#ncpol: Thom, meet Garland.
We told you about this some time ago. Now, it appears the big moment is upon us. Retired Raleigh financier Garland Tucker is stepping forward this week as a GOP primary challenger to special-interest-cash-whore Thom Tillis.
The Tucker campaign has acquired office space in Raleigh and has submitted filings to the FEC. Sources tell us the candidate will be having something of a coming-out party Wednesday on The Sean Hannity Show.
It appears somebody has already leaked the good news to McClatchy’s DC correspondent. Let’s check out this excerpt and see if we can’t guess who did it:
[…] Charles Hellwig, the former Wake County GOP chair and current 4th District GOP chair, is serving as campaign manager. Longtime Republican political consultant Carter Wrenn is also working for Tucker.[…]
Okay, so we’re down-playing the guy who has roughly 50 years of mostly success in the political game, while playing UP the guy who (1) presided over the spectacular 2018 wipeout of the Wake County Republican Party, and (2) presides over a GOP organization in a district OWNED by Democrats. *Gee — I wonder who spun this to the McClatchy guy?*
I do see that the Tillis campaign got to the McClatchy man as well:
[…] Though he has voted reliably with President Donald Trump, 94.7 percent of the time, according to 538.com, Tillis has earned criticism from some conservatives for his position on immigration, protecting the special counsel and Trump’s national emergency declaration.[…]
So, we’re just supposed to overlook Tillis’s 38% conservative rating by Conservative Review? His abandonment of judicial nominee Tom Farr, after having given us a bunch of lip service to us about how he was needed in the Senate to get us some conservative judges? His screwing of the Trump White House on border security, spending and tax issues? MORE:
[…] Tillis wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post opposing Trump’s national emergency, but ultimately voted along with the president’s position — earning national attention for his change of heart. […]
Jews call that chutzpah. The rest of us call it gall or hypocrisy. (Tillis changed up only when he learned that op-ed earned him political dead-man-walking-status back here.) MORE:
[…] Some Republican officials said, at that time, they would support a challenger. Several sitting U.S. House Republicans ruled out a challenge to Tillis, including Rep. Mark Walker from Greensboro, who initially left the door open.[…]
Getting mentioned in a federal criminal indictment will change your outlook on things, sometimes. MORE:
[…] Tucker expressed skepticism about Trump prior to the 2016 election. In a column published in The News & Observer before the 2016 election, Tucker outlined his reluctance to Trump’s campaign, but ultimately supported him over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.[…]
“As a conservative and a lifelong Republican, I stoutly resisted Trump’s nomination. First, I was for Scott Walker, then Marco Rubio, then Ted Cruz and finally John Kasich. Hence, my conscience is clear — I am in no way responsible for Trump as the nominee. But, alas, however we got to this point and whatever it means for the future, I’m left with the decision of Trump v. Clinton,” Tucker wrote in September 2016.
“It never feels very good to arrive at a decision via negative reasoning, but it’s far easier for me to commit never to vote for Clinton — and the 2016 Democratic platform — than it is to commit to vote for Trump. However, politics is always ultimately about pursuing the possible — not the ideal. For conservatives who could never vote for Clinton, the resulting by-product is necessarily a vote for Trump,” Tucker wrote. […]
Of course, Thom was with the rest of his GOPe pals in the Marco Rubio camp, right up until the Trump win looked inevitable. Early 2016 primary days — I can’t blame someone for being skeptical about Trump. Who could have imagined that we would have gotten what we have today?
I’ll never forget the anecdote from one of Thom and Susan Tillis’s former neighbors in North Meck: “If you want Thom to come over, just tape a fifty to your front door.”
During the 2014 US Senate race, Tillis took a bunch of cash from movie producers and then went out and pushed for restoring state film incentives. He took a load of cash from beer wholesalers while he was holding up craft-beer-friendly bills in the House. Tillis pushed appointments through the NC House based mainly on how much money the appointee had raised for him and his friends. He also did favors in the NC House for clients of his brother-in-law’s law firm.
Thom Tillis IS a swamp creature. He loves using the power of government to enrich himself and his friends. He and Miss Susie are the GOP version of Bill and Hillary Clinton. The sooner you get them both away from government, the better we all will be.
Hopefully Carter will do a better job here than he did with Francis DeLuca.
I am not a Tillis fan but I also will not vote for someone tied by the balls to The Locke Foundation. So, in this primary, I am very, very reluctantly for Thom.
Despite what this site may have to say about its leader, JLF and Carolina Journal are indispensable to the conservative movement in NC. They do some great work on school choice, transparency, alcohol deregulation, and the state budget. Find another reason not to support Mr. Tucker.
