NC-09: Dan & Stony, a budding bro-mance
The fireworks in the special election for the Ninth Congressional District seem to be relegated to the campaigns of Union County commissioner Stony Rushing (R) and state senator Dan Bishop (R-Charlotte).
Early voting is already underway. Election day is May 14.
What seemed to ignite the unpleasantness between the Bishop and Rushing camps was the decision by the DC-based Club for Growth to (1) attack Rushing and (2) endorse Bishop.
Rushing supporters have questioned the veracity of the Club’s ads against Rushing. They also point to The Club’s constant criticism of Trump as something they want no part of. In fact, the Club’s clashes with Trump have allowed Team Rushing to position Bishop as “anti-Trump” because of his association with The Club For Growth.
Rushing supporters are also hoping the Club’s luck in their district will be as bad as it was in the Third. In that race, the Club went all in for Celeste Cairns — who finished 9th in a field of 17.
Bishop, however, has the money and the organization to run the table and land a seat in Congress. He’s already on TV. And, thanks to his work on behalf of HB2, he has strong support from religious / social conservatives.
Rushing has countered Bishop’s high-dollar, high-profile offensive with a grassroots, social-media centered campaign. His Facebook page touts endorsements from the Scotland County sheriff, a Bladen County commissioner, and various mayors and city councilmen spanning the width of the district.
Combatants in the Ninth need to pay close attention to what happened in the Third. It, too, was an off-year special election with not much voter interest. The strongest get-out-the-vote efforts (GOTV) made the difference there. People who intended to vote were doing it because they already knew they liked a particular candidate. Ads and mailers were not swaying them.
The GOP field also has two ladies that folks need to keep an eye on. Leigh Brown is a Cabarrus County realtor who has major financial commitments from national real estate PACs. The word is the PACs are planning to hit Bishop hard in coming days.
Former legislator Fern Shubert is another one to watch. She’s running a low-key, low-budget effort. But she’s a known quantity who has snuck up on and SHOCKED the big boys before. Shubert is a solid conservative who has racked up a lot of gratitude from voters for her work in the legislature and her public service outside of Raleigh.
The odds may not favor Fern, but as the one candidate I know and have known a long time, she’s the only one that won’t disappoint conservatives, in Washington. Rushing sounds like a good one as well. Wouldn’t vote for any of the others as I suspect they’re not inoculated against Washingtonitis.
Stony Rushing is the real deal. What you see is what you get. Dan Bishop is
a dirty politician lawyer who conspired to call for a new election against Mark
Harris before there was any evidence of wrong doings and still are none.
Bishop and his Club for Growth are running the dirtiest campaign against a fellow
Republican that I have ever seen. Heaven forbid his winning the primary but if
he did he would lose the general in a landslide. This election is not for sell Dirty Dan.
Clayton,
That is not an accurate statement.
Once the NC SBOE found voter fraud, the Legislature had no alternative but to order a new election. You can have a candidate choice but the voter decision must be based on facts and the candidates conservative record.
Voter fraud in that district, thanks to Robeson county, happens every election cycle, and everyone knows it. Now all of a sudden, the Legislature is paying attention? What’s different? Oh, right…….your establishment buddy Pittenger got upset by the Republican voters of the 9th district, so y’all decided to give them the Hasan Harnett treatment. No wonder you people are on track to lose the majority in 2020.
Wrong Bob, but thanks for showing your true colors. The supposed
“fraud”was against an over zealous campaign worker for transporting
absentee ballots for voters and hasn’t been found guilty of even that yet!
Not one vote, that’s one Bob, changed and Mark Harris won by 905 votes!
So why did the the Senate vote for a new election before the evidence was presented.
Because the Club for Growth wanted a candidate they could control maybe?
And when you hear about Mark’s serious illness while watching his son play
John Dean you are going to regret your support of dirty Dan. If Bishop doesn’t
know Union he will if he ever runs hear again. Wait till you hear the story about
Stony appointing his Eagle Scout son to a committee that needed a youth member
and he asked if he should recuse himself from even that. That’s dirty as in Dan, Bob/
Many people have asked me how did we get to this point and why did our elected officials not do more to protect our vote in 2018?
That is a great question and here are some details. On December 6, 2018 Dan McCready took back his concession to Mark Harris’s victory. The Republican Party leadership in Raleigh had already given up on our chosen candidate and the Democrats were emboldened. Dallas Woodhouse was spreading the story that there was an audio tape “smoking gun” of Mark Harris admitting guilt. I 1st heard this story from UCGOP Chair Dan Barry as he called all the Union County Commissioners to tell us about the “smoking gun” and how we should back off our support for Mark Harris. I told him then it wasn’t true and to stop spreading lies.
Just days later when the State House and Senate Republicans voted on December 12, 2018 to call for a new election that included a new primary, I confronted Dallas Woodhouse. I ask Dallas to let me hear the recording he had. “I don’t have a tape”, he told me. I asked, “What did the recording say?” He then admitted that he had only been told by a Washington reporter about rumors of a “smoking gun” and that it probably didn’t exist.
The odd thing is that the day before he and Chairman Hayes had been visiting State House and Senate members selling them on the lie that there was a “smoking gun” and we needed a new primary. This was confirmed to me by a House Member and a Senate Member (Dan Bishop)
The “smoking gun” turned out to be a photo of Mark Harris and McCrae Dowless at a Bladen County political event. The only audio tape we ever found out about was the Hayes FBI fundraising recording.
The difference in leadership we need and someone who will belief anything is important. What if a Washington Post reporter calls our new Congressional Representative and tells of a “smoking gun” against our President?
I have fought for your votes to count and we need someone to take the true story of what happened to our votes to Washington DC. Senator Bishop could have done more and should have done more. He is after all a Chair on the NC Senate Elections Committee. If you are tired of the same old games from insiders then I am asking for your vote for Stony Rushing in the May 14th Primary. It is time to send a message to the insiders who cast out our vote to get what they wanted.
You will get mine Stony. And thanks for clarifying how the NC Senate Republicans
engineered this smear campaign of Mark Harris.