For Everybody else …
What’s left — beyond local races — are the legislative, congressional, judicial, and amendment decisions. Fasten your seatbelts as we hit you with our two cents:
NC Supreme Court. A victory in this race for Anita Earls (D) in this race would make the wildest dreams of George Soros and The Round Rev come true. The radical left would have control of a major organ of state government. Earls has railed about “cops murdering people of color” and praised African Marxist dictators. She’s defended cop-killers and worked overtime to quash efforts to instate voter ID. An Earls victory is a big win for the so-called “Moral Monday” freak show. 
Barbara Jackson (R) is the incumbent. She’s been a reliable conservative voice on the court. Jackson has run a horrible campaign. (She has Richard Burr, of all people, vouching for her conservatism.) It’s been looking like shades of Robert Edmunds circa 2016 all over again.
There is another candidate in the race: Chris Anglin (R). Ignore the R next to his name. He is a ringer meant to split the conservative vote away from Jackson. A Democrat goon is managing Anglin’s campaign. Anglin was a passionate liberal Democrat right up to the 2018 filing period. Wasting your vote on him is like voting directly for Anita Earls. HE is one big TRICK.
For the good of our beloved state, vote for Barbara Jackson.
NC Court of Appeals.
The NCGOP mafia in Raleigh got together and picked our candidates for us in this one. We’re looking at three seats.
Seat 1: Andrew Heath (R) v. John Arrowood (D). Heath is a Pat McCrory acolyte. He finished out the McCrory era in Raleigh as the governor’s budget director. He’s 37. This is a shameful piece of cronyism and patronage. But we might as well pick Heath. 
Seat 2: Jefferson Griffin (R) v. Toby Hampson (D) v. Sandra Alice Ray (R). Griffin got the blessing of the Raleigh mafia. But Ray is a sitting district court judge down in the Wilmington area. I’ve heard good things about her from some of our readers down that way. I don’t think she is an Anglin-style trick. This might qualify as a great opportunity to thumb your nose at Grandpa and Dallas.
Seat 3: Chuck Kitchen (R) vs. Michael Monaco (L) v. Allegra Collins (D). Fans of Greg Brannon may remember that Collins is married to the judge who presided over the lawsuit against Brannon late in the 2014 US Senate campaign. I guess we might as well go with Raleigh-anointed Chuck Kitchen here.
The Amendments.
There’s been just a wee bit of hysteria out there about these. Most of them are unnecessary — merely ploys to draw us sheep out to the polls. (Though, there has been very little pro-amendment marketing going on.) Here’s our take based on how they will appear on the ballot:
First: Hunting and Fishing. We were of mixed emotions about that. But our friends out on the coast helped open our eyes on this one. We’re going to say NO.
Second: Victims Rights. This is a nice idea, but WHY does it need to be in the constitution? This is overkill. Using a bazooka to kill a fly. Jones Street needs to muster up some courage and pass some legislation to address any shortcomings in this area. We say NO on this one. 
Third: The tax cap.I’m all for cutting taxes at any possible opportunity. But this is a gimmick. They’ve been bragging about cutting our taxes for years now, but stuff is still really expensive. Fees, service charges, and the like. That’s what they’ll still hit us with — even with an income tax cap in place. For the hell of it, vote YES. Send a message. But know that Raleigh is not sincere about this, and will still be looking for ways to pull more money from our wallets.
Fourth: Voter ID. Oh, hell YES. Mark that ballot with a smile on your face — knowing that the amendment’s approval will cause more psychological trauma in the greater Chapel Hill, Durham, and Asheville areas than election night 2016.
Fifth: Judicial vacancies. This is a power grab by politicians that does not benefit us. It’s a BIG FAT NO.
Sixth: Board of Elections / Ethics. We are being told that things will be much cleaner and honest if we take these two things away from ONE politician (the governor) and give it to 170 politicians (Jones Street). The House Ethics committee STILL can’t “find” that 2015 pay-to-play complaint against David Lewis. This one is also a BIG OL’ HELL NO, good buddies.
Got that? Two YES (FOR). Four NO (AGAINST).
