Robin Hayes: “Mebbe it IS my fault.”

There sure is a lot of blame being passed around.  A lot of finger-pointing.

Two weeks ago, during a speech in Raleigh, NCGOP chairman Robin Hayes said Pat McCrory’s loss in the gubernatorial race was ALL THE FAULT of McCrory and his people.  (And NOT him.)

Got it?  Well, after that, McCrory stepped out at a GOP event and endorsed Hayes’s bid for a full term as chairman.  (Remember, Hayes was installed as a result of an establishment coup against a duly-elected Tea Party-aligned chairman. Who, by coincidence I’m sure, happened to be the first black person elected to the post.)

*Be sure to ask someone named Craig Collins about how much good endorsements by Pat McCrory do you in NCGOP chairman races. *

After the McCrory endorsement, Hayes changed his tune about the 2016 governor’s race.  At the 3rd district race, he grumbled about how those damned Tea Party, grassroots types cost McCrory his reelection.  *Oh what a difference two weeks can make. * (I wonder what the ol’ codger will be saying two weeks from NOW?)

The last year has been good to old man Hayes.  The state GOP appears to have picked up the tab for the fuel for Hayes’s private plane.   And now it appears the state party has paid for the production of a “Shareholder’s Report” allegedly meant to promote the party’s, um, “successes” over the last year or so.  Right in the middle of a heated state party chairman’s race.  Conveniently, as shown HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE, the “report” does an awful lot of promotion of Hayes himself.  (Who needs Donald Trump when you have Dallas Woodhouse and his Grandpa?) 

Jim Womack, Hayes’s opponent in the chairman’s race, is clearly not amused.  Here he is in a statement released today:

[…] First, this self-aggrandizing report was sent to NCGOP members and prospective donors at the expense of the NCGOP.  I’m sure Mr. Hayes believes it legal (even if unethical) to send such a report to members of the NCGOP just prior to the 2017 election. 

In other words, he is using this party-funded mailer as free promotion of his meager accomplishments in the 2016 election cycle in hopes it helps him secure more votes for his re-election bid.
Second, he entitled the brochure as a “Shareholder’s Report.”  Noticeably absent in his addressees list were the vast majority of NCGOP shareholders- the ones Mr. Hayes discounts, but who delivered the votes he is taking credit for- grass roots Republicans.  Some of them are already asking, “Where is my dividend !?!”
Third, Mr. Hayes is crowing only about the races we won in 2016, failing to note Republicans lost control of two branches of government – Executive and Judicial – under his watch in 2016. 
Fourth, in a rare instance of goal-setting, Mr. Hayes brags about setting the objective of raising $750,000 this calendar year for the NCGOP.

Close examination of past odd-year fundraising indicates Mr. Hayes is seeking to raise $450,000 less than his predecessor did in 2003; $230,000 less than in 2005; $205,000 less than in 2007;  $170,000 less than in 2009; $170,000 less than in 2011; $440,000 less than in 2013; and $390,000 less than in 2015.  According to FEC Reports, one would have to go back 20 years to find an odd-year fundraising tally of $750,000 or less for the NCGOP. 

I suppose Mr. Hayes is just trying to manage expectations for anticipated low fundraising performance in 2017.  Maybe if we offered him some more jet fuel at party expense he could fly around the state collecting additional funds.
As a side note- Mr. Hayes’ predecessor in 2015 was Mr. Hasan Harnett, who Hayes claims could not raise money and who was summarily fired from his job for alleged gross inefficiency.  […]