Do all roads lead to Art?
For years, I’ve been part of the crowd that has scoffed at the leftist claims of a conspiracy by Art Pope to take over everything. George Soros with a drawl?
But the way things are coming together in politics this year, it’s getting tougher to dismiss those conspiracy stories.
We reported earlier on Pope and his organizations using their cash as leverage to gain control of conservative media in the state — stifling any and all criticism of Pat McCrory and the RNC.
The NCGOP chairman, elected in an upset over a GOPe anointed candidate, is being savaged publicly by elements of the NCGOPe. One week before he is to preside over the state convention, GOPe muti
neers are gathering to try to depose chairman Hasan Harnett. There are accusations of criminal and unethical behavior supported by little to no evidence. No one has alerted law enforcement. Yet, the move to fire him is rolling along. (And the meeting to do so is scheduled for a day Harnett made clear to party leadership he would be traveling out of the country for his private, personal business.)
Why is this happening?
Let’s go back to the drivebys in March:
With his preferred candidate Marco Rubio dropping out of the presidential race this week, North Carolina conservative donor Art Pope said he’s interested in joining an open Republican convention as a delegate.
Pope – who owns the discount store chain Variety Wholesalers and served as Gov. Pat McCrory’s budget director – endorsed Rubio in December and said he’d raise money for the campaign. In January, records show he gave $250,000 to Conservative Solutions PAC, a committee backing Rubio.
Reached Thursday, Pope said he won’t endorse any of the three remaining Republican candidates until the Republican National Convention in July.
“Right now, I am staying uncommitted,” he said. “I may seek to be elected as a Rubio delegate. I do believe that there may be an open or contested convention.”[…]
The current mutiny against the
state party chairman is being driven by NCGOP executive director Dallas Woodhouse – a longtime underling to Pope and his various political undertakings.
I’ve talked with a handful of Republican legislators who tell me they are seeing Pope’s fingerprints on the coup effort against chairman Harnett. Raynor James — a Tea Party activist from Craven County married to NCGOP executive committee member Hal James — took this a little further in a statewide email blast:
[…] The rumor is flying around hot and heavy that Art Pope wants tohold one of the uncommitted delegate seats from North Carolina at the National Convention. There are 3 such seats. They are to be held by the NC GOP National Committeeman, the NC GOP National Committeewoman, and (you guessed it) our beleaguered NC GOP Chairman, Hasan Harnett.
Does Art Pope really want to chair the NC GOP? No. Of course not.
He has bigger fish to fry. He can leave the daily running of the party to Dallas Woodhouse. He wants to be a figurehead when it comes to the nitty-gritty, but he wants to pull strings for the establishment to avoid having Donald Trump or Ted Cruz be our nominee. […]
So that’s the plot according to the experienced among us. Hasan Harnett is to be removed so that Art Pope can help the establishment ensconce Marco Rubio, or John Kasich, or someone of their ilk as our GOP Presidential nominee. It doesn’t matter what we the people of the Republican Party want. The establishment knows best, and will pull all kinds of dirty tricks to get its way. Doesn’t that idea make you feel warm and fuzzy?
Most people who have read the affidavit and “evidence” offered by the mutineers are still scratching their heads trying to figure out where the crime is. On the face of it, the whole 
Hasan-gate affair is a little hard to understand.
The move against Harnett is arguably doing damage to the statewide Republican efforts for November. Damage that would not be there if these people would have shut up, worked with the man, and let him do his job.
There are some elements among the plotters who are actually suggesting things would calm down and go back to normal if Harnett would just GO AWAY. Never mind the whole concept of insiders undermining the will of the rank-and-file with backroom shenanigans.
Though, in politics, just about everything has backdoor, backroom shenanigans tied to it. There is a seedy story behind the attack on Hasan Harnett. It’s about time for someone to ‘fess up and TELL IT.
What has happened to Art Pope? Backing an establishment squish like Marco Rubio who has bushwhacked conservatives on some major issues and been MIA on others? Now failing to get behind a solid conservative like Ted Cruz or one that at least we hope is what he says he is like Donald Trump? Why does he want to go to the national convention as an uncommitted delegate? To back Rubio or Ryan or Kasich?
All supporters of Cruz and Trump on the state executive committee need to stand by Hasan Harnett so that we do not go down this road that Pope seems to want to take us down. Denying the nomination to either Cruz or Trump and bringing in some loser as a substitute would destroy the Republican Party.