Welcome back, Brant. Missed you the last week, hope you’re doind well.
RINO Justice Bob Edmunds basically destroyed the NC Republican Party in the last election. The GOP is desperately trying to undo that fiasco with these amendments, but I fear it’s too late. The party leadership might as well admit it and prepare for the worst. Even the state’s business community is not fighting the radical Anita Earls because they know the game is over. The GOP had the Supreme Court and threw it away. It ain’t coming back.
You are clueless. Bob Edmunds only mistake was hiring RINO consultant Paul Shumaker for advice. What screwed Edmunds was Shumaker’s horrible and incompetent advice, and the GOP House leadership following that advice.
The way to have held the seat was the same way we won all of the Court of Appeals seats the same election cycle, with a partisan election method, including primaries.
Instead Shumaker wanted first a California liberal style “retention election” – a fraud on voters that would have warmed the hears of the old Soviet politburo. Then Shumaker wanted a non-partisan election, something Democrats have always pushed for in our state.
As Rep. John Blust has revealed, the House Republican Caucus voted to use the partisan election method for the Supreme Court, which would have saved the seat. However, the leadership – Moore, Lewis, and friends ran the bill for Shumaker’s preference – non-partisan election – instead of what the overall caucus voted for.
It is the legislative leadership who is ultimately responsible for loss of the court, and they should ALL be kicked to the curb for that fiasco.
Now, the stupid election system they set up for the court this cycle threatens another seat. We need a totally NEW legislative leadership for the GOP in Raleigh. I have a hard time figuring out whose side this leadership is on. It does not appear to be ours.
As to Shumaker, he has been caught taking money from far left interests to push their policy before. Did he do so on court election methods, too? I would not trust that guy any farther than I could throw the legislative building.
If we had a normal partisan election this cycle, Barbara Jackson would be a shoo-in. The ONLY reason she is not is the asinine election system our incompetent legislators set up. It is the jungle primary, another Democrat scheme to screw Republicans (see Louisiana and California), but even worse since they omitted the runoff.
Our incompetent (ior worse) legislative leadership needs to pay for these transgressions. I hope sound-thinking Republicans will challenge and oust them.
On Court of Appeals seat 2, Jefferson Griffin is a sitting Wake County District Court judge who has been campaigning all over the state for this seat for many months, prior to the executive Committee vote. That campaigning got him the endorsement of the committee, not the whims of Dallas and Grandpa.
Sandra Ray was a johnnie-come-lately pushed by RINO consultant Carolyn Justice. By staying in the race, she will probably help elect a Democrat.
Jefferson Griffin is the conservative choice
Not only that, but Jefferson Griffin has been a source of help and advice to other Republicans making their first run for District or Superior Court Judge.
Eric is exactly right—the GOP will never recover from the Bob Edmunds fiasco. While Shumaker didn’t help, it was still Edmunds himself who committed political suicide, not only of himself, but the state GOP as well.
Edmiunds can be legitimately blamed for two things – 1) hiring Shumaker, and 2) listening to and rubberstamping Shumaker.
What cost Edmunds his seat and threatens Jackson’s seat is the asinine failure to use normal partisan elections for these seats. That is primarily the fault of legislative leadership, who did NOT have to listen to Shumaker, even if rubberstamped by Edmunds.
Shumaker pushed for and the legislative leadership enacted two very bad systems that are Democrat schemes. First it was the Soviet-style “retention election” that goose stepped all over the rights of the voters of our state to choose our judges. California Democrats created that monstrosity for partisan purposes. Then it was the Basnight-inspired non-partisan election, another Democrat scheme to make it harder for Republicans to be elected.
For our current Supreme Court election, the geniuses in our legislative leadership has tweaked another partisan Democrat creation to screw Republicans, the jungle primary, originated by Lousiana Democrats, making it even worse by eliminating the runoff part of it.
Edmunds was a fool to hire Shumaker and listen to him, but the real blame is on the legislative leadership for adopting this awful legislation that threatens our Supreme Court Republicans. And the NCGOP did nothing to stop it. We need a fruit basket turnover in both party and legislative leadership due to this absolute fiasco.