Monkey Business Report: Grandpa & Dallas edition
We get a lot of lip service about bottom-up governance coming out of Raleigh, 
but end up getting an awful lot of heavy-handedness from up above. Case in point, THIS proposed resolution being circulated among NCGOP party leadership:
Resolution
Respect NCGOP Judicial Endorsements
In Statewide Judicial Contests
Whereas: In 2018 there will be no primaries for judicial elections. In the November election judicial candidates will be identified by the party to which they have registered, but multiple Republican and Democrat candidates will be on the ballot for the same race. The judicial filing period is June 18 – June 29.
Whereas: If the NCGOP Plan of Organization is amended by the 2018 State Convention, the NCGOP State Executive Committee has the exclusive authority to endorse registered Republicans for statewide appellate judicial contests, no earlier than 30 days prior to the filing period.
Whereas: Should this change be adopted by the Convention, the State Executive Committee will have the opportunity to make endorsements of statewide judicial candidates on Sunday June 10. All announced GOP candidates for statewide appellate judicial contests will be invited to speak to the Convention and to meet with the Executive Committee to ask for its endorsements. It is critical that we endorse statewide judicial candidates before filing opens. Otherwise Republican votes will be diluted by numerous non-endorsed candidates on the ballot who would have the GOP label while Democrat votes may be focused on one.
Therefore, be it Resolved: If the NCGOP plan of organization is so amended, State Executive Committee should endorse a single Republican in each Statewide Judicial Appellate Race on June 10, 2018.
Be it further Resolved: Should the NCGOP Executive Committee decide to endorse in statewide judicial appellate contests, the NCGOP convention respectfully requests that other Republican attorneys should seek other ways to use their talents and decline to file in these races in 2018.
Translation: Let Dallas, his Grandpa, Ma Cotten, her lovely daughter and the rest of the clique make all of the big decisions. *Picking candidates is apparently way too much responsibility for us little people residing outside the Raleigh beltline.*
You may read about this issue at the following link. Chairman Hayes letter outlines the suggested process
https://mailchi.mp/88c5655a6589/2018-judicial-endorsements-and-exec-conference-call?e=%5BUNIQID%5D
or
https://mailchi.mp/88c5655a6589/2018-judicial-endorsements-and-exec-conference-call?e=%5BUNIQID%5D
The plan of Organization committee has given initial approval to this change, which would empower the State Executive Committee to endorse in the statewide races, as they have in similar races in the past. The local judicial executive committees It is important to remember, there are no primaries and the issue is a question of math. More NCGOP identified candidates vs fewer democrat candidates could be problematic.
Perhaps even more concerning there is no prohibition on registered democrats, changing their registration and running as republicans in judicial races, up o the close of the judicial filing period in late June. A attorney can change their registration and file for judge all at once.
Our local grassroots activists are begging for this to be addressed.
Should the link not work, please email the NCGOP and we will send you a copy.
This is simply giving the committee the option. Who or If to endorse is completely up to the respective committees.
Why can the endorsement be made before the filing period is closed ? This is the part that seems fishy?
Dallas you have failed to respond to the question in this thread:
https://dailyhaymaker.com/?p=19796
That concerns whether or not the state party’s special very low rate postage permit is being used for some candidates in the PRIMARY.
The more you duck that question, the more it smells like a tacit admission that the state party is picking sides in primaries.
Will there be crickets again from you?
Republican committees are already “endorsing” candidates for NCGA races in Moore County, so why not?
Ham Biscuit is correct. The Senate race and the Legislator race in Moore County have been influenced by the Republican establishment.
This primary in Moore County is going to be the test. does the “Good ol boy” system (Think Boss Hog) run Moore County – Or so we govern ourselves by educating ourselves and making the best choice.
Unaffiliated voters will tell the tale. And no one controls Unaffiliated voters
Two very good questions in this thread that I am honored to be able to answer:
Patrick:
The question about endorsing before filing closes has been a difficult one. It is why we are addressing the matter nearly three months before the convention.
1. First: For any endorsements to be made in the judicial races at ANYTIME, a change in the Plan of Organization would be required.
The Plan simply does not currently allow for any endorsements in a “jungle” long ballot general election race that has had no primary but could have multiple identified republicans on the ballot. (Some of which are recent converts from the opposition party)
So the Convention has to decide if they want to make a change and what it is.
The change would allow the Executive Committee (the body already empowered to make similar endorsements) to choose to endorse or not to endorse.
Of course the Executive Committee traditionally meets right after the convention and that is the case this year.
Then the Executive Committee can choose who to endorse, who not to endorse, not to endorse at all, or explore endorsements at a later time.
