A McCrory power play? (Gov.’s team pushing Ricky Diaz for top NCGOP staff post.)
Young Ricky Diaz of New Jersey has certainly caught the fancy of North Carolina’s Republican governor. He was Pat McCrory’s campaign spokesman in 2012. Diaz was the governor’s spokesman for a while, before heading over to NC DHHS — where he left amid controversy.
Now, after a short stay in DC, Ricky’s back in Raleigh at NCGOP HQ. Today, Raleigh insiders informed us that power players — ranging from the governor to Speaker Tim Moore to State Rep. David Lewis — are playing hardball behind the scenes to get Diaz installed in the executive director post being vacated by Todd Poole.
It’s an interesting move with not-so-great timing, since the party is already roiled with dissension about some other party staff hires. 
Said one insider:
“The governor’s choice for party chairman got stomped at the state convention. That should have sent him a loud and clear message about needing to work on his relations with the party’s grassroots.
Instead, the governor and his team are trying to tie the new chairman’s hands, install their own loyalists as staffers, and sit the chairman in the corner while they run the party how they see fit.
This guy Diaz is not qualified. He wasn’t qualified to speak for DHHS. He’s not qualified to speak for the party. Why does the governor keep investing so much political capital in him? Why does he go to the mat for him so often? He may get his young friend another job, but he risks a full-blown war with party conservatives in the run-up to campaign season. ”
My sources tell me the strategy is to do an end-run on the party’s central committee and executive committee. Explained another insider:
“The governor will say ‘This is my guy.’ Moore and Lewis and Dollar will say ‘This is Pat’s guy.’ And they’re hoping that will be enough to shut up the boo-birds. We’ll see.”
Our governor better be listing to the voters. The ” SILENT MAJORITY” is rising up and will be heard in NC. Your moderate behavior is not sitting well with your “worker bees”.
Seeing Republican activists appointed to policy level positions in state government would help fire up the troops, but unfortunately, we are seeing little of that compared to previous GOP governors. We are seeing too many democrats and independents in those positions. Instead, he wants to put someone with no relevant experience in the NCGOP as its executive director where he has absolutely no business interfering..
Who is advising McCrory on this idiocy? He will see his support among party activists seriously deteriorate. Tim Moore is already seen as the stinking left wing Obama Republican that he is. He does not need to have any control over the party apparatus. In fact, he needs to be dumped as Speaker as badly as that Obama Republican traitor Boehner needs to be dumped in the US House.
And Lewis needs to be GONE GONE GONE when he comes up again for National Committeeman next year. He is a left wing Obama Republican both in the party and in the legislature. It was good to hear he will have primary opposition for his legislative seat.
The North Carolina Republican Party certainly does not need a damnyankee from New Jersey as our ED. That would be an outrage to the grassroots.
I think the Diaz fellow could do a good job. The guy is from Jesey and it’s a good proving ground. But it’s not the Govs choice and the gov ought to stay out of it or at least reach out to the party chair for someone they can all agree on. Plus the way he left HHS would discredit him before he started.
Well i think he better worry more about his own reelection and leave the NCGOP state office alone.
NCGOP has for at least from Hayes forward has been totally useless at the local level, both District and County. No leadership just cliche. I was hope the upset apple cart of the convention would get rid of a few rotten apples, but like national level trend with Trump, we need a complete reboot to get the crony Republicans out of the NCGOP.
In fact I suspect, should Trump win the nomination. The NCGOP elite will just watch from the sidelines. When it comes to McCrory’s re-election, I will on the sidelines as well.
This blog entry couldn’t be farther from the truth on this issue. I’m not sure who the Haymaker keeps getting their “insder info” from, but it has been incorrect on just about every post regarding the NCGOP and its Central Committee lately.
The depth from left field in which this Diaz rumor comes from makes me wonder if someone fed false info to this “insider” in order to try to smoke out who leaked info from the closed Cent Comm session to the Haymaker a couple weeks ago…
We were wrong on the central committee meeting, but someone is trying to smoke out who leaked that info to us???? Why would they care about a leak if we were so wrong?
Please elaborate on what you know. We’d love to get the scoop straight from the campus of brunswick community college.
This Sundays central committee meeting is not gonna go well again for Mr. Hasan and Ms Nix. The CC wants to do a professional search for the ED spot. Hasan has said that they have a candidate and want the CC to higher him. The candidate Hasan wants is Chad Adams
I hear the whip total is 3 for him and 25 against making a hire on sunday….
This is the false rumor that Vice Chair Nix started…… she is trying to do Psyops at a second grade level.
How amusing. Someone engaged on this board in attempted Psychops tries to accuse someone else of it! Someone who hits this board with false rumors accuses someone else of false rumors.
Another false rumor is yours about Chad Adams above. Chad Adams is an old Dee Stewart whipping boy, who did have his problems, but not to the extent of the distortions, half truths, and outright lies Stewart told about him. Distortions half truths, and outright lies to smear an opponent have always been Stewart’s stock in trade.
You only showed up here recently to attack the new chairman and vice chairman. You use a common Stewart subterfuge of using a conservative-sounding user name in order to attack conservatives. You first tried to sound like a disappointed conservative, but now that mask is clearly off.
Stewart and the establishment are clearly still fighting the convention, but in a guerrilla warfare mode now. led by David Lewis. Having a Dee Stewart associate sitting in headquarters as Political Director is something the party does not need at present.
