DID NCGOP mislead grassroots activists?
There is something disturbing rumbling to the surface here in Moore County in the wake of the Nov 6 vote. The state GOP set up”NC Victory” offices all over the state. (We got one in Southern Pines, managed by one Eli Schilling — a young activist with close ties to the clique that controls the state party activist.)
Volunteers here in Moore County were recruited to go to the Victory office in Southern Pines to make GOTV phone calls. Local volunteers assumed — based on what they were told — that they would be calling their friends and neighbors here in Moore County.
When the volunteers hit the phone banks, they found they were being instructed to call mostly numbers in area code 704 that JUST HAPPENED to be in the 8th congressional district. (Moore is in the 2nd district.) Richard Hudson — also a member of the NCGOP controlling clique — happened to be running as the GOP nominee in the 8th district.
This adds to my theory that NCGOP cared MOSTLY about Romney, McCrory, Hudson, and Rouzer and threw everyone else on the GOP ticket to the wind. (That’s an unimpressive 2-2 record, there.) State senate candidate and NCGOP clique member Chad Barefoot — who got a whopping $800,000-plus in aid from NCGOP — was the lone outlier and exception.
Oh, they DID do SOME GOTV work outside of those races — mostly in the form of tweets from various regional offices. Our Twitter feed got the same form tweets from about a dozen regional offices throughout the campaign. What about the multitudes who are NOT on Twitter? I am still seething about the GOTV robo-call from Richard Burr at 7:20 PM on election eve. (Polls closed at 7:30 PM.)
We had a slew of good Council of State candidates who were polling well during the campaign who ended up falling short thanks to lack of funds (remember Chad’s $800,000?) and better performance by the Dems in getting out the vote
Bev’s recent letter seeking a federal grant for the implementation of ObamaCare noted that the Department of Insurance — headed by Democrat Wayne Goodwin — would be spearheading the implementation of ObamaCare in the state. Boy, it would have been nice to have given Mike Causey a little more help at the end of the campaign, when he was polling so well. Just think of the mayhem we could have caused the implementation of ObamaCare with a GOP insurance commissioner. Folks, elections DO have consequences.
Unfortunately, we have a party establishment that cares more about getting their friends into power than they do about standing up for principles.
Very good points. I’m also peeved that the “calls” that many of our NC Victory offices were making were predominantly to our certain base. Apparently when our state GOP headquarters said that volunteers had reached a million North Carolina voters or something like that, they were including messages left or info let on a doorstep, which I don’t really consider a direct, persuasive contact.
And, for what it’s worth, it was the Republican North carolina General Assembly in 2011 and 2012 (not the Democrats) who enacted the state law making the state insurance Commissioner go after federal grants for Obamacare. Causey wouldn’t have had a choice to do the same as Goodwin unless Causey wanted to break the law. And if you get a chance to see the video from the debate Mike Causey had with Wayne Goodwin, Causey agreed that a state exchange referenced in Obamacare was a better option than a federal exchange. So I’m not sure how much mayhem our man Causey would have caused on this issue if he had won the election.
Oh, this just reminded myself of a conundrum we Republicans are in. If we’re against the federal government getting into our health insurance system and there is an option to preserve the state regulation of insurance, then why are so many conservatives saying “just let the feds come in”. Maybe I’m missing something. Sounds like hypocrisy to me. And a dangerous slippery slope. Or are these various republican Governors and conservative legislators actually in cahoots with our very opponents?
I hope that everyone reading this resolves to be a delegate next June at the NCGOP convention.
I think it should be pointed out that per the first commenters point about the voter contacts. The victory program in NC was an extension of the victory program from the RNC. Because the RNC predominantly funded the program, their universe wa used. So, it would not be fair to criticize the NCGOP for the type of calls an to whom they were placed. Also, a voter contact was assumed when a message was left, when a door hanger was left, or when they talked to them on the phone. Considering there is only a 10% pick up rate on calls and even less than that on walks, it would be virtually impossible to have a meaningful conversation with 1 million voters in NC. Not to mention that most victory phone banks were only half full in the evenings and only the weekends could they get a few folks to walk.
I think that if you are going to be critical, be factually critical and understand fully the mechanics of the victory program.
Some major problems with this post Brant.
“When the volunteers hit the phone banks, they found they were being instructed to call mostly numbers in area code 704 that JUST HAPPENED to be in the 8th congressional district. ”
Perhaps this is because there is a limited amount of phone numbers to dial in Moore county? What are they to do once they move through Moore County? Should they redial it 10 million times over and not move outside of the county? Why are you pretending like there wasn’t a ton of door knocking going on? Alleging that the NCGOP is lying to people is completely out of line.
“This adds to my theory that NCGOP cared MOSTLY about Romney, McCrory, Hudson, and Rouzer and threw everyone else on the GOP ticket to the wind. (That’s an unimpressive 2-2 record, there.) ”
Actually that’s a 3-1 record for the state, and I’m still curious as to where your theory leads.
“Chad Barefoot — who got a whopping $800,000-plus in aid from NCGOP”
I pointed this out on an earlier post but since you and everyone else ignores it, here we go again. The gop of nc does the same setup as the democrats here. The legislative caucuses raise and spend their own money. This is not related to what the president or state party spends on statewide candidates. You all need to recognize this.
“Oh, they DID do SOME GOTV work outside of those races — mostly in the form of tweets from various regional offices.”
Another baseless allegation that the gop of NC only tweeted as their form of GOTV for other races. This is just getting sad brant.