Sources: NCGOP HQ siding with Tillis re: spat with Craven GOP
We broke the story yesterday about the vote in Craven County to censure state House Speaker Thom Tillis. Now come word, from sources close to the censure effort in Craven County, that county party chairman Paul Hill and officials with the state GOP are trying to put the kibosh on this whole affair. One local source tells me:
“Lawyers from the state party are saying that the letter of censure is not valid because — their words — the vote did not occur at an ‘official meeting.’ We beg to differ with that assessment. I think it is quite telling about the mindset in Raleigh when they try to nitpick this over technicalities, instead of discussing the substance of the matter. It’s not like the concerns we’re raising about Thom Tillis are brand new.”
This source tells me that the censure issue will be a hot topic of discussion during the Third Congressional District GOP meeting in New Bern this weekend — and at the state GOP convention in Charlotte next weekend. My source tells me the Craven GOP will meet again the week following the state convention to press forward with their concerns about Tillis.
Another Craven source tells me that local GOP activists and leaders in Lenoir, Rockingham,and Dare counties as well as in a number of western counties, have been in contact with Craven censure supporters and are showing a lot of enthusiasm about replicating the Craven County party’s efforts.
The NCGOP state executive committee should vote on censuring Tillis. The acts of these state party minions are totally inappropriate, and it seems they are backing Tillis in the Senate primary. Shame! If the NCGOP General Counsel and / or Assistant General Counsel are involved in this travesty, they ought to be voted out of office when their seats come up at the State Executive Committee meeting in June.
Hats off to the Craven GOP, at least most of them, for standing on principle, instead of blindly backing an individual. HQ’s attempt to stop the censure belongs on the political amateur hour. The cat’s out of the bag. That genie is out of the bottle. That ship has sailed, and passengers await to board at many ports. Thom’s chickens, have come home…to roost. And just so you y’all know, got a call late last night. The call was from a dark, smoke filled room in Raleigh. I’m being primaried. Yep, this time, in 2014, you may be seeing comments from Tofu Biscuit.
Mr. Hill is out of line if he thinks the letter is getting squashed. To send the letter was voted on at the regular meeting and was passed. The chair can’t arbitrarily pick and choose which votes to follow. How do we expect to be able to fight for freedom in the Nation if we can’t even have it in our own party? There will be a war between the Establishment GOP and grassroots activists who care about liberty more than politics.
The county chairman has undoubtedly been on the receiving end of pressure from Raleigh and that is absolutely outrageous. NCGOP HQ needs to keep its stinking hands off of local parties! More specifically, the party General Counsel and Assistant General Counsel seem to be involved, as at least one of them was in Flyergate at the last state convention. The grassroots needs its own in those positions. They will come up for election again next Sunday at the State Executive Committee meeting following the convention, and will be voted on for a new two year term, The grassroots needs candidates for both positions to challenge the establishment drones now in office. The General Counsel is also a voting member of the Central Committee. Indeed, the grassroots also needs to put forward candidates for the other offices elected at that time – Treasurer, Secretary (both voting members of the Central Committee) and their assistants.
As one of those that vote in favor of the censure it bothers me that the state NCGOP will not allow the NC counties to exercise their right to vote. We started this on a regular schedule meeting 5/23/13. We took a vote in favor of the censure. We took another vote to clear up gramatical errors in the first letter in a meeting on Tuesday 5/28/13. Paul Hill was unable to attend the regular scheduled meeting. He did attend the second meeting. In the second meeting the board went line by line voting on each line. If the NCGOP continues on this path it will lose.
I agree that the NCGOP General Counsel and Assistant General Counsel are way out of line on this, just as one of them was in backing up Tillis in Flyergate. They are party officers and subject to election. The way to deal with that is to throw the bums out. They come up for election this very Sunday at the State Executive Committee meeting following the state convention. Recruit candidates against them and replace them. Don’t just sit back and complain. Vote them out.