#ncgop: NC’s RNC rep campaigning for chairman candidate Collins
Some months back, NCGOP establishment types issued a proclamation that current party chairman Claude Pope is out and that SOMEBODY named Craig Collins would be IN. Since then, the coronation appears to have hit a pothole or two. Collins’s ticket-mate, current vice-chairman Carolyn Justice, bowed out of her reelection bid. Tea Party activist Hasan Harnett jumped into the chairman’s race. A draft campaign to lure 6th district GOP chairman AJ Daoud also took off. More recently, a group in Collins’s home county released a poll showing Daoud leading the field for state party chairman.
Now, it appears that state Rep. David Lewis (R-Harnett) — a close ally of state House speaker Tim Moore, the House Rules 
Committee chairman, and one of North Carolina’s two elected representatives to the Republican National Committee — has stepped forward to publicly campaign for Collins in the party chairman’s race.
This weekend, robo-calls went out to Republican activists across the state featuring Lewis touting Collins. (Click here to listen to Lewis’s recorded message.) In the recorded message, Lewis can be heard touting Collins as someone who will “energize and organize the NCGOP.” The legislator and RNC operative also tells callers that “Craig will raise a tremendous amount of money and build an organization that is unstoppable.”
This is the second report of someone closely tied to the RNC coming to the aid of Collins.
Robo-calls? Well, that is something one has to expect when Dee Stewart is involved in a campaign. Although many now consider that robocalls annoy voters and do more harm than good, Stewart bought him a robocall machine when they became less popular, and he likes to try to talk his clients into paying him to use it.
Lewis has every right to take sides, but he should realize that his doing so may also fire up some opposition to him next year when his seat comes up again on RNC.
Other candidates need to demand disclosure of who is paying Stewart. I really doubt that Collins is doing it himself, so where is the money coming from? Or is it a loss leader than Stewart will get back with contracts from or through NCGOP if Collins wins? Or will Collins be owned by some person or group if he is elected? Delegates should demand transparency on this and full disclosure.
I would fully expect anyone who purports to have the skills to do the job of NCGOP chairman to be able to run his own campaign rather than have to rely on a consultant. If he cannot even run his own campaign, how is he ever going to run the NCGOP?
well someone I talked to said he wanted to undo a pay cut that someone else took so I guess if he got that money added to a salary then it would be easy to pay a consultant
the Chairmanship of the NCGOP needs to be a Volunteer positions without a salary
I think $$$$ corrupts the chairman’s job because then it is easy to be doing the job for the wrong purpose
1st – Lets put it this way a real grassroots worker in the party would not need rob-calls
2nd – No one running for State Chairman needs to be having fundraisers for what should be a Volunteer position in the NCGOP
3rd – Elected officials in that are trying to shove a person down the convention delegates throats before nominations have even been made on the convention floor does a disservice to the process and to the party and they quickly loose my respect
4th. Its kind of like they are trying to convince people to stay home and save their money and not attend the convention like the decision has already been made….
5th. – What we need is every convention delegate at this convention to fight to return the NCGOP to the grass-root conservatives of this state
Well, Patrick, the Establishment Beast is not without vulnerabilities. You just need to know where to look for them. Take the Convention for example. Thanks to the RNC’s latest stunt (moving National Convention to July), NCGOP must change the POO to move our local, district and State conventions back a month. Changing an organization’s governing document requires 67% of votes from delegates. Can you say “bargaining chip”, boys and girls?
If I remember correctly, Tom Fetzer took a salary, Robin Hayes did not, and Claude Pope did. In my opinion you will get a better job out of the chairman if he is paid, and the amount should be set by the committee and you will get more accountability as well.
Also, I don’t think many outside the executive committee know or care about this part and it certainly isn’t an issue that will swing votes. Additionally, we all know the Republican party is funded by donations, so why in the world would people have such strong opinions about an organization that they don’t give money to or drive money towards is pretty funny to me.
The Republican Partys is a volunteer organization and the Chairmanship is the highest office in this organization. It sends the wrong message to all the grassroots workers in the party and to the donors when the chairman takes a paycheck that the members of the state executive committee do not get to know vote on or approve that expenditure ( the state executive committee is the governing body of the party and it is not right that this body gets side stepped on this issue)
I have seen chairman come and go and I would totally disagree with the statement you get what you pay for. Some of the best chairpeople that party has had have been grassroot volunteer chairpeople
The state party is set up with a paid executive dirrector to carry out the duties over the long term that are set about buy chairpeople that only serve a 2 year term. Having the party structured this way adds strength to the state party in daily operations over the long term
We need a statesman as a leader of the NCGOP and not someone trying to find a great payday
What is the quote power corupts and absolute power corupts absolutely… I think money in this case can do the same thing.. The chairmanship is not something people should have to hire advisors or hold fundraisers to win. Its insulting to the delgates spending money they do not have to attend the convention to vote in a new leader
Fetzer and Pope were chairmen who took a salary PLUS have a paid ED. Both were often doing things other than working for the party while they were on the party’s clock. Those salaries were not good value for the party.
