Just when you thought there couldn’t be any more drama or intrigue …
Mark Robinson and his beleaguered gubernatorial campaign have been hit with a legal complaint from a reported creditor seeking a restraining order and a preliminary injunction. (Robinson, through a spokesman, has denied owing the reported creditor.)
The plaintiff seeking the action is a Wyoming-based group called Vox Insights. Vox alleges that Robinson’s former campaign manager entered into a contract for services with them valued at $114,000. The Wyoming firm appears to be concerned that Robinson’s campaign will not be in shape to pay the debt after the election. So, they want some help from a NC court. Here are some details:
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Now that we have that information, let’s look at a timetable:
- According to our research, Vox Insights incorporated in Wyoming on August 20, 2024.
- According to this legal complaint, Robinson’s then-campaign manager signed a contract on September 13 with Vox reportedly worth $114,000.
- On September 18, Vox reportedly sent the Robinson campaign an invoice for $114,000 payable in 30 days.
- The CNN porn story hit around September 18.
- News of the mass-exodus of Robinson campaign staff broke around September 22.
So, that’s a nine-day period between the signing of the contract and the mass-quitting of the campaign team. (Five days between the signing of the contract and the issuance of the invoice.) Was that enough time to complete $114,000 worth of work?
The complaint was filed on October 28 in a North Carolina court. That was 45 days after the signing of the contract, and 40 days after the issuance of the invoice. Was that long enough to complete $114,000 worth of polling work?
Another question is hanging out there. John Locke has also worked with a pollster calling itself Cygnal. (The complaint says Vox / its parent company do business as “Cygnal.”) You would think Locke and Robinson would be seeking the same answers in their polling. Locke makes all their polls and supporting data available publicly. So, WHY shell out $114,000 when you could have gleaned a lot of useful info from Cygnal’s work with Locke?
We talked with a number of experienced state-level campaigners who tell us individual polls can typically run in the $10K to $20K range apiece. How much polling could have been done between the September 13 contract signing and the September 18th issuance of an invoice?
Another tidbit to toss out there: Robinson’s predecessor as lieutenant governor – Dan Forest – is an employee of the law firm bringing the complaint. Heather Whillier — the Robinson campaign’s former finance director – was one of the staffers who left on September 22. She was well-known for her work as a senior adviser / staffer on Forest’s statewide political campaigns. (Whillier would certainly have some inside knowledge about the financial state of the Robinson campaign.)
Given Mark & Yolanda’s history regarding finances and bill-paying, some may see this as little more than par-for-the-course. But it does seem that there might just be more to this story that we just haven’t heard yet.
From my experience with pollsters, Brant, I think your instincts are correct. I, too, smell a rat here. In several legislative races I have worked on, we have either commisioned a poll or received one as an in-kind contribution. That included very extensive baseline polling. In five years advising pro-western political parties in Moldova, I did extensive polling using the Gallup Organization, and those polls were done with face to face interviews, which are much more labor intensive than the telephone and internet techniques used in almost all polls here. Our polls in Moldova also involved multiple open ended questions, which are also more labor intensive to poll. Based upon my experience with all of that polling, there is IMHO a very bad stench from this polling firms claims.
Does the establishment think Robinson is riding the Red Wave to the Governor’s office?
Dan Forest. ENOUGH said. Didn’t break a sweat or do anything possible to defeat Coop.
Mama’s darling/boy…always will be a nothing and IF NOT for his mother, worthless.
You’ve outlined enough info here to SEE/UNDERSTAND the backstabbing being done. And shocked, it’s repubs destroying repubs….how about that. DID Forest EVER shoot an arrow at Coop?????????
After much soul searching, I could NOT in good conscious vote for Robinson. I refuse to ever vote for the “least evil” ever again. Evil is still evil. We are stuck with Tillis and will never get rid of this RINO. Tillis continues to sell out the American Citizens and we have suffered greatly. WNC has been destroyed and DC continues to send money to Ukraine. WTAF!
I had high hopes for Robinson. His speech about the 2nd Amendment is what put him in the LT Governor’s Seat, Sadly, Robinson didn’t take his own speech to heart. He didn’t negotiate with Berger to have the gun bill heard in the Senate.
“We have passed a substantial bill dealing with some concerns about (the) Second Amendment. We’ve done away with the pistol purchase permit, which was the No. 1 goal of many of the gun rights groups for a long period of time,” Berger told The News & Observer. “I just don’t know if there’s a need for us to delve into additional issues dealing with guns and people’s Second Amendment rights.”
