FORMER GOV JIM MARTIN FOR NCGOP CHAIRMAN?
That is the hottest rumor floating around Raleigh right now. I am told the mutineers against incumbent chairman Hasan Harnett have secured the services of the former governor to step in and take the reins of the state party in the event current chairman Hasan Harnett is fired on April 30.
I remember Martin leaving office — throwing a fit, claiming he was DONE with politics because The GN&O and the rest of the drivebys were not nice to him.
I also recall him doing quite a bit of parading around with Jim Hunt, the capo di tutti of the state’s corrupt political establishment.
I also recall his endorsement of the John Kasich presidential campaign.
Many of you may also recall his oversight of the initial UNC athletics probe:
Nearly three years ago, former Gov. Jim Martin made a blunt pronouncement about the UNC-Chapel Hill academic scandal that brought cheers to fans of the university’s sports teams and relief to some public officials.
After investigating the scandal for four months, Martin delivered this conclusion to UNC trustees in a hotel ballroom packed with UNC officials and reporters: “This was not an athletic scandal. It was an academic scandal, which is worse; but an isolated one.”
UNC officials quickly seized on the finding to tell the public it was time to “move forward.” Shortly after, one trustee and UNC Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham said in an email exchange that the report likely dissuaded the NCAA from digging more deeply into the scandal.[…]
Going along with the mutineers would be a great way for Martin to kill off what’s left of his political legacy. Hopefully, someone will talk some sense into him about this.
I know there have been efforts to recruit former Chatham County GOP chairman Jim Duncan to take the post. A source close to Duncan tells me:
“Jim wouldn’t touch this train wreck with a ten-foot pole. He may consider running for chairman one day in the future, at an actual convention, when the position is open.”
Jim Martin was a great governor, far and away the best GOP governor NC has ever had, but that was a long time ago. He has been out of politics a long time and his support of Kasich shows he is now past it. Kasich is a leftwinger who is not really very different from Hillary.
Martin would be little more than a figurehead as chairman, and the question would be figurehead for whom? The rogue Central Committee that is steering the party over the cliff? The incompetent goober Woodhouse? That would be really sad.
The worst thing would be a Governor who actually respected the grassroots when he was in office being used as a tool by those who despise and want to suppress the grassroots.
This would be a disaster. Martin has not defended the Republican Party since he left office. In fact, he has abandoned it, like most Charlotte Republicans.
Robin Hayes would be a better choice
If any choice has to be made the Convention should make it not the ex-comm this close to convention
But the fact the people are already talking about who to replace the current chairman with really makes this whole thing really really stink. Like a hog lagoon on a boiling hot summer day in eastern NC
The ones out to get the chairman seem much more EVIL in their actions to get ride of him than any of the actions they are accusing the chairman of doing
Robin Hayes was an awful chairman. A total establishment hack. He is what the base is rebelling against.
Robin Hayes is who snuffed the investigation into Dr Ada Fisher’s wrong doings. “That has been fixed” he told me 3 times in an hour at a meeting in Roper NC. CRICKETS
Browny Douglas
Two things about this keep coming to the forefront of my mind. I understand why the central committee wants to get rid of the Conservative chair, but do they really have the power and authority to fire the chairman who was elected legally by the members?
Second, where are the Conservatives who elected Hasan Harnett? I don’t see them rallying en masse and railing at this group to demand an end to this mess. I was among the people who rallied in favor of Hasan Harnett at the District 2 meeting in Sanford a few weeks ago. There were very few people who even showed up at the rally and many of us were Unaffiliated Conservatives who came because rally organizers asked us to help fill in the ranks since the people who elected Mr. Harnett weren’t going to be there to support him.
Stinks, stinks of rotten politics. And yet the GOP still wonders why many of us are leaving the party!