#ncga: Living rent-free. (And loopholes, man. LOOPHOLES.)
Yesterday’s meeting of the House Republican Caucus only confirmed what I realized months ago: This site is living rent-free in the heads of a lot of the powers-that-be on Jones Street.
A good chunk of the meeting had leadership types fuming about what they see as “private business” ending up in The Haymaker. Specifically of concern, I’m told, was the coverage of the spat between Speaker Moore and Rep. Burr. Leaders urged the members to keep their disagreements in-house and private rather than taking them to social media, The Haymaker, or other media outlets. There wasn’t much concern about dealing with the issues raised by Burr and other legislators. (Never mind the ethical cloud — scratch that, ethical FOG — hanging over so many key players in the caucus. It was ALL about managing the PR aspect.
Another good chunk of the meeting involved lawyers and staff members for Moore and Rules chairman David Lew
is briefing members on campaign finance rules. Sounds like a good move, considering the publicity surrounding Finance chairman Jason Saine, Rep. Kelly Hastings, Speaker Moore, Rules chairman Lewis, and Rep. Nelson Dollar.
A number of observers found it humorous how excited Kelly Hastings appeared to get when informed by the staffers that members COULD buy cars with their campaign funds.
It appears that campaign finance has been on Hastings’s mind a lot lately (judging from his Facebook activity):
Another long drive to Raleigh. This one added about 473 miles to my vehicle. No, it was not paid by public taxpayers’ funds. However, the moneydid not grow on a tree. I plan to reimburse it from the campaign at the IRS mileage rate.
——————————————————————————————
Legislative Update – Funds Related To Campaigns and Holding Public Office
Although it is legal in N.C. to raise funds to help with expenditures/costs related to a campaign and/or holding public office, there is one certainty. You can rest assured that I have never “sold” my vote and I don’t plan to. I listen to interested stakeholders simply to learn. Furthermore, we make every effort to fully disclose any type of contribution to the campaign.
Sources in the room tell me that Rep. Charles Jeter — a RINO ready to run at a moment’s notice when the whiff of a tough vote gets detected — offered this piece of encouragement:
“Whoever talks to the Haymaker — and I know there are several of you — be sure to tell them we got something positive accomplished here today.”
Dear Mr. Haymaker,
If these people are against you then you must be doing something right. The NC Republican Party needs you to keep this up for the sake of the nation and to keep the Republican party in NC the conservative party because we elect a lot of people with a R beside their name and must think they picked D on their voter card because they do not act like respectable Republicans and thus only end up tarnishing the R beside their name.
Imbecilic leakers. All they are doing is getting satisfaction from their leaks and the fits of pique from the leaders they don’t agree with. The leaders who likely they opposed for leadership. You may be living rent free in their head but all its doing is spreading poison amongst themselves.. Do you really think at this point it would come to an end if the leakers took over leadership? I wonder how this will effect campaign efforts and whether to some it matters.. You can complain or pound your chest with pride or self righteousness but when the rhetoric is done where are you? Facilitating self destruction with the help of self important dolts. As I said in a previous post I many be new to the area but my in laws are a known quantity and I get the inside story from two members of the GA and it sounds really disturbing… the stupidity.
Keep up the great work Brant. Without you we’d never know anything going on in #NCPol.
Like Boehner and McConnell, the Timmy Moore crowd seems to view conservatives as the enemy more than they see Democrats as the enemy. Weird and disgusting.
They just don’t get it. All they have to do is not be weasels.
They have no “private” business in the NCGA. Here’s a tip for our elected officials. If you can’t talk about it in public, it’s most likely wrong.