NCGOP mutineers making their big move against Hasan Harnett on April 30
They mused about the date on a group chat, but now it’s official. (Apparently they have enough legislators available on April 30 to commence with the dirty deed.):
What specific charges of misconduct is this petition based on? (By charges, I mean, accusations backed by some actual evidence.) Not being able to run a meeting? There’s plenty of evidence to convict Joyce Cotten and her lovely daughter on that one, too.
It’s clear there is not enough credible evidence to turn things over to law enforcement. After all, after all this time, it hasn’t been done.
There have been some ugly power grabs in politics, but this ranks as one of the ugliest. This is a “brute force” attempt 
at reversing results of a vote they didn’t like that took place back in June. Their guy didn’t win, so they are going to tear down the guy who did. This is the kind of Third World stuff you expect to see in Latin America or Africa, not in the North Carolina Republican Party. *You gotta love all of the clear violations of due process in this whole episode.*
Will this be tolerated? Will it be allowed to stand? Will you continue to affiliate with an organization that behaves like this and treats people like this? If they remove Harnett and install one of their cronies, it sends a clear signal that YOU and YOUR VOTES don’t matter. (Michele Nix better buckle up. She’s next in the hot seat.)
Super PACs and affiliated committees are making political parties less and less relevant. Behavior like this is sure to make the NCGOP less and less relevant to average folks across the state. The party defined by Jesse Helms and Ronald Reagan as a noble defender of individual freedoms and the free market has devolved into a malestrom of whining and teeth-gnashing about convention fees, job titles, and cold-hard cash (of dubious origins).
The focus has moved from saving and growing North Carolina and America to selfish, personal gain.
Ok. We have a time, date, and place to do battle for the soul of the GOP in North Carolina. So be it.
We have never had a excom meeting start so early in the morning. 9am registration closes at 10am. Sounds like they do only want people in the raleigh metro area to attend. To make it on time this is a hotel purchase for friday night no doubt and with the convention the next week. If they were going to hold this meeting they should have done it thursday before the convention when the central committe already had a scheduled meeting. Plus the chairman already said he was traveling out of the country on this 30th date. Plus the adjenda says if they vote to remove him that they will vote to replace him at this meeting with the state convention the next weekend. How is this not a evil power play. Let the whole convention vote to keep him but they people trying to kick him have already told the grassroots they are not wanted at convention with the $90 general session fee. This whole thing is loose loose for every republican in NC.
I’m lucky to be only 25 minutes from the meeting location (coincidentally in town on other business). I feel for you guys who must choose between traveling long distances in order to make an early morning meeting to fight this outrage, or stay home and let it happen, particularly if you have to travel far for the convention the week after.
The only way this power play could be construed as smart would be if the intention was to destroy the party. The Central Committee needs to resign in disgrace.
I agree.
Who can attend this lynching and who is eligible to vote? Central committee, executive membership, even registered Republican can have different meanings if you mean voter registration or dues paying member of the party. Please define.
Right, if it is central committee only then a handful of leaders could overthrow a chairman elected by the entire body at any time. So which is it?
I guess anyone can attend. Only State Executive Committee members can vote and otherwise participate.
Then why does it say registration?
You’ll go to a table and sign in kind of like going through credentials at a convention. If you’re who you should be then you will be granted a tag or something to show you are an Executive Committee member.
For a long time, the NCGOP registration for an Executive Committee meeting required a photo ID, but lately under the last couple of ED’s, they have not The failure to require photo ID’s creates a real danger of hanky-panky, especially in situations such as this.
Some years ago, a new state chairman was elected by the executive committee to fill a vacancy by one vote, but the problem was that about ten of his votes were by imposters. Congressional district leaders in a western district supplied names of their members who would not be attending and someone in the College Republicans supplied the bodies to register under those names, and the state chairmanship was stolen. The losing candidate, when she became aware of what happened chose not to put the party through the turmoil of trying to rectify the wrong. (I wish some of our leaders today had that level of concern for the good of the party). It was after that when photo ID’s started being required.
With party staff participating in discussion groups of those trying to oust Harnett, they have a huge conflict of interest in running registration. Harnett better find some allies to look over their shoulders and try to keep them on the straight and narrow, and he needs to insist on photo ID’s.
The WSJ wrote that this fight mirrors the one across the country. NC is going to be attacked like no other for attacking our first African American Chairman. But apparently we have something the GOP elites fear more than charges of racism. Would that be the rise of we the people? What exactly? Is the charge lack of party loyalty? Inefficiency? If so, it is the epitome of hypocrisy for party elites to dare accuse others of what they do without batting an eye. The days of party first are coming to an end. We are Americans first and united we will make America great again!