Dave Flaherty and Jack Hawke were chairmen who were hired by the Central Committee as the ED and wore both hats. They were always around working on party business. If you are going to pay a state chairman, that is a much better model.
Of course, the best of all, is one like Frank Rouse, who was a full time volunteer.
The three best state chairmen in my lifetime were Rouse, Hawke, and Flaherty. There is something to be said for a chairman being full time.
I LOVE the mention of Rouse, Hawke, and Flaherty. Those men had much valuable experience before coming into office as chairs of the NCGOP and were able to bring that experience to the table and help the entire state. Additionally, there wasn’t nearly the amount of money flying around as an absolute requirement to be spent. As you mentioned two of those men took checks for their work in their capacity, additionally had paid staff like chiefs of staff or director and this was a good thing. Robin Hayes didn’t take a check either and it was announced at the end of his term that he raised the most money the party had ever raised in a cycle, and 2012 was good for us.
Patrick, paying the folks in charge of any donor organization does not send the wrong message. It sends a strong message that the organization requires a full time dedicated professional that can handle the work, and will do it well. My number one fear is that we get an inexperienced non paid chair that flounders with no organizational skills or experience, gives part time dedication, and then the structure falls apart. I’m sure there’s some here that wouldn’t mind that happening but have fun with the wishful thinking. Additionally, your comment reads that you :disagree with the statement you get what you pay for” let me clarify that I, nor anyone else typed that phrase, you did. My example of Robin Hayes collecting no check should have spoken for that. I agree and opine for the ideas that you talk about, not wanting advisors or money involved in this job, but its not practical or possible- you need a person up for the task and driven and proven, not an ode to 20 years ago or unproven ideas.
Sorry i took this
“In my opinion you will get a better job out of the chairman if he is paid”
And paraphased it to be:
–You get what you pay for—
Sorry if that was a twisting of words
=====
If you supporta paid chairman then the pay needs to be spelled out by the voting delegates. It should at least be spelled out as a budget line item that the executive committee would then be vote up or down. Currently is falls in a general staff number. I want a transparent and open process so nobody can claim backroom deals. The donors and grassroot workers deserve this level respect
You see, it’s like this. You voluntarily give us money to get our plant elected, we cloak him under that ruse that he’s a conservative cause he’s got an R by his name, ya’ll always fall for that one, then he gets a title NCGOP CHAIRMAN – GRAND POOH BAHHHH!!, The All Powerful Oz!!! and says good things about us, and helps us get elected, again, and again, and again, and then here’s the best part, later we take your money unvoluntarily by force through tax increases to fund our corporate welfare or corporate relationship building fund. Ah hell, let’s just call it what it is, it’s your tax money that we laundry through our fund to keep our friends our friends. It’s all good. It’s a Republican thing you know, it’s how we roll. Ya’ll show up around November for us again and we’ll chat about lower taxes, family values, and church chat again all the things Republicans are for 3 weeks before the election, until then we really have to be careful about damaging the Republican brand. We are really going to Knee’d you in November again!!!
Have fun at the convention. I quite the party in disgust last year after spending money to register, travel, and get a motel several times.
After enough conventions, the message was driven home that the delegates are a carefully managed “feed lot” and our principal duty is to cheer for the cameras and NOT debate anything of substance (after waiting an hour and a half EVERY DAY for the friggin’ credentials report to be adopted.) EVERY chairman election year, the nominations are by slate, so all the party officers are the chairman’s picks and by extension the picks of the insiders.
I really do not know how the organization will survive into the 21st century. I can’t imagine Millennial generation voters putting up with such an inefficient spectacle.
The chairman and vice chairman are elected by the delegates, and seperately, not by slate. The six lower officers are elected by the State Executive Committee, which often meets the day after the convention, and are supposed to be by seperate individual elections from the floor, but for a number of years, state chairmen have done a cramdown using a slate as you mentioned. This practice is against party principles and it is time someone on the floor called bullshit on it.
There may already be some push-back from higher levels on this business of electing by slates. Yesterday at the 13th District Convention (a rather disturbing spectacle on a number of levels compared to other Congressional districts, but that’s another story), Representative Marilyn Avila moved to eliminate election of At-Large members by slate. It didn’t pass, partly because someone raised the specter of “being here all day” to elect individual members and because Avila raised some hackles by doing a Virginia Foxx imitation (you people have no idea!!). But I thought it was interesting that a member of the Legislature opposed elections by slate.
Marilyn Avila is usually rather conservative in her legislative votes. I am not surprised that she stood up against slating.
Mmm, yes, it’s partly that, and partly the fact that she was opposing the incumbent District Chair who appears to have wanted a slate to ensure she’d have absolute and personal loyalty from her Executive Committee.
It will not survive if the good people stay home… Please come back we need you to help save this party and America
No, it will not. I know some very good County and Precinct officers who are calling it quits in 2017 if this Party doesn’t greatly change it’s character and it’s ways for the better.