A Coup in Craven County
The turmoil within the Craven County Republican Party is a symbolic, localized representation of the nationwide struggle between limited-government forces and statist establishment types for the soul of the GOP.
Thursday evening, county party leaders met and made two bold decisions: (1) to bring charges against county party chairman Paul Hill (see details HERE, HERE , HERE and HERE) and (2) to issue a public rebuke of senator Richard Burr for his comments and actions during the effort to defund ObamaCare.
The unrest appears to have its roots in the May 2012 GOP primaries. State House speaker Thom Tillis and other establishment types from Raleigh were accused of meddling in local primaries and attempting to sabotage conservative candidates. Craven County GOP leaders responded by issuing a resolution of censure against Tillis. Sources on the ground in Craven tell me that Hill acted in concert with state party leaders in Raleigh to sabotage the censure effort and thwart the will of local Republicans. My sources tell me that Hill’s actions regarding the censure were only the tip of the iceberg. I am told frustrations with Hill’s management of the local party have been growing over a period of months and months. Hill’s reaction to the censure, I am told, were merely the straw that broke the camel’s back.
My Craven sources tell me that Hill has 30 days to formally respond to the charges brought against him. At that point, a vote of no confidence will be held. It will require a 2/3 majority vote to remove Hill from office.
I spoke with one of the anti-Hill movement leaders within the Craven County GOP, who told me:
Under Mr. Hill, the local party has been a mess […] It’s not about growing the party and promoting the party platform. It’s been all about preserving and protecting political perks and power for Mr. Hill and his clique of cronies. […] Mr. Hill and his group have been working hard to shut conservatives out of positions of influence in the local party. Mr. Hill has ignored the will of party leaders — especially on things that have passed with a majority vote. […] There is no fundraising mechanism in place for the local party. There is absolutely no support in place for candidates in the 2013 municipal elections.
I asked another Craven GOP source about the resolution rebuking North Carolina’s GOP senator:
ObamaCare is the most serious threat our country has seen in a long time. The state Republican Party condemned the law in its party platform. The RNC passed a resolution demanding Republican leaders in Congress do anything and everything possible to kill off ObamaCare. Burr HAD his marching orders. Instead, he ridicules a serious effort to kill off ObamaCare, and makes statements helping Obama defend it.
NCGOP chairman Claude Pope and his team need to wake up and smell the coffee. There is a lot of anger and resentment at the grassroots level. I see and hear a lot of it here at this site. I talk to a lot of people around the state. The folks in Craven have been a lot more outspoken than others around the state. But the feelings expressed there are very similar to what I am seeing and hearing from other parts of the state.
Pope talked a good game, during his campaign, about unifying the state GOP. Whatever he’s trying, it isn’t working. Raleigh needs to rethink and adjust its game plan if it wants to avoid some very nasty surprises that thwart a potentially fantastic electoral opportunity in 2014.
This article is heads above the hatchet job in the Sun Journal that came across as a hatchet job and a swipe at Coastal Carolina Taxpayers Association and the tea party effort in general. Apparently the SJ writer was incapable of telling the difference between the Tillis letter and the rebuke of Sen. Burr.
Several members of the District GOP were at the meeting, and I think they were surprised to learn we were organized and civil in our presentation. This is about principles, not personalities. The actions are not some personal vendetta against Hill, but a reprimand of his failures to follow the wishes of the executive committee.
One would think the GOP would welcome the involvement of those who care about our Nation and the direction in which we are heading; that does not seem to be the case. Their own personal power seems more important than the principles of the GOP. They need us only to show up when there is actual work to be done and the rest of the time they would prefer we keep our mouths shut and follow their wishes. Many of us are tired of that scenario and are unwilling to comply.
I hope other counties will find the courage to follow our lead.
Bravo to the Craven County GOP. The arrogance of Richard Burr has been on full display. He obviously doesn’t care what the Subjects want. He has refused to meet with or even discuss the concerns of the people. His doubling down this week with his vote for Cloture (just like his cloture vote on the gun control bill) no longer fools the people. He is in direct violation of the Party platform both at the State and National levels. What does the Party stand for anymore? This issue is a Tipping Point for the party. 23 R Senators voted against the party platform and the will of their constituents, even though they knew they couldn’t win. Why? They felt it was more important to send a message to Conservatives then to Harry & the Pres. They have laid down the gauntlet, and the people received the message loud & clear. We say, bring it on!
I too call on the NCGOP to censure Richard Burr. The people say they’re (D’s& R’s) all the same. It’s getting more difficult to argue that when our US Senator continues to stand with Harry & Kay instead of his constituents. There is no difference.
We now know that Richard Burr owns #BurrCare and is a card carrying member of the DC #RINOsaursClub. The club is holding a fundraiser for Thom Tillis in DC and the icing on the cake is that #RINOsaur Karl Rove has officially thrown his support behind Tillis too. This is great news for NC-it’s Now crystal clear who the establishment candidate is and Conservs don’t need to waste any time wondering exactly what kind of US Senator Thom Tillis would be. He will clearly stand on the side of Harry & The Pres.
I am, in general, an establishment Republican. However, I applaud the Craven County GOP’s hard line local control. The folks in Craven County know better than those far away what is important to them.
I do have a cautionary note though. We must win elections. We cannot sacrifice our elected officials because they are not conservative enough when that will mean more liberal Democrats who intend real harm to our freedoms and our economy will get elected.
Walt-in-Durham
The real issue here seems to be that the Craven County Chairman has not been doing the nuts-and-bolts work needed to build an effective organization with which to elect Republicans in Craven County. If that’s the case, then the Craven ExComm is doing exactly what they have to in order to get an obstructionist out of the way and get about the business of electing Republicans.