Berger crony, former Democrat operative are new *Republican* treasurer’s first two hires
*ChapelHillRepublican* Bradford Paisley Briner IV is already making his mark on the state treasurer’s office he’s set to take over upon incumbent Dale Folwell’s retirement at the end of the year.
First, the new chief of staff is a former *education policy* advisor to the Senate president pro tempore. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Raleigh dialect of bullcrapese, the Senate president pro tempore is none other than senator Phil Berger of Rockingham County.
Senators have been working diligently to place Berger and his team in charge of every aspect of state government. So, it only made sense to put a Berger lieutenant in charge of the team at the treasurer’s office.
Outgoing treasurer Dale Folwell resisted the bullying from Berger and his minions and maintained some independence for eight years. Now that Briner — recruited and funded and managed by Berger right-hand Jim Blaine — is replacing Folwell, all of that kind of behavior should change.
The new *chief investment officer* previously worked in the treasurer’s office for then-treasurer Janet Cowell, a Democrat. He left the office during Folwell’s first year in office – according to Briner’s release – to go work for the Saudis. It’s got to be one hell of a pay cut to move from a private Saudi-owned enterprise to North Carolina state government.
All this is nothing new for young master Briner. He’s been working for two Obama fans — Michael Bloomberg and Steven Rattner. You may, or may not remember, that Rattner had some legal trouble with the SEC regarding the NY state pension fund. (More here. )
Interestingly, during the general election — when most Republican nominees are criticizing Democrats – Briner spent most of his time attacking retiring incumbent Republican treasurer Dale Folwell. Folwell – in charge of managing the state employee health and retirement plans – was criticized by Team Briner for being *too conservative* in his office’s investment strategy.
Another way to look at a *conservative approach* : playing it safe ensures that you have money in place and growth long-term. When you’re talking about people’s retirement and health coverage, you want to make sure there is money around when these folks need it.
You can lose it all rather quickly being aggressive and betting big.
If you thought Jim Black and Marc Basnight‘s stranglehold on Raleigh was a little too tight, just wait until Berger & the boys start ramping things up. Those old days will look like patty cake in comparison.
The 2024 vote — apart from Trump’s victory – was not much to write home about. Berger’s team won two statewide races it *managed* — auditor and treasurer — while losing two – attorney general and governor.
They’ve already given us a hint of where they’re going with newly-elected auditor Dave Boliek. Some legislation just got passed on Jones Street moving administration of elections into the auditor’s domain. (Boliek told the drive-bys he didn’t ask for that. Brace yourself, Dave. You’re in for a lot more moments like that over the next four years.)
With the auditor and treasurer offices under his thumb, Berger gains tighter control over state employee benefits, the administration of elections, and whose books get inspected.
Berger already owns the General Assembly and has weakene
d the attorney general and governor. He – with his son’s help – owns the NC Supreme Court. Berger’s daughter oversees the *revision* of state regulations. His other son sits on the Rockingham County board of commissioners and helps dad keep his thumb on the folks back home.
I swear — I don’t think we asked for this kind of crap. EVER.
Term Limits would be helpful at ALL levels of government. I remember around 2011-2014 Berger used to be the Conservative guy while Tillis was (and still is) the RINO guy. Berger is now the super RINO.
Simply put Berger has been there too long.
Berger-world is a cancer on the Republican Party that must be cut out to save the party. Undocumented Democrat Briner is an example of that. When will someone bring traitor Berger up on party disloyalty charges for openly endorsed a liberal Democrat in a competitive race for judge that the conservative Republican subsequently won? Berger needs to GO!
How much should we bet that traitor Briner quietly gives all of those proxies back to globalist Blackrock to screw conservatives again?
NCGOP and the GA have purposefully /discreetly (to the public) have dissolved all connections except in party affiliation. The charge of “party disloyalty” is reserved for wayward grassroot conservatives that challenge the establishment orthodoxy… like spontaneous leadership elections.
Who IS surprised?
Recall Truitt, 1st HIRE was the most lib DEM in NC.
And we have 4Y of mediocrity and lib policies.
Unfortunately, we NOW have an extremist lib for 4Y since ncgop decided to DO NOTHING.
Come on folks/Conservatives, NOW is the time to begin organizing, networking for 2026 and 2028 and the ncgop state convention
You’re right. The council of state massacre was a monumental disaster. Losing the Superintendent of Public Instruction race to an extremist lib is particularly galling. How does the NC GOP let this happen, particularly in a Trump wave year. So much for the gains many of us have been making on local school boards. Even on those county boards with Republican majorities, it means little. Oftentimes the real split is between conservatives and the alliance of Dems and RINOs. That is certainly true in my county.
Now is the time to begin organizing. I encounter lots of people that are veterans of all of this that are now jaded. Many have quit, because of the obstacles we will have to encounter along the way. If we win it will be undermined. Every hook and crook tactic will be used to keep conservative/grassroots from winning. Yep, that is the reality.
Hell, I don’t like many of these people either. But when we quit, we may as well call it a surrender. I can’t proudly display that banner. They want us to quit. Giving up on ballot access is not in my interest. I’d rather irritate the bastards. When we surrender it’s over. As for me, I have not yet begun to fight. As long as we have that mindset, we have not surrendered and are not beat.
even if, what fealty will be reserved/observed for the State Party by the GA? None.
Both the State party and the GA are in it for themselves.
The Ga and the state party can go 180 degrees and neither will effect any directional change on the other. They built it like this. The last critical mechanization was Sen Warren’s prescription that the State party(s) can no longer determine who is allowed to vote in party primaries/selections. The State Party elites were very happy to be dictated to by the the amendment(to the crime bill). Its all a facade to insulate those who get cut a check over and under the table.
If this could be shown to the masses there might be enough anger to propel a majority to commit to measly 4 days a year… the last 2 at state convention to overthrow the horde behind the curtain.
Yes. It is that bad.
There continues to be a substantial number of people oblivious to all of this, even though there are an increasing number of the masses that are seeing it. So far, it’s not enough in my county. Those of us willing to commit to the measly 4 days a year are not being joined by enough help to quite turn the tide for local control. That makes us susceptible to your other example of charges of party disloyalty (virtually always baseless), while those in the slight majority are usually up to their eyeballs in party disloyalty with little or no repercussions. That’s one of the dirty tricks. There are more.
It’s frustrating being a few votes short of liberation from this situation. I suppose I’ll keep trying until it gets bad enough to force me underground. At some point that might be the preferable option.