#ncgop: Like Hall & Oates sang — ‘She’s Gone.’
She’s gone, she’s gone
Oh, why
Oh, why
I better learn how to face it
She’s gone, she’s gone
Oh, why
Oh, why
I’d pay the devil to replace her
She’s gone, she’s gone
Oh, why
What went wrong
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Numerous sources within the NCGOP hierarchy have confirmed for us that the party’s central committee has accepted the resignation of recently-hired finance director Kristen Laster.
Laster has been at the center of some fierce discussion among party activists and officials since she was named to the post by outgoing executive director Todd Poole. She came to 
the party post fresh from lobbying for a number of clients whose interests fly in the face of the party platform.
Laster is also a central figure in a formal complaint filed with the state board of elections.
We’ve also learned some of the key names that are on the newly-formed search committee charged with hiring a new executive director. Sources tell us RNC delegate Ada Fisher is on the search committee, but her colleague, state Rep. David Lewis, is not. Sources also tell us that chairman Harnett and vice-chairman Nix will also be part of the committee’s activities.
The search committee has been asked to come back before the central committee in two weeks with the names of three potential candidates for executive director.
Wow maybe good things are happening after all. One can only hope
That is great news. Hoping this all works out. We do not need unelected liberals in NCGOP leadership! Hoping the chairman will take the bull by the horns and clean house.
Light at the end of the Republican Tunnel. Whew!
well, as long as certain problematic district chairs remain on the CC, there’ll be stormy seas up there in Raleigh. But the leadership can turn to the county chairs and the rank-and-file who elected them for support, if it should prove necessary to remove them.
These problematic district chairs are there forever and ever. Then there are a couple who have a eye on elected office because they are owed and have become legends in their own mind. Wouldn’t be surprised if McCrory will have one as a opponent in a primary.
I was hoping you had an inside track on Ellmers getting an appointment with the Obama administration or something, but I’ll certainly take Laster being gone. A liberal lobbyist like her should never have been there in the first place. Now to get that Stewart operative out as Political Director.
On the search committee, the establishment did get at least one on, Ada Fisher, who got elected as a grassroots candidate but quickly started brown nosing the establishment. Therre is a Central Committee investigation of her that is still pending. The Central Committee, acting on unanimous resolutions of three Congressional districts, appointed a committee to investigate Fisher’s failure to follow explicit State Executive Committee instructions on voting on a key matter on the RNC dealing with national convention rules. She claimed she voted as instructed but a video of voting showed she did not. At the next executive committee meeting, I hope someone asks the status of that investigation. After the committee to conduct it was appointed under Pope, it seems to have been swept under the rug.
Well I guess the CC hasn’t been told the current chair’s comments when he and the outgoing ED talked prior to hiring her. The ED told the chair that the CC would NOT be happy and the Chair’s comments were “screw them”….
How long before the CC sees the chair’s REAL character??
More disinformation from Dee Stewart? Rumors, misrepresentations, half truths, and outright lies are his stock in trade/.
Given that the CC is the problem, yeah, probably.
Kristen is a Mother, wife, and true conservative, your character assassinations are not helpful. When you say ‘fierce debates’ what you really mean is that your posts and attempts at defamation have succeeded in once again needlessly roiling the uninformed base of your 12 readers. You have yet to answer the only important question, and that is, who WILL raise the money needed to run the party. The party that you so gleefully like to tear down at any given time. You think HH and MN can raise it? Who will pass your ideologically pure litmus test? How much money have you raised for the Party? So sad that you exist only to tear down folks who can actually help the party. Shame on you.
No ”true conservative” lobbies for a parade of liberal organizations and causes like she did, but no conservative ones. Good riddance.
Uh-oh…the GOPe Solar Lobby is upset that one of their lackies got pink-slipped. Someone call the WAH-mbulance.
Seriously? Raise money? Everyone I know WILL NOT give to the Republican Party because we have been so betrayed so many times! If money is not raised, it is not Hasan Harnett’s fault. His election by the grassroots was a clear indication that the Establishment is done and we will have Mr. Harnett’s back! When the Establishment candidate wins, the grassroots is told “Party Unity.” Now, when he grassroots has won, I don’t hear anything from the Establishment about “Party Unity,” only criticism.
