Groundhog Day for Hasan Harnett

Remember the classic movie featuring Bill Murray, where his character kept experiencing the SAME DAY over and over again regardless of what he said or did?  Well, NCGOP chairman Hasan Harnett is living that movie. He keeps getting hit with the same weak, baseless allegations — even though he bends over backwards to provide documentation to refute them. 

The mutineers within his organization — still trying to undo the chairman election from June 2015 — have put out another nasty-gram insinuating a lot of bad behavior but providing no credible evidence. 

Harnett, like you’d expect from someone under public attack, has responded:

Dear Executive Committee Members,

The NCGOP Central Committee is charged with the mission of creating an effective Republican organization in every political Precinct in North Carolina. With this in mind, there is much work to do in order to get our precincts, counties, and districts ready for a battle royal against the Democrats in November. Unfortunately, witch hunts won’t help us achieve our organizational mission and neither will wild goose chases rehashed by members of the NCGOP Central Committee and staff. The overall effect; however, will effectively drag down the NCGOP, Republican candidates and judges running for office. I know that there are many who want to move forward and many who stand in this with me for the sake of the NC Republican Party. 

To my surprise again, the press, media, and many of you have received yet another public press release from Tom Stark, NCGOP General Counsel, and the NCGOP Central Committee; they continue their desire to publically tarnish the NCGOP, my name, and reputation in an effort to remove me as the NCGOP Chair, for the sake of what? I have tried for the past few weeks to resolve this privately to no avail.

For the last time, let’s set the record straight.

Alleged Hacking: After I called the convention on March 7, 2016, Dallas Woodhouse the NCGOP Executive Director, without any authority to do so, kicked me, the NCGOP Chairman, out of the databases, website, and my own email. I tried for many days to resolve these disputes internally, but Woodhouse refused. Dallas Woodhouse sent me an email on March 8, 2016, stating that the NCGOP Vice Chairwoman and my email were disabled because of a security threat to our website. After being shut out of the databases, website, and my own email, NCGOP Vice Chairwoman Michele Nix and I were contacted by Ken Robol, the website coordinator for the 3rd District NC Republican Party, telling us that he can “hack” into the website. As shown in the attached PowerPoint, neither Michele Nix nor I solicited the hacking of the NC Republican Party website and never ordered anyone to hack into the website. The allegations that I ordered Ken Robol to hack into the website are completely false and untrue. 

After text message conversations (see screenshots) with Ken Robol, Robol immediately went to Tom Stark, NCGOP General Counsel, to make a statement saying I ordered him to hack the NCGOP website. Ironically, the organizer of the NCGOP Central Committee meeting to censure me was Kim Cotten West, the NCGOP 3rd District Chairwoman, the same district where Ken Robol resides. I would call into question the statement from a person who “hacks” websites as a credible source for the truth. As you know, I released screenshots of the messages between me and Ken Robol eleven days ago (see attachment) as I have nothing to hide and did nothing wrong.

Tom Stark falsely stated that I used the term “entrapment,” I did not. Furthermore, making the claim that using the word “entrapment” somehow states an admission of guilt is absurd, especially coming from a legal professional. 

Alleged Funneling: Tom Stark also falsely implies that my setup of an EVENTBRITE account means I was trying to funnel money away from the party. Nothing could be further from the truth. After requests had been made to the staff to create an EVENTBRITE page for a fundraising event, a sample EVENTBRITE account was set up. The sample site was not set up to collect and there were no intentions to collect money through this sample account. Its purpose was to demonstrate the idea of what was needed for the upcoming fundraising event. Days later an NCGOP staff member finally created an official EVENTBRITE page, which was necessary for ticket purchase for the fundraising event held on March 20^th (raising over $21,000 for the party). The NCGOP State Convention Eventbrite page was set up by the NCGOP staff and money was never directed away from the NCGOP. 

Harnett says the scrutiny really needs to be applied to Dallas Woodhouse:

I have been more than willing to converse and talk about how we move forward, however, the conversations, as you see in these messages from Tom Stark, NCGOP General Counsel and members of the NCGOP Central Committee, are all one sided. Let us remember the examples of illegal and unethical behavior displayed by Dallas Woodhouse, NCGOP Executive Director, as he forged my name to a fundraising letter and violated the Plan of Organization in said letter by effectively endorsing a primary candidate. He also sent a call to convention, which he has no authority to do according to the Plan of Organization. There is a history of questionable choices in his past, which speak to the integrity of his character. However, we are talking about me, in a situation where our NCGOP General Counsel and NCGOP Executive Director went to the press first. The NCGOP Central Committee through the help of the NCGOP staff went public nationally with the attempt to censure the NCGOP Chairman through a “no vote of confidence resolution”.

It is extremely unprofessional and unethical for our NCGOP General Counsel to continue communicating accusations like this about a leader in our party. His statements are inflammatory and baseless while being laser focused on this attempt to take me down as the NCGOP Chairman; he fails in his duty to represent the interest of the party as a whole. His outspoken behavior is a disservice to our party, used to try and persuade members to take sides. 

I pray that our Party can get past this madness, none of us are perfect. Yet, even with these untrue allegations against me, attacking my character, and good name, I still believe we are all on the same team. We must come together and stop the NCGOP witch hunts so we can go win against the Democrats in November. Many agree that there is so much at stake for this year. If the NCGOP Central Committee is not steadfast on its mission of creating an effective Republican organization in every political Precinct in North Carolina then what are we really doing? Anything outside of the organizational mission is a distraction. Distractions, like NCGOP witch hunts and wild goose chases rehashed, will cost us the Presidency, Governorship, our majorities in the legislature, and will put our entire delegate at the RNC in jeopardy. 