That may have been true in the past. But no longer. They plow thru millions of dollars every year to write policy papers. The whole shabang is worthless these days. Not to mention that after decades of talk about conservative ideas, they repeatedly, harshly and continuously trash the the only president since Reagan who actually has governed conservatively. All things related to the Locke Foundation, these days, are a waste of space, energy and money. I will not vote for someone who funds them.
I’m an ABTT…. Anybody But Thom Tillis and will encourage everyone I know to vote for Garland Tucker
I agree 100%……hell I would vote Hillary over Tillis at this point!
With his admission of supporting John Kasich, Tucker shows his hand. Why does this feel like Candidate #2 from the GOPe? (Since their boy Thom isn’t working out so well!) The chilling effect of his huge bank account will probably keep REAL conservatives from entering the race. We’ll be left holding our noses again and ending up with another senator in love with himself. Ugh.
Exactly.
Not a Tillis fan at all! I’m voting for Garland Tucker for a change, and not for the DC political establishment like Tillis!
The fact that he was all in mostly for the GOPe types disturbs me. That Rubio, then Kasich (ugh) preference is a strike in my book. My guess is we get a “Thom lite” candidate with this guy, in bed with the Chamber of Commerce and wanting all kinds of illegal immigration. I will likely vote for the guy in the primary because hopefully he is not as corrupt as Thom.
How dare you compare Susan Tillis to Hillary Clinton! Susan has done more for this state than any other political wife I can remember. The Susan Tillis Foundation’s goal is to deliver tangible financial grants and items to Active Duty Military Families. The Red, White and Bundled baby showers have been organized to donate baby clothing and items to young military families. These have been held all over the state and several are planned for this week. She is a true lady who has selflessly worked to make a difference for the military families that are serving in North Carolina. You need to apologize to the thousands of women who have supported this Foundation all over the state.
You have really gone too far with this whole vendetta against our sitting elected official in Washington DC.
The knee-jerk, “How DARE you?!” outrage reaction to any criticism of Thom or Susan Tillis has worn real, real thin. No one outside of the Meck GOP Coven takes it seriously anymore. It’s just a tactic to try to squelch criticism without actually addressing the points made by the critics.
Please take a memo to pass on to the other biddies to knock it off.
Thanks!
And speaking as someone who tried unsuccessfully to get help from Tillis on a veteran issue, I can assure you they’re not all that and a bag of chips when it comes to the military and their needs, either. Tillis has been in DC for nearly five years and hasn’t even tried to repeal the disabled veterans tax, as an example.
What are “biddies”? Part of a “Coven”? Please join the 21st Century, where women’s opinions have a place at the table.
Just how did the NC GOP figuratively descend to the ninth circle of Dante’s Hell? Why should any conservative continue to support such a rudderless and mindless party? McCroy blew the governorship. Mark Martin and Bob Edmunds gave away the Supreme Court. The GOP legislature scandalously appointed weak appeasers to the UNC Board of Governors who have accomplished nothing other than surrendering to campus radicals and criminal mobs tearing down monuments. Finally, there is the issue of a non-functioning state headquarters. Seriously, someone should write a book on the NC GOP debacle; while it would read like fiction, it would be the sad truth.
Well stated!
Let the past be history! Please stand by as we hold two Congressional Elections and, I think as or more importantly, elect new NCGOP Leadership on June 8 and hire a new ED by the end of June. The stakes have never been higher and this scribe, working in the trenches and critical of our elected leadership for sometime I can actually see rays of hope when we can coalesce the Chief of State at both State and Federal levels with a strong NC Council of State, the NCGA leadership and rank and file plus the reborn NCGOP to return us as a blood red state and leaders in the anti-socialist movement to save America. I am working to elect Jim Womack, Mariam Chu and Dan Forest, Republicans in CD3 and CD9 and to re-elect the TrumpPence ticket again in 2020 as we already have room reservations in DC for January 2021. Come join me in Concord and help make/see change happen!
I appeal to Garland Tucker to let his aide go NOW if he is already screwing up! We must rid NC of the two Senators who are not representing their constituents, no matter how they spin their support of Conservative Values or our President Trump. I am a #Never Tillis Conservative, I will vote for Jim Womack, MIriam Chu, work hard for Dan Forest and our judicial candidates and pray our NCGOP can be lifted out of the irrelevancy caused by Hayes and Woodhouse. Right now we are a sinking ship and must work hard to right it!
It’s even too late for Dan Forest or our judicial candidates to save the NC GOP. The establishment rot in the party is so pervasive, a few good candidates will make little difference. For instance, there is no way that Dan Forest or Paul Newby can begin to undo the damage of the Republican appointees on the UNC Board of Governors who have totally surrendered the state’s university system to the Radical Left. A tragedy for sure, but it’s done. And no one in the state GOP leadership cares one bit. That’s a fact.
Has anyone thought of drafting Bill Bennett to take over Richard Burr’s seat? (was just told Burr is not running again) Or, does anyone have any other ideas for a credible contender?