@september wolf So according to you Kristen is the only one who can raise money?What did the NC GOP due before Kristen? I think Brant does an honorable JOB exposing frauds like yourself. Are you aware of what lobbyists do? They buy influence and votes. Solar and wind are not part of the GOP platform. Are you and Kristen aware of the 1,000,000’s of birds being fried by solar panels? Are you aware of how many millions of birds are flying into wind mills? How about the bald eagles that are being killed. Is solar and wind reliable? How about the extra cost? It’s a shame Kristen would lobby for anything as long as someone is footing the bill! And as far as you attacking this web site with your misinformation campaign, it sounds very immature and naive.
You’re such heroes, attacking a kind and caring person. I see you take umbrage at my remarks, but offer ZERO solutions…. Go ahead, reach into your own pockets and raise the money. Oh, yeah, that’s right, you won’t do that because you don’t agree with anything the Republican Party actually does. So sad. Me naive? it is your litmus tests that gave us Obama, TWICE. Yes, there are others who can raise money, but no one wants to, because of folks like you. Worse, you’re driving donors away from the party. That’s great….
Maybe we don’t want donors who only open their wallets if they think they can purchase influence. Ever think of that?
FEC Reports tell the story. If you don’t want the regular NC GOP large donors then who is gonna fill the Gap. Several members from the Central Committee said yesterday they were informed that Money is going one way OUT….. No Money has been raised since the election at the convention. One CC member even told me they have less than one months payroll on hand when they had six months after the convention just two months ago???
Any money woes are likely the result of Shoemaker and stewart steering donor cash away from the party to their IEs and 501(C)s, etc. Taking their marbles and going home. In the end for them, it is all about enriching themselves and not improving the state or the country.
Did you read the board of elections complaint involving her former employer, where she was the treasurer? What a mess.
Don’t know where you get this idea that she was the best available for the job.
Hasan Hired her so that’s on him.
What nonsense. The Executive Director is who interviewed, vetted, and hired both the Finance Director and Political Director. And from the emails Poole circulated, it is apparent that it was Shumaker who conned Harnett into suggesting Laster to Poole. I hope Harnett has learned two lessons from that; 1) that he needs to check out himself anyone recommended by others, and 2) that Shumaker and Stewart are not his friends and he should not trust either of them.
A lot of liberal Democrats are kind and caring people, but we should not have them on the staff of the state Republican Party.
When it comes to belief in what the Republican Party actually stands for – like the provisions of the state platform – yes, we do need staff that support those instead of being in the pay of the progressive / Obama forces fighting against those principles. If you to call expecting employees of a political organization to actually support the clearly set out principles of the political organization a ”litmus test” then so be it.
I am sure that Tom Steyer and George Soros or maybe Al Gore, can find her a new position that is more consistent with her political beliefs
I would disagree. People are leaving the party because of The Republican Party’s failure to do anything they were elected to do. The Republican Party controls the house and senate and what have they done: Funded Obama Care, Amnesty, Obama Trade, Loretta Lynch and anything this President wants. For God sakes Boehner is crying on the Golf Channel about how he wants to play golf with Obama.
. Every Republican voter I know is Fed UP because the Establishment is not doing anything they were elected to do. John McCain and Mitt Romney being weak establishment candidates gave us Obama. Not conservatives.
You establishment folks love to blame Conservatives for your laundry list of failures. The U.S. house and senate is currently being controlled by the Establishment. What has the establishment done, NADA, ZILCH. That’s why donations are down!
Well, when the donors are people who stand for the opposite of the NCGOP platform, that is a problem.
no moving the Republican party to the center is what gave the current president his two terms.
it is not about money it is about principles when you stick by your principles you do not have to raise as much money because you have a winning message
Y’all didn’t want Craig, elections have consequences. some of yall just see conspiracy behind everything, and whine and point fingers when you don’t get your way. You got the Chair you preferred, so now back him up and give him money. There was $350,000 in the Federal account after the convention, there is now about 50…
some of your positions are truly laughable.. Kristen had already lined up enough in her short time there to make payroll..now you have zipity doo dah. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your faces, Y’all are not republicans, probably not even conservative, just drag down conservatives…that’s what you do…so sad…
Okay, smart guy, you tell me what’s conservative about lobbying on behalf of taxpayer subsidized businesses?
The Republican majority in the House took a bunch of liberal positions, and two of their largest contributors cut off the money due to those liberal positions. Laster was herself all wrapped up in some of the very same liberal positions that caused those contributors to jump ship. How in the world is someone like that going to possibly be a successful fundraiser for the party? She has also no experience running fundraising for an organization like the NCGOP. Her background is as a lobbyist for liberal organizations and causes.
I sometimes wonder if this hire was made more to intentionally stir trouble than to do anything constructive for the party.
Her background in that is also dubious as she is sloppy, at best, in her record keeping.