates to those voter rolls. I guess the next step is we'll see a response here from the North Carolina State Board of Elections. We've got continuing coverage of this story over on our website this morning, CarolinaJournal.com. We appreciate the update.
Teresa Opeka joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Your information may be for sale online. You'll take four social security numbers and a maiden name. LifeLock finds and removes exposed info from data brokers that could put your identity and finances at risk. Nine email addresses, please.
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Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, one hundred seven point nine FM, WBT. Recapping our big story this morning, we were not expecting any legislative action between now and after the November the third midterm election.
However, Senate Leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Destin Hall both took to social media over the Weekend on Saturday, announcing that they have agreed to call a special session of the North Carolina General Assembly to provide relief from high gas and diesel prices across the state of North Carolina. While the details on the calendar and when exactly those votes will happen is not immediately clear as of just a few minutes before six o'clock on this Monday morning, all evidence leads to lawmakers making their way back to Raleigh. Within the next couple of days, with votes happening potentially as early as Wednesday, Berger said in a statement, "North Carolina families and farmers are feeling the impacts of rising fuel costs every day. They need relief, and they need it now." House Speaker Destin Hall echoing some of those same comments and arguing that rising fuel costs are squeezing North Carolina families' pocketbooks and creating challenges for farmers across the state. Also noting that North Carolinians cannot afford to wait.
The gas tax in North Carolina is around forty-one cents.
Now, lawmakers could decide to suspend the entire gas tax, or, for example, they could decide to suspend half of that gas tax. It's not immediately clear. Exactly what levers they will pull, but with the statewide average currently at four dollars and two cents a gallon, we could see some major relief across the state of North Carolina gas into the mid threes if they decided to suspend the entirety of the forty-one cent gas tax. We'll be tracking that throughout the day. We'll have a continuing coverage over on our website carolinajournal.com, and of course tomorrow morning right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
That's going to do it for a Monday edition. WBT News is next, followed by Good Morning BT. We're back with you tomorrow morning, five to six, right here on Charlotte's FM News Talk, one hundred seven point nine FM, WBT.
