“Houston, we HAVE a choice.”
Conservatives have been told time and again to suck it up and get behind weak, spineless big government candidates. “Where else are you gonna go?” the RINOs sneer at us.
Well, it appears right-thinking folks fed up with the NCGOP now have an option. It appears, according to the state board of elections, that The Constitution Party of North Carolina has qualified for ballot access in the state.
The Green Party recently accomplished this feat, and the GOPe chortled and giggled. *A split on the Left. Hallelujah!*
I am betting the giggles have all died out in the GOPe parlors across Raleigh. Just think about what damage a Libertarian candidate AND a Conservative Party candidate can do to the hopes and dreams of a big-spending RINO in a general election.
I can think of a number of RINO’s who have earned Constitution Party opponents – Steinburg, Dixon, Saine, Szoka, Hastings, Hanig, Murphy, just to name a few.
Follow the money. George Soros couldn’t be happier. Purple may have just shifted to blue.
This is excellent news for those trying to get the GOP to 71 House or 29 Senate seats.
Yes excellent news. If we can add the “Constitutionalists” to the Libertarians your right we will teach Republicans a lesson and lose the Super majority and if its a big blue wave maybe more. At least set the Commies up for a 2020 shot and the majority. Then they can do the maps and add the expected 9 new Urban seats and a generational majority. How many hard core R’s lost in Primaries to an establishment type? Certainly those districts should naturally go to the hard core elements in a general election right? Nope… if we don’t get strategic and passionate to fight against those who would end our 1st and 2nd amendment rights and stagnate the economy then we deserve what happens.
The problem is too many Obama Republicans sitting in solid GOP seats. They need to be evicted, and hopefully in primaries. Party bosses from Raleigh meddling in primaries and in candidate recruitment make taking them out in primaries more difficult but that is where it should be done..
As much as I despise RINO’s I fear as close as elections are a 3rd Party would give elections to the Dems. Can you imagine a President Hillary? We already have to deal with 4 years of Cooper, is 8 a better option? The system is so corrupt I just don’t see a 3rd Parry winning. I’d rather focus on pulling the GOP to Conservatives than surrendering it
As I see it, the GOP needs to either adopt the New York plan or the Australia plan.
The New York plan is to allow cross endorsements. One candidate can run on more than one party line and his totals are added across the party lines. Thus a Republican also runs on the Conservative and Right to Life lines and his totals for all three are added together. This incentivizes Republicans to find candidates whom the other parties would also be comfortable with. If they don’t, then a candidate can run on just the Conservative line, as Jim Buckley did in 1970 for US Senate against liberal GOP incumbent Charles Goodell and a major Democrat. Buckley beat both and was elected to the US Senate..
The Australia plan gives voters a preferential ballot. They list their preferences in order. Someone on the right might vote for the National Party first, with the Liberal Party as second choice, then the Family First Party, then the One Nation Party, etc. Counting is lengthy. If a party once gets a majority, they win the seat. If no party has a majority, the votes of the lowest party are eliminated and its votes are redistributed to each voters next preference. That process continues until a party candidate has a majority. This system has led to some interesting results. The social conservative Family First Party always wins 1 to 3 federal Senate seats. In the last election, the stridently anti-immigration One Nation Party won four federal Senate seats and the anti-renewable energy Nick Xenophon Team won three, the latter party’s seats all coming from the state of South Australia. Two elections back the Australian Motoring Enthusiasts Party won a Senate seat, but lost it in the last election. For many years, the center-right Democratic Labour Party used this system effectively to constantly win seats, but they have faded.
There are ways to work with a third party situation, and New York and Australia offer the two best models I can think of.
Ignoring the GOP base and the principles it supports is NOT a good strategy, given this development.
A lot of faithful, conservative Republicans are signing on to the Constitution Party of NC–primarily because of RINO malfeasance and duplicity. Why should conservatives keep trudging to the polls every two years, only to be disappointed once again. Now we do have somewhere else to go, we have an option we can actually believe in. As a conservative student in the UNC system, I have seen firsthand how the RINO Legislature totally betrayed us with their RINO appointments to the Board of Governors. Conservative students are more isolated now on UNC campuses than ever before. Thanks for nothing, GOP legislators!
Constitutionalists understand when they’ve been screwed. While we get these new parties up an operational, why settle for the left-over, traveling RINOs looking for a new District to pillage? Since we have zero to lose, how bout we write in our preferred candidate at the general election and let the chips fall where they may. Nothing to lose with a Dem occupying the left-over’s chair for two years while we get ready to run the table on the Jones Street Mafia next go round. Yeah, let’s make this REALLY interesting.
I think the others who have voiced concerns about the impact on Republicans are dead wrong on several levels.
First, the Green Party is going to be on the ballot, and will be siphoning votes away from the Democrats. Second, it is profoundly wrong for citizens who feel abandoned and betrayed by the Republican Party and its elected officials to have no other option. While it is understandable that GOP elected officials feel they must primarily work for their big donors and for their own incumbency, some people want something different. And third, those who object are essentially saying that the Republicans ought not be accountable for abandoning conservative and constitutional principles. Perhaps a bit of competition will make them remember their base.
In fact, candidates who are real conservatives don’t have a fighting chance in the GOP coalition. All the big money is aligned against them. Many of the commenters above are suggesting that we should accept this situation, roll over and play dead. Fighting that status quo within the GOP is extraordinarily difficult. Good luck if you want to reform the party from within.
Remain mindful that the State Board of Elections must still take final administrative action before the Constitution Party gets on the ballot.
