A Berger-spawned RINO roars, thumbs his nose at the base. (Uncle Phil is pleased.)

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Recent alums of Phil Berger’s legislative staff are now calling the shots in the state auditor’s office. We’ve all witnessed the havoc Berger’s Jones Street team has played with conservative initiatives.  One can only imagine the shenanigans we’re going to see in the newly-recaptured state auditor’s office. 

Chapel Hill Republican Bradford Paisley Briner IV is starting to turn some heads. And not in a good way.

He. like Dave Boliek, was recruited to run for office, and had his campaign managed, by Jim Blaine (Phil Berger‘s political right-hand).   In addition to running and owning these two new *Republican* additions to the Council of State, Berger also *owns* the state legislature and the state GOP operation.  So, keeping an eye on all those things will reveal a lot of clues where he and his crew want to take this party.

So far, what we’re seeing from Briner is not promising:

To add to that, let’s look at the agenda for a recent state health plan board of trustees meeting. (As treasurer, Briner oversees the health plan for state employees.)  Check out the second to the last paragraph in the linked image below:

 

Phasing out the Clear Pricing Project (CPP) as *cost savings*?   The CPP is about transparency — making providers share how much they are charging the state and its health plan users.

CPP IS COST-SAVINGS.  It’s been a fantastic anti-gouging weapon.

*Imagine hiring someone and then having to just accept WHATEVER they demand you pay them.*

It was put in place by former treasurer Dale Folwell and the big hospitals with the pockets stuffed with cash HATE IT.   

The hospital lobby and their cabal of bought-and-paid-for legislators fought Folwell every step of the way on the CPP.  Now that Folwell is out and enjoying retirement and a much more controllable Briner is in place, the special-interest-cash-gobbling legislative *leadership* is home free to do whatever it wants.

And it WANTS to please the hospital lobbyists and gobble up some more Benjamin$. (None of us can pay them anywhere near what the lobbyists can. And for the Jones Street Mob, getting *PAID* is job numero uno.)

Briner is yet another piece of evidence you folks in Rockingham County need to look long and hard at before you cast your vote for state senator in 2026. You can do a tremendous service for the whole state by retiring Phil Berger.  He no longer gives a hoot about public service.  It’s self-service for him.  It’s about stomping the guts out of limited-government conservatism while rewarding cronies and family.

Once he’s gone, you won’t be represented by the senate president pro tem anymore.  Someone else will get that job.  But you will have a senator – Sam Page – you know and can trust. You’ll be trading a self-serving political hack for an honest-to-goodness public servant.  There aren’t many of us out here who can claim to be repped by an honest-to-goodness public servant.