So the governor wants to put in an unqualified hack as NCGOP ED? This guy has never held political responsibilities anywhere near as important as running the day to day affairs of a statewide political party. Spokesman for a campaign? That is no experience for running a party organization. An overpaid sinecure in state government? Again that gives no qualifications to run a statewide party organization. David Lewis backing this nonsense also tells you all you need to know about David Lewis.
First that crowd gives us an extremely liberal lobbyist with no fundraising experience as Finance Director, now they want to put in this dud as ED? Are they hell bent on destroying the NCGOP?
The situation at NC GOP headquarters is very bad indeed. McCrory has split the party and the results are being felt all over the state and, of course, at the headquarters.
Pat has done the same thing to the State party that he did in Mecklenburg which is split the party. Ask anyone about Pat and his days as the Charlotte mayor and they’ll tell you one thing for sure he’s not a conservative. I defied everyone they told me Pat was a liberal because I wanted Republican governor so much in my heart. Now that the party is being ripped to shreds by bad decisions from our governor, I can only say that I see we might be better off with a democrat. ( God forgive me I never thought I would confess that )
I’m sure many will apply for the NCGOP ED position and am hoping the
central committee has not made up its mind yet. I will be submitting
my resume and feel my background is a perfect match for the position.
Over the past 30 years I have gained the broad range of skills needed
in this position. My professional history
includes; U.S. Navy Intelligence officer, Managing Director at
SunTrust Banks, County Commissioner, Chairman of the Chatham County
Republican Party, and small business owner.
My professional background has not only given me leadership experience
with professionals and volunteers but also provided me with specific
skills that will be necessary to ensure Republican victories in 2016.
Some of the skills I can bring to the position include; fund raising,
communication, campaign management, finance/budgeting, and strategic
planning.
I have had the pleasure of working at the grassroots level on several
Republican campaigns. I know
the power of grassroots campaigning and the necessity of a
well-organized party structure that is attuned to everyday
Republicans.
I am hoping to get an interview with the central committee to explain
in greater detail my qualifications.
PLEASE LET IT BE CHAD.
The established practice going back at least to the 1960s is for the chairman to interview candidates and submit one or more names of those he can work with to the Central Committee. Other than the last chairman, the general practice has been for the chairman to submit one name, with that person available for additional interview by the Central Committee..
It is unusual for the National Committeeman or the House Speaker or any other member of the Central Committee to inject themselves into the process.
I like Pope’s procedure two years ago of submitting more than one name for consideration by the Central Committee. I would like to see multiple names who first pass muster with the chairman to be submitted by him to the Central Committee.
There are factors to consider on the timeframe involved here. One is that the position will be vacant in a couple of weeks and with recent hires, other staff that could serve as acting ED are themselves highly controversial. The other is that there should be an opportunity for qualified North Carolina Republicans to submit their resumes for consideration by the chairman and then the Central Committee. Perhaps finding someone who could serve as Acting ED for a couple of months would be appropriate.
One thing North Carolina does not need is candidates sent down by RNC. We have qualified people in our own state, whose loyalty in the the NCGOP rather than RNC.
I hope you will submit your resume for ED
It looks like Brant was spot on when he told us after the convention that the establishment was still plotting to marginalize the new chairman, and that David Lewis was one of the ringleaders of that effort.
What has been surprising to me has been the major role of Todd Poole.
Todd Poole really pulled a fast one in hiring two people he had to know would be very controversial in key positions, putting out a press release on that, and then quickly resigning himself. He was also clearly involved in setting up a straw man ploy to try to tie the chairman to the most controversial of those appointments. Making those screen shots, making copies of them, and passing them out, shows his premeditation in this scheme. That also permitted Poole and Lewis to pull the wool over the eyes of the Central Committee to divert discussion from the real issue of whether those two should have been hired, given their background, to the frivolous issue of whether the chairman had any knowledge of the consideration of one of them. The Central Committee was dumb enough to fall for that ruse.
It was the ED who interviewed and vetted these people, not the chairman. Poole, not Harnett,is the one who knew or should have known of the reasons they should not have been hired, yet he hired them anyway.
It would be interesting to learn the details of how they set Harnett up on this controversy. The screen shots Poole passed out show that Harnett mentioned the name of Shumaker in connection with the candidacy of the Finance Director. This is significant as it may indicate how Harnett was suckered in on this one. Stewart and Shumaker are the two progressive Republican consultants that Locke identified as funded by far left groups to push one of Obama’s signature issues, green energy. in the General Assembly. David Lewis was one of their key leaders in the NC House in fighting for the Obama position against the position of the NC Republican platform. The new Finance Director was a liberal lobbyist working for the Obama green energy position in conjunction with Stewart and Shumaker. Stewart is the establishment consultant in trying to keep control of the NCGOP. These people are all joined at the hip.
Harnett needs to wise up that Stewart and Shumaker are not his friends, and indeed not friends of the Republican Party or its principles. They will prostitute themselves for money to work for anyone as they have clearly demonstrated in taking the far left’s money to fight for Obama principles and against Republican principles on so called green energy. Stewart, Shumaker, and their associates should be shunned by the NCGOP, not embraced..
Hey GuWonder,
Civitas Institute, not Locke, exposed Big Solar in NC and the connection of Shumaker and Stewart.
http://www.nccivitas.org/2015/special-report-conservatives-pushing-big-solar-funded-by-the-left/