However: While the endorsed NCGOP candidate is almost guaranteed to be the highest NCGOP vote earner, the endorsements to do not penetrate and reach all our voters. Our endorsed candidate, should there be one is still in a weaker position for November if even a few % points of republican voters select a 2nd, 3rd or 4th republican candidate on the ballot.
This move should it occur, empowers the executive committee endorsement to have the most power and the endorsed candidate to have the best chance at success in November.
To GU’s question:
The NCGOP has not produced, mailed or had any role in any primary race. The Non-profit mail permit has not and will not be used in that way.
In the Moore, Anson, Richmond, and Scotland County Senate race it is my understanding the Senate Affiliate Party committee has produced mailings. We nave neither seen them or been involved in that effort.
They have their own mail permit, and are separate from us and the caucus operations. They are not governed under any of our rules or the plan of organization.
Well, here is the smoking gun, right in Moore County. Many activists suggested that the whole reason for the “affiliated party committees” in the first place was tp improperly get involved in primaries, and now it has happened. It is unlikely that this is the only place it is going on this year..
Others have reported that the Senate Committee’s mail permit is “non-profit” rather than “bulk” which would indicate that they have somehow hornswaggled one of those ultra-cheap permits that are only supposed to be issued to national and state party organizations out of the post office. That allows them to mail for their preferred primary candidates at a much cheaper rate than other candidates can get, even if they make their candidates reimburse them. This is very unfair to other primary candidates. The return address on the postcards is also tantamount to an endorsement for the recipients as it comes across to them..
Raleigh too often backs primary candidates who are not in tune with local parties. A good example is a couple of adjoining Senate districts in the 2012 primary, one made up of Craven, Pamlico, and Carteret, and the other running from Beaufort to the coast. In both, sitting conservative state representatives who were very close to local GOP organizations sought to move up to the Senate; Norm Sanderson in the former and Bill Cook in the latter, but Raleigh had other ideas. Raleigh’s candidates had never been involved with their local GOP but had been active with the Democrats. Their candidate against Sanderson was a rich registered Republican who was a frequent and heavy contributor to Democrats but had never given to Republicans. Their candidate against Cook was someone who had recently switched to Republican after having been an unsuccessful Democrat candidate for county commissioner, in which race he had openly backed Obama. Sanderson was outspent almost 10 to 1, but still beat Raleigh’s candidate in a landslide. Cook also won his primary by a wide margin. Of course, in those days, while Raleigh could recruit, they could not get overtly involved like the “affiliated party committees” are this year.
There are many activists who will be allergic to giving money to the “affiliated party committees” once the word is out that they are intervening in primaries. Maybe that is an opportunity for the party to set up legislative candidate support committees governed by the party rules that prohibit primary involvement, so that these folks will have a place where they can more comfortably send their money.
What is really needed, however, is a state level conservative committee where activists can send their money and know it will help conservative candidates, like the Senate Conservatives Fund or the Club for Growth on the national level or the SC chapter of the Club for Growth at the state level. It looked like Chris Millis was working on that project, but it faded after one election.
In the meantime, it is best just to send out money to candidates we know we can trust, and bypass these Raleigh committees.
A follow-up to Patrick:
A big reason Chairman Hayes sent the letter was to give every possible notice to potential candidates to make themselves known and have an opportunity to compete for the endorsement.
It is perhaps a fair question to wonder if any candidate could have a viable statewide campaign if they are not even announcing or beginning until filing closes at the end of June.
This whole mess is the result of another round of our legislators screwing up. This should be a normal election with a primary and then a general election. Some of our legislators who want to move to politically appointed judges seem to have played a role in this nonsense.
We need to remember how we lost our Supreme Court majority by monkeying around with the election process. First establishment consultant Shumaker put forward the liberal California nonsense of a “retention election” which clearly had state Constitution problems, but David Lewis ran it through the legislature and got it passed. When that blew up as un-Constitutional, Shumaker requested a non-partisan election for Supreme Court even though the Court of Appeals was partisan. Once again David Lewis put it through the legislature. With this stupid non-partisan election, our voters did not know who the Republican was and we lost Justice Edmunds.
Now this pack of idiots has come up with the stupid jungle primary, and once again it threatens one of the Supreme Court incumbents.
Sometimes you wonder if Shumaker and Lewis are really working for the Democrats.
I often do not agree with Woodhouse, but in this case, this may be the only way that we might escape from another mess that our “Republican” consultants and legislators have created.
Note that there is a guy in Craven County who repeatedly tells his audiences to give to local candidates, ones with whom they can get face time with, instead of state or national committees. The opposite is like writing a big check to the IRS…has that ever are you feel good? It never has me even though I understand and support the system