The idea of removing someone and immediately moving to an election is very troubling. Since the grassroots / conservative wing will be largely opposed to the removal, no one from that group is likely to campaign or do the groundwork for running until there is an actual vacancy. I guess the idea is to be certain that a certain type of candidate is the replacement if the removal works. This whole situation is a recipe for blowing up the party and throwing away the November election. Some people seem to put their own personality conflicts and power plays above the good of the party. We should be trying to unite the party to win against the Democrats, not setting up a circular firing squad. Sad, very sad.
With the convention the next week the ex-com should not vote for a new chairman if it come to that.
why hold the meeting so early in the day ex-com meetings normally start around 1 pm to give everyone in state no matter were you live a better chance to be able to drive to attend the meeting
Given that the Chairman will be out of the country this meeting should not be held on the April 30th if they want to have a meeting they should have done it on Thursday may 5th in Greensboro at 1 pm
All your complaints make perfect sense to reasonable people with good intentions. I’ve got a real bad feeling we are in a much different situation here.
will enough reasonable people show up at this meeting to stop a small group of people from ruining the Republican Party in NC
I will be there but what are we to do. I do not have a vote; how do we stop the cabal?
So do I. If you saw what Hasan posted that he screen shot, then you saw something different thsn whst we wete told. Unfortunately for me I cannot attend as my husband id in the hospital.
HA HA! You peon grassroots dudes are going to get whipped. Why do you think we started this meeting so early in the day so that many will have to stay overnight? Why do you think we set this meeting on a day we knew our enemy the chairman was going to be out of the country on business? Now he has to either pay a huge penalty to cancel that ticket (if he even can) or have someone else pitch hit for him at the meeting. We screw him either way! And we set this while the legislature will be in town, and right here where they will be in Raleigh so they will not have to travel anywhere. You can bet their extra expenses can be paid for other than out of their own pockets. And of course, we will move straight to a new election, so Old Joyce will be your new chairman in a little over two weeks.
Best of all, many of those grassroots peons whom we want to get rid of will get mad and not come to the convention, and we win again! This might cost us the General Election to the Democrats, but who really cares. We will still run our building on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh and all have our positions. I will have my paycheck What else really matters?
I would hope that all Executive Committee members will be at this meeting to vote AGAINST removal to the NCGOP Chairman Hasan Harnett on the grounds that he will be out of the country and not able to defend himself. This meeting is a disgrace. This is totally against the NC GOP Plan of Organization.
In Article 7.E.1. (page 27) it states in part, “ Vacancies and Removals
a. Any Member of a Committee organized under this Plan may be removed either:
1. By a 2/3’s vote of the respective Committee after being furnished with notice of the charges against him, signed by the lesser of (i) 50 Members or (i) one-third of the Members of the respective Committee. Any Republican against whom charges are brought shall be furnished with 2 weeks notice of said charges and be given an opportunity to present a defense. Removal by a vote of the respective Committee shall be confined to gross inefficiency, Party disloyalty (as defined herein) or failure to comply with the County, District, or State Party Plans of Organization.
E. FORFEITURE OF OFFICIAL PRIVILEGES
1. Removal or Resignation from Committees
Any current or former Officer or Member of a Precinct Committee, County Executive Committee, District Committee, State Executive Committee or State Central Committee who, for any reason, is removed or resigned from said position shall forfeit all rights and privileges in any way connected with that position.
2. Party Disloyalty
Any registered Republican attempting to influence or influencing the outcome of any election against a Republican candidate or Republican endorsed by the appropriate Republican Executive Committee or Legislative Caucus, other than by supporting an opposing Republican Candidate in a Republican primary, may be declared ineligible to hold office under the State Plan of Organization at the State, District, and Precinct level for Party disloyalty by 2/3 vote of the State Executive Committee. Charges of Party disloyalty may be brought by petition of 50 members of the State Executive Committee, or by resolution of a County or District Republican Executive Committee. The State Executive Committee may declare a Republican found to have engaged in Party disloyalty as ineligible to serve in any office under the Plan of Organization for a period of time between 6 months and 5 years.
So I heard close to 80% of the executive committee signed the petition to call for this special meeting. I’m hoping that means many sane excoms signed it. Wish I was still on the excom
Hadn’t heard that. I am on it and I’ll be there to vote. And afterward, I’ll be moving against my legislator if he can’t take a hint to get lost that day.
I would take anything that comes out of headquarters or out of the Central Committee cabal with a grain of salt. They have a well established pattern or lying on any issue that deals with their lynch mob against Harnett.
Many on both sides realize we need to deal with this issue, but meeting under the terms of the cabal is not designed for a fair determination, as their discussions showed. Harnett should have gone ahead with the meeting on the 9th, or he should have only cancelled it if the cabal withdrew its petition for the 30th. Perhaps they could have agreed on terms for a meeting, but trusting them to be fair after he unilaterally cancelled the meeting he called was naive.