I suspect, Chairman, that while we all think we know how this venture will turn out, the law of unintended consequences will certainly rear it’s head at some point. If the NCCP fields a candidate in a given race, for example, and the Greens do not, only the NCGOP is likely to get undermined. That already routinely happens when Libertarians are involved. Not a criticism, mind you, and congratulations on your Party’s new achievement. I would argue, however, that this achievement is the result of a miscalculation by the GA GOP caucuses which may have thought that only the Greens had the energy and motivation to achieve ballot status. If so, a costly miscalculation indeed, and the NCGOP will likely scramble to mitigate via schemes such as those Raphael has suggested.
I am fairly confident that the Constitution Party candidate will get more votes than the Republican candidate in a lot of districts–especially if the Constitution candidate is well-spoken and speaks the truth. Many conservatives have been waiting for such an opportunity as this for years. Now we just have to start the fundraising and candidate recruitment. It will be so wonderful not having to choose between a Democrat and a RINO.
What to do? Should I run?
Bev Boswell
I don’t think the election law would allow you to run for NC House, although it would for NC Senate. Steinburg has a high likelihood of losing anyway in the general, given the makeup of the new district, but you would be blamed for it if you ran. I would keep your powder dry for 2020.
Beverly, only you, of your advisors, should make that decision.
Great points, Jackson, but it will always come down to the quality of the candidate in respect to what you’re saying. That varies for each district.
Unaffiliated voters outnumber Dems and Reps in my county. If they can gather votes from the GOPers who haven’t left the party yet, it’s likely the CP candidates would prevail.
The GOP has brought this on themselves. So be it.
The best way for the NCGOP to deal with this is new leadership – in both the party and the legislature. We need leaders that conservatives can respect to replace Hayes, Woodhouse, Moore, and Berger. They need to be policy oriented on conservative principles, not power oriented.
Our team ran on the foundation of principle over party. We ran on honoring our constitutional oath. We were honored to have won over 90% of the county and congressional polls vs Tillis in 2014. Those results proved , that the rank and file are looking for true constitutional representatives, but in end, the progressives have the results they desire, because they control the system. They want to have the illusion, they are the only option. “They are better, than the other guys.”All the time our constitution is laughed at. Now having a real choice , we somehow are the bad guys?The party I have belonged to for 40 years , says they are the “ party of the constitution “, but their actions have destroyed that very same constitution. A legitimate government, as per the Declaration, protects the individual’s inalienable rights of life , liberty and property. Today our government is the enemy of that principle. Progressives of both parties have help kill the American Experiment.
What is the establishment so afraid of? Being exposed, that has already occurred. Tillis supported Obamacare exchanges, amnesty, TTP, wants practical gun laws, private public partnerships and funded common core, yet he was elected ? That’s why, when people say , “ we can hold their feet to the fire” after they are elected are only fooling themselves.
If one wants to continually be used by the progressives, then continue down the same path. Having a true option of a constitutional candidate for every state and federal office, is the best option to truly save The American Experiment!
Please remember, the solution of Liberty over coercion, Freedom over compulsion is in the mirror! Be a king , be a queen, do not continue to be a serf.
You are so right! Imagine what you could have accomplished in DC if the voters of NC would have chosen you! I hope we get to have that chance again to elect you and have a true Constitutional Conservative representing NC!
Are you available?
Last time I read it, the only unalienable Rights referenced in the Declaration are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness…
I think Donald Trumps election was a great example of how the people voted for principle over party. The establishment Rino’s, including Tillis, are trying to diminish Trumps agenda at every turn. maybe a conservative candidate can really turn the tide and drain the swamp!
One benefit I can see from having the Constitution Party on the ballot is the ability to impact policy just by being there.
For example, when the cowardly leadership in the legislature was trying to cave in to the leftwing corporate bullies on repealing HB2, the Constitution Party could have announced that it would be targeting districts of all legislators who voted to repeal HB2 for recruiting CP challengers. Something like that might have killed the whole leadership betrayal of the Republican base all by itself.
larry.yarborough is worthless. Please someone run against him!
Is Woodhouse the NCGOP’s Frau Merkel? By bringing in Muslim migrants, Merkel drove lots of her own party’s voters to the new AfD party of the populist right. By pandering to the homosexuals, Woodhouse may be doing the same job of recruiting GOP voters for the new Constitution Party.
Canada gives an interesting insight of how conservative third parties can thrive in a first-past-the-post system like our elections.
Breakaway conservatives in the province of Alberta organized the Wild Rose Party, and in its second election Wild Rose became the second largest party in the legislature behind the Progressive Conservatives. In its third legislative campaign, Wild Rose won over twice as many seats as the Progressive Conservatives, but the division of the conservative voter base allowed the leftist New Democrats to win an overall majority. That led to merger talks between Wild Rose and the Progressive Conservatives, which were successful in forming the new United Conservative Party, which has generally adopted the more conservative Wild Rose policy positions.
In Canada as a whole, the Reform Party was formed to the right of the Progressive Conservatives, and quickly wiped out the Progressive Conservatives in western Canada in national parliamentary elections. The following election, they did the same in the highly populated province of Ontario, and confined the Progressive Conservatives to the sparsely populated Atlantic provinces. Then the Reform Party absorbed the remnants of the Progressive Conservative Party, and changed its name to the Conservative Party, going on to win three straight national elections.
When the political chemistry is right, as it was when the Wild Rose Party and the Reform Party engaged in Canadian politics, there is potential for a new party. I suspect that here in the US, how the Trump factor plays out will have a lot to do with whether this new party venture succeeds or not.. The experience of Wild Rose splitting the conservative vote and letting the left into office is also a concern here.