The claims these people make about having tried to work with Hasan and finding him unwilling ring pretty hollow in light of the fact that they started working against him before he was even elected. I am undergoing another surgery on April 28, and don’t know if I will be able to travel to the meeting on April 30. But if I can, I will be there to stand with Hasan. Yes, he has made some mistakes. But if these people had worked with him, instead of seeking from before the beginning to undermine him, we would not be in the sad shape as a party that we are now. We must repudiate such behavior, regardless of any of Hasan’s faults and shortcomings, simply because their intentional corruption and deceit are so much worse.
Clearly we have a lot of followers in the Central Committee and Executive Committee but no leadership. Why in the hell do you people fear ugly MA Cotton? Harnett was fairly elected at the 2015 convention. Love him, hate him, but respect him. Ya’ll in the CC and Exc C sound like a bunch of bigots. You are not in it for the good of the party, state or country, you are in it for power. Shame on all of you.
First insulting peoples looks does not help your argument
second your argument is flawed because lots of ex-com members are not out for power
Most people are on the committee to help America and protect conservative values in their political party not for power
Then they show up to the meetings and get turned off really fast because the process of the meeting can be really bad and then they get turned off being involved and they do not show up to any more. They miss 3 in a row get kicked off and others get voted on and the cycle starts again
the people on the committee that have lasted then fall into two categories the ones still spending there hard earned money to attend the meetings for the good of conservative values and for the well being of the party
and then the group that is in it for power and yes they have gotten too much of it but these power hunger people are in the minority but are currently in powerful positions so this is the problem that does need to be addressed
One way to help the committee would be to develop a welcome manual that clearly explains the purpose of the committee and lays out basic guidelines and explains the process of the meetings. This would hopefully help with meeting attendance and more involvement during a new persons term on the committee
In closing insulting people on their looks or their motivation for working in the party will not help save the chairman and will not help to save our party. Both of these things need to happen
Neither the CentComm nor the legislator subset within the ExComm are necessarily bigots but that’s the only redeeming thing I can say about them. Their selfish, corrupt, and legally questionable actions are on the verge of destroying the Party but that is of no concern to them. In fact, the leaders of many County Parties stand in opposition to what these Central Committee oligarchs are perpetrating but much the way that We the People have let the Federal Government gradually strip us of our liberties over the past century, the NCGOP POO has been steadily modified over time to transfer power from the base to the State Party, thus, it is difficult to coalesce effective opposition from local organizations against the State party. There are some excellent proposals at the State Convention to return power to the base (one proposed POO change will remove legislators from the Executive Committee, for example) but people need to cough up the extortionate $90 fee and show up in Greensboro to enact these changes.
The curtain has been pulled back in the state and nationally and still we see the maneuvers to thwart the will of the people continue all as government and debt grows larger and our freedoms lesser. Cruz cannot get enough delegates. He is being used to stop Trump. That is clear. Central Committee sounds like sort of Communist doesn’t it? With these rules they can oust any chairman they don’t like. Will the body just tolerate it? Will you sit while they count the votes in secret? Or voice vote of the loudest? First they came for the chairman…..
And I guess the group on the Central Committee led by Stark and Cotten could be called the Politburo.
Oh, and I think Ted Cruz very well can win on a second ballot. The establishment led by people like Boehner and Rove do not want either Cruz or Trump but want to insert a third candidate. The establishment does not want a conservative outsider like Cruz or Trump.
Cruz and Trump supporters need to turn out and stop our NC GOP establishment from stealing control of the party, because that is what they are trying to do.
I guess I’ll keep reading about this food fight all the way to state convention.
Either the delegates take control and put the kibosh on the mutineers … or the party oligarchs maintain control and sour even more volunteers into quitting and shrinking the party.
What I never can figure out is WHO are the fresh people they expect to continue to join an organization and work for free, where they have no say on how it is run or who its leaders are, or how the money gets spent? Good luck with that.
This Marco Rubio connection with Pope is a real eye opener. Rubio is not releasing his delegates, which is ominous. This weekend, his loyalists outmuscled both Trump and Cruz at some Florida district conventions to put Rubio loyalists in the delegate seats. That is odd for someone who is supposedly out of the race.
http://www.redstate.com/streiff/2016/04/17/shocker.-marco-rubio-loyalists-fill-florida-delegate-roster/
Trump won all the Florida delegates in the primary, thanks to Bush’s loyalists making it a winner take all state. Rubio did not win any county outside of his home county in the primary, but now he is running a major ground game to put his loyalists in delegate seats. What does he plan to do with them?
With Rubio clearly up to something, his sugar daddy Pope seems to want to be part of it.