As to legislators, I agree. They need to stay out of this or they need to pay the price on election day. I hope that Brant will have some of his moles there to make a list of legislators who attend. Take names and kick ass!
I personally know some legislators that will be there to fight for Hasan.
April 30th will be an ugly encounter. No good can come from any of this now. All involved are selfish. The candidates and the future of our nation and state are being sacrificed for twisted personal agendas.
Art Pope is the anointed replacement for Harnett. After all it’s the unbound delegate position at three RNC he is after. Wonder how much $$$ Is on the table for the mutineers, Ken Robot and Harvey West.
My, how Art has changed. I remember years ago when he was a big player in the fight against liberal turncoat Richard Morgan and and then was a rumored conservative challenger for state chairman against the Cobey dynasty establishment. Before that, he had a very conservative record as a state legislator. Ever since he has started sucking up to moderate Governor McCrory, Art has exhibited a Jekyl and Hyde type transformation. Some years ago, conservatives would have welcomed Art as one of us, but those days are long gone.
If the lynch mob purges Harnett and replaces him with someone with ties that close to McCrory, I suspect the upshot in November will be McCrory (and probably Burr) being collateral damage from this coup d’etat. Do these establishment power seekers really want to risk that in what are likely to be close races? There is no enthusiasm among Republicans as it is for Burr, as shown by the polls in the primary that had Burr, a two term Senator, almost even and within the margin of error with ”undecided”. If a challenger had been able to get their message out, Burr would have been toast in the primary. His campaign is wobbly for November.
The establishment players are not looking at the big picture. They have their guys nominated for Governor and Senator, and need to be uniting the party to keep the conservatives on board for the general election, not causing major divisions that will come back to haunt them in November when enough conservatives potentially use those elections to get even with the establishment to make a difference in the outcome of those races. After the disgust the GOP base has developed for Boehner, McConnell, Ryan, and their ilk, just having an ”R” by your name just does not cut it anymore.
Hasan Harnett has the potential to unite the party. Electing anyone perceived as coming out of the McCrory or Burr camp will divide the party. Burr and McCrory foolishly endorsed Collins, and this attempted purge would be viewed as the very worst sort of sour grapes. Elected officials should learn their lesson about staying out of party leadership races. They wear out their welcome very quickly.
I just received an email that raises some interesting points about Art Pope. It seems like, in spite of having some solid conservative choices for president, Art put his money behind establishment candidate Marco ”Amnesty” Rubio to the tune of $250,000 to Rubio’s SuperPAC. That is not a conservative move at all. Rubio, earlier in his political career had also voted for gun grabbing measures, so he is far from solid on the 2nd amendment either.
Now, apparently Pope wants to be an uncommitted delegate to the GOP National Convention, and the chairmanship would make him an automatic uncommitted national delegate. Why does he want that? Is he part of Karl Rove’s drive for a more liberal nominee, someone like Ryan or Rubio? Word has it that Pope was one of those behind hiring the unqualified goober Dallas Woodhouse, who worked for over a year as a Karl Rove frontman, for NCGOP Executive Director.
Given his Rubio connection and his more indirect Karl Rove connection, no Cruz or Trump backer should want to have any possibility of Art Pope going to Cleveland as state chairman / uncommitted delegate. The establishment does not need to be allowed to steal the presidential nomination.
This is bizarre beyond imagination. They have no idea what will result from this direct assault on the grassroots. I do not want Democrats for Governor, Lt Governor, and US Senator. Likely that will happen if “they” succeed. The NC GOP can not be reform until there are a new slate of people on the Central Committee or it is stripped of all authority and power. The 2017 District conventions will her a war and the Chairs will bee replaced if a conservative third party hasn’t taken root. The entire state is damaged by these people. I would invite thousands of grassroot guests to join us in Raleigh on the 30th. It is time to fight for our state. Bring your lungs and demonstrate against this outrage.
Start contacting your legislators now and continue every day until you arrive in Raleigh on the morning of the 30th!
OK, if you are grassroots / Tea Party… BE THERE.
Jeez, and I thought November 8 was gonna be important!
Good bye Republicans in November. Say hello to the victors when they come into the new Berlin via Raleigh, NC. This being the new Democrats. The GOP is DOA. I hope you traitor elitists enjoy your new Socialist Masters.
Well I guess it’s time to change my party affiliation from Republican to INDEPENDENT. I always thought NC was a good place to live.
It’s too bad that racism still exist and politicians are nothing but establishment lackeys who long for the days of cotton fields and plantations.
Hey, that is exactly what we want. We do not want you little people in the NCGOP. It is ours and we intend to keep it. Don’t go away mad, just go away. That way we can keep control of the headquarters on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh and get our paychecks.
Don’t fight us. Just quit.
The future for the NC Republican Party looks very foreboding.