He told the newspaper that he thinks “people have a constitutional right to protect themselves, utilizing weapons. I think that law-abiding citizens can be trusted to handle those rights responsibly. I just don’t know that the timing is right for us, at this time, to move forward with additional gun legislation.” NC didn’t hear a peep from Robinson. This is unacceptable.
Robinson also has many unanswered questions about his family business. That business took tax dollars. The auditor has made several serious inquiries that have yet to be satisfied. Concerning.
We need a strong principled leader that can stand up to RINO Bullies as well as demoncrats.
I voted for Vinny Smith.
see McCrory yesterday JOINING ALL prior Dem governor’s at the press conf???????????
I’ve VOTED FOR WORSE than Robinson, sad to state and say. ONE you’ve named above and the ONE I just named above.
As soon as I saw this article, I knew there was more to it and did a little research on my own… found all of the same info…. And had lots of questions…..
That said, I think it is reprehensible that we would shoot our own selves in the foot just because our guy didn’t win in the primary or we don’t like Robinson… anyone that cares about election integrity should realize the Democrats need to stop controlling the board of elections and the only way to do that is with the Republican governor…
I also think when loser draw of this election… I think the majority of the negativity came from within the Republican camp and I think that will come out after this election.. I hope those claiming to take them moral high ground will feel really good about themselves if Stein gets elected. Whether we like it or not, bottom line is a third-party candidate is not going to win and is only going to hurt those of us who hope to get control of the board of elections… take the moral high ground…
To your point, with a veto proof majority, the legislature does not need the governor and the Republican led legislature has either made new laws or closed their eyes to new policy instituted by the State BOE to weaken our election process.
Case in Point: Registering to Vote at One Stop. It use to end at the end of the first week of one stop. Now it ends on the last day. The curing process to verify the voter does in fact live where they say they do will not have time to even begin the mailing out of verification mail due to preparing for canvas and tying up on loose ends.
It is time that people who want to vote become responsible voters and register in a timely manner.
We need to eliminate registering and voting at One Stop!
To compound on my point…. Perhaps the legislature could change the makeup of the board of elections…. But until they do, the board of elections will always be controlled by the party of the governor… and this vetoproof majority is ridiculous. We had a super majority, but it really wasn’t a supermajority… It was only about getting things done that.Certain individuals wanted done. For example, look at the abortion bill that was put through… They flipped democrats to register as republicans, not because they believed in what republicans believed in, but because the democrats were mean to them… until we have a sound veto proof majority, which is not going to happen when many of these moderate, very moderate republicans come from areas like, Guilford and Mecklenburg county.
There are so many other things that are important that the governor’s office controls, such as lots of appointments to boards and committees that we are willing to throw away.
The other thing is, the legislature needs to do actual work instead of trying to find ways to circumvent the governor constantly. I can’t even fathom this craziness.
Gov APPOINTS JUDGES…re: Riggs……
Enough said…
Gov mansion MATTERS….
BELIEVEING our legislators or the Gen Assembly WILL PROTECT OR HELP is like swimming in alligator-infested waters. THEY HELP THEMSELVES….period. And MOST OF THE TIME, are across the aisle and in the gutter with the dems….
WE HAVE NO REPBUBLICAN PARTY IN THIS STATE (worth a da****).
We also need to end mail-in and online registration, which offer too much opportunity for fraud. We need to go back to the old and honest way where voter registration required appearing before an election official and swaaring under oath to the accuracy of the information presented.
I agree with you.. We had a group at service stations all summer asking people to “redo” their registration. They would not give the completed registration to the person if they filled it out. That means some organization had their legal full name , the last 4 of their social and the NCDL# which is all you need in some cases for identity theft.
Personalities aside, the Robinson candidacy has been a disaster for the NC GOP. There is still the possibility he may drag our entire ticket down to defeat. I still can’t believe our party leadership allowed this to happen. Any decent candidate could have defeated Stein.
YOU believe Robinson TO BE THE WORST???????
Have you followed the so-called republican party (and leaders, leadership) the past 4Y????
Tell me what Robinson has done any WORSE than the leadership?????
NC GOP makes YOU want to vote republican???????
Sorry, not saying Robinson is weak, BUT SAYING HE’S THE WORST?????????
I’ll go one step forward, I can vote for Robinson JUST AS QUICK as I can ANYONE in NC GOP leadership. Moore, Berger, Perry, (just to name a few)…..