Thom Tillis: the, um, OUTSIDER ???
I had to replay THIS radio interview state House speaker Thom Tillis did with a Wilmington radio station to make sure I heard it right. Tillis laughs off assertions that he is the ESTABLISHMENT candidate in the GOP primary field for US Senate — insisting that he has a track record of FIGHTING the establishment. Seriously.
*How on Earth could you label someone trolling DC lobbyist offices for cash while hugged up to Karl Rove as ESTABLISHMENT?*
In the interview, Tillis points out that just eight years ago, he was a PTA president. And look at him now. Thom and the host left out a lot of detail, like: (1) Tillis’s tenure on various local government boards in Mecklenburg, (2) his tenure on the Cornelius Board of Commissioners (3) his tenure as NC House Minority Whip and (4) his chairmanship of the House Republican Campaign Committee. The interview also glosses over the fact that Tillis primaried — at the behest of Jim Black and Richard Morgan — outspoken conservative GOP legislator (and bona fide anti-establishment type) John Rhodes. Rhodes was instrumental in pointing out malfeasance / monkey business perpetrated by then-Speaker Jim Black and his co-conspirator Richard Morgan. (Black ended up going to jail. Morgan got knocked out of the legislature by a conservative primary challenger.) The Tillis campaign defended Black’s efforts in Raleigh during the campaign against Rhodes.
Can’t you just feel the anti-establishmentarianism?
Rove already has Harris lined up to split the so called “tea party” vote with Brannon and Brannon has the most inept campaign staff imaginable making Rove’s job a cake walk.When the campaign heats up Rove will leave Brannon and Harris in the dust.Brannon needs a complete overhaul and bring in a quick response team that knows gorilla warfare.His lil children are way in over their head and Tillis will be just one more establishment stooge.
bobby poon, I am curious why you say that Brannon’s campaign staff is inept. Really, I want to know because I like Brannon.
Betty, I’m pretty sure that you’re not going to hear anything from bobby poon. His post strikes me as the kind of thing the Rovians would do to demoralize Brannon supporters.
As for me, I had to chuckle when I saw the allegation about Brannon’s campaign staff. It is being run by one of the architects of Ted Cruz’s victory in Texas. There, if you’ll recall, there were also three candidates in the first primary, two of whom split the anti-establishment GOP (Dewhurst) vote. Dewhurst won the first primary, but inside the margin necessary for a straight win. When the second primary was held, Cruz won handily. NC is in a similar situation. Tillis might win the first primary, but unless he gets 40% of the vote (not a sure thing, since Harris strikes me as a weak candidate), he will very likely lose to Brannon in a second primary.
Also hilarious is the notion that Rove’s support spells doom for anyone he opposes. A quick check of his track record will dispell that. He may be “the Architect,” but as anyone can tell you, architecture is worthless if the engineering sucks.
… and if the materials to build either are defective or non-existent.
I hadn’t heard about the Tillis-Jim Black connection before. That’s poison for Tillis.
Any candidate that takes money from Rove is toast, period. I couldn’t agree more with Betty and Linda’s comments.
I so completely agree. Karl Rove is the kiss of death for anyone truly concerned about this country.
Yes, please explain what you mean. He has the same campaign manager as Ted Cruz did. I support Dr. Brannon and he has a great message, he will work for the NC people not the Party.
Did ya’ll not see the plagiarism that his campaign staff committed? They just cut and pasted from Rand Paul’s site. They have never won any campaigns and this Ted Cruz guy is overstating his role in Ted’s win.
Brannon hired the same firm that Rand Paul hired for his Senate Campaign. This firm with Paul’s permission wrote the content of his website. Since Brannon has similar stances on the issues as Paul, this firm felt no need to re-invent the wheel. This was not Paul’s written work, but the work of the campaign firm. Therefore there was no plagiarism. If you read the title of the very NYT Article you are basing it from, the title is speculative or as a question and not fact.
Sammy if this is true then why did the New York Times article make no mention of said firm? And why didn’t Brannon’s apology mention this? Brannon admitted that his staff wrote the piece and in person has admitted that everyone messes up in reference to his campaign manager. Where is this “firm” info come from that you are talking about?
Better question, and bear with me here … Why is staff writing the platform of the campaign? This is the very foundation of a candidate. In my opinion the candidate needs to have a direct role in this. A staffer doing it is bad, but if you are telling me he let some firm tell him what his platform is, that is scary.
Plagarism would be small potatoes, even if it were true, which it like is not, compared to what Tillis’ chief consultant, Paul Shumaker did. Shumaker was the scoundrel who negotiated the corrupt bargain between Jim Black and Richard Morgan, where Morgan and a few of his friends in an equally divided NC House sold out the GOP caucus and did their own deal with Black and the Democrats, giving real power to Black and some window dressing to Morgan. Shumaker went on to help the Black / Morgan allies in GOP primaries against conservative and party loyalist Republicans. Shumaker also worked heavily on redistricting that year, and helped Morgan knife conservative and party loyalist incumbents.
Shumaker is an even bigger evil in GOP politics than Rove, and he is a heck of a lot closer to Tillis, being his chief consultant.
If Republicans were to win a 1 seat majority in the US Senate, I would bet dollars to doughnuts that, given their history, Tillis would have Shumaker off seeing what sort of deal he could reach with Harry Reid to keep the Democrats in power.
Be careful…they come in all shapes and sizes….Mr ….Poon levels more fire at Brannon than Tillis.
Stay on track, the whisper campaign has begin.
cw
A politician could not get more establishment that Thom ”Toll Road” Tillis.
First, he gets recruited into politics by his mentors, the corrupt power bully twins Richard Morgan and Jim Black, to run against a grassroots conservative. Tillis was a Jim Black / Richard Morgan guy through and through.
Now, he is Karl Rove and the beltway DC establishment’s mongrel lapdog in the US Senate race, a total Rover.
And all through his career, as his mentors Black and Morgan taught him, Tillis has been a prostitute to the special interests.
Campaign sites that look alike ?!?! The horror. The horror. I say, I say there’s gambling in this here casino. Why, I here Brannon wears shoes, and so does Mike Lee! Coincidence? I think not!