Please contact Tom Stark, NCGOP General Counsel, and the NCGOP Central Committee members to demand that these public attacks stop (see below for a list).

Hasan Harnett 

Position	First	Last	E-mail
NCGOP Chairman	Hasan	Harnett	hasan.harnett@ncgop.org
NCGOP Finance Chairman	John	Palermo	jvpalermojr@gmail.com
NCGOP Secretary	Kim	Cotten-West	kimcottenwest@gmail.com
NCGOP Legal Counsel	Thomas	Stark	thomas@starklawgroup.com
NCGOP Treasurer	David	Cozart	dcozart1@nc.rr.com
NCGOP Vice Chairman	Michele	Nix	michele.nix@ncgop.org
Committeeman	David	Lewis	davidl@davidlewis.org
Committeewomen	Ada	Fisher	fisheram@msn.com
1st District Chairman	Garry	Terry	garryterry@outlook.com
1st District Vice Chairman	Linda	Harper	tl862@reagan.com
2nd District Chairman	Joyce	Cotten	joyce@joycecotten.com
2nd District Vice Chairman	Charles	Staley	cstaley@ltdkate.com
3rd District Chairman	Kim	Cotten-West	kimcottenwest@gmail.com
3rd District Vice Chairman	Ceil	Wasserman	nbncgoplady@gmail.com
4th District Chairman	Matthew	Arnold	mca@matthewarnold.net
4th District Vice Chairman	Dan	Phillips	fastandsly@aol.com
5th District Chairman	Dan	Barrett	Dan@barrettfirm.com
5th District Vice Chairman	Celeste	Stanley	ccstanley1@aol.com
6th District Chairman	Don	Webb	sails@northstate.net
6th District Vice Chairman	Steve	Herr	seherr10@embarqmail.com
7th District Chairman	Helen	Pannullo	bcgopgirl@yahoo.com
7th District Vice Chairman	Daniel	Ruggles	mrdanielruggles@yahoo.com
8th District Chairman	Morgan	Kelsey	1973kelsey@gmail.com
8th District Vice Chairman	Zachary	Almond	za.almond@wingate.edu
9th District Chairman	John	Steward	NCGOP9@aol.com
9th District Vice Chairman	Linda	Angele	langele@bellsouth.net
10th District Chairman	Ted	Alexander	ted@tedforsenate.com
10th District Vice Chair	Jordan	Barnes	barnesjordant@gmail.com
11th District Chairman	David	Sawyer	dasawyer13@msn.com
11th District Vice Chair	Leo	Phillips	Wnc_lawfirm@hotmail.com
12th District Chairman	Daniel	Rufty	daniel.rufty@gmail.com
12th District Vice Chair	Dawn	Walton	dawnwalton@live.com
13th District Chairman	Zan	Bunn	zanbunn@aol.com
13th District Vice Chair	John	Harvilla	jharvilla@nc.rr.com
Assistant Finance Chairman	Ann	Sullivan	ncdbann@aim.com
Assistant Legal Counsel	John	Lewis	ncgop8th@gmail.com
Assistant Secretary	Scott	Cumbie	scott@scottcumbie.com
Assistant Treasurer	Zak	Crotts	zcrotts@gmail.com
House Leader	Tim	Moore	timmoorenc@aol.com
Immediate Past Chairman	Claude	Pope, Jr.	claudepope@yahoo.com
Joint Leader	Pat	Hurley	pbhurley2006@yahoo.com
NC DCCA Chairman	Lee	Green	Lee.Green@ncgopdcca.org
NC DCCA Vice Chairman	Bob	Pruett	bobpruett@coastalnet.com
NC TARS Advisor	Justin	Burr	jpb@justinburr.com
NC TARS Chairman	Drew	West	its.drew.west@gmail.com
NCFCR Chair	Zachary	Almond	zachalmond@yahoo.com
NCFCR Vice Chair	Hayden	Duncan	haddun21@gmail.com
NCFRW Chairman	Zan	Bunn	zanbunn@aol.com
NCFRW Vice Chairman	Cornelia	Groce	colgroce@earthlink.net
NCFYR Chairman	Matthew	Hebb	matthew.hebb@ncfypr.com
NCFYR Vice Chairman	Clark	Riemer	clark.riemer@gmail.com
Past Chairman	Ferrell	Blount	fblount@blountpetroleum.com
Past Chairman	Bill	Cobey, Jr.	billcobey@aol.com
Past Chairman	Linda	Daves	LCDaves@aol.com
Past Chairman	Tom	Fetzer	thfetzer@gmail.com
Past Chairman	David T.	Flaherty, Jr.
Past Chairman	James C.	Gardner
Past Chairman	James	Hastings	KarenHastings@bellsouth.net
Past Chairman	Robin	Hayes	rchayes6@gmail.com
Past Chairman	Jane B.	Rouse	jrouse@realtyworldfirstcoast.com
RNHA – NC Chairman	Marlynn	Burns	mburns@carolina.rr.com
RNHA – NC Vice Chairman	Carlos	Vidales	cevidales@yahoo.com