Kane: Whatley cabal gouging delegates to shut out grassroots at convention
Raleigh businessman John Kane, candidate for NCGOP state chairman, has released a new video venting some of what he calls “righteous anger” at the tactics of state convention organizers.
According to Kane, the state party — led by his opponent Michael Whatley — is charging the highest-ever delegate fee for participating in the official business activities at the convention. Kane estimates that delegates from locales furthest away from Greensboro will have to shell out: $75 for a delegate fee, a transaction fee, and hotel, food and gas costs — making attendance a mighty expensive proposition for some.
In the video, Kane refers to the party’s Plan of Organization. That document describes delegate fees as a means to cover costs of conducting official business, and states that the convention is not meant to be a major fundraiser. It’s one thing – Kane says – to charge big for attending “fancy dinners,” but another altogether to charge for voting for state chairman and other party business:
[…] “How can you justify charging the most for a state convention that has ever been charged? It’s being done for one reason: to prevent people with less means from participating in our party. There is no other justification.” […]
In the video, Kane references the 2021 party budget documents.
To translate: The state party budgeted $65,000 for the state convention. The actual cost of the convention was $447,399.85. The party took in $850,737.50 in revenue for a profit of $403,337.65.
In other words, the 2021 fees did a lot more than simply cover the convention costs. Their exorbitance created a nice profit at the expense of the Outside-the-Beltline crowd.
Kane also compares the situation to the Republican National Convention. Delegate fees are charged. But if you don’t pay the fees, you can still attend and vote on party business. You just can’t attend what Kane calls “the fancy dinners.”
The NCGOP is pulling exactly what they did with the Trump dinner in 2020 at the Greenville NCGOP convention!
1. No single delegate can currently get a ticket to the Trump dinner at this convention.
2. The NCGOP convention site notes the dinner is SOLD OUT & that went up within hours of the announcement.
3. BUT Friday, the NCGOP began calling “select” counties offering them a Trump table for $2500 (that is $250/person). The counties had to purchase by Monday.
4. So the NCGOP yet again tries to pull a fast one on the grassroots! Either the dinner is sold out or not! No individual delegates can buy a seat, unless you can pony up $2500???
5. The NCGOP yet again throws the Plan of Organization in the garbage, as no county chair is allowed to spend $2500 without an executive committee meeting. So offering tables on a Friday with a purchase deadline of Monday, means no time to properly call a meeting to vote on spending $2500.
6. And finally – let’s dig into the culture of the Whatley administration continuing to try to pillage the grassroots at every turn to fund the irresponsible spending of the NCGOP!
7, One more note – If you attended the Trump dinner at the 2020 convention, it can be summarized in one word – DISASTER! They ran out of food, water and chairs. The waitstaff left. 3 hours+ in the blazing sun waiting to get in. 2 ambulances called due to heat stroke in that line. Oversold VIP that was an epic failure!
Couple this with Whatley taking credit for his superstar line-up. I remember the 2015 convention under Hayes in Raleigh with 16 Presidential candidates!
It’s time for change!!
Whatley is definitely trying to keep the grassroots folks from attending. Thanks to John Kane for exposing this scheme.
The PoO should be amended to spell out what is meant by cost of the convention, which should be limited to things like rent of the convention hall, delegate mailings, printing of materials, delegate badges, and the like, with the delegates fees from counties deducted from that. The better attendance at these conventions, the better for the party on a lot of levels. I would be curious to know how much each of those actual expenses are for this convention. One method of boosting attendance I would have used would have been to add presidential and gubenatorial straw polls.
There was a straw poll last year for the Senate race.
Great idea on transparency with the convention, but that will not happen until we make a change at the top and elect John Kane. This administration doesn’t even have an approved budget.
“Its a Big Club, And You aint in it” -G. Carlin.
This org is not supposed to be a Clique but…. There are rules and procedures so as to prevent it from becoming one. How can it possibly become one unless the rules and procedures are ignored?
It IS a Big Club… but only during the Primary when Non Republicans are enlisted to help “select” the (cough) Republican Champion for Nov…. sans that, it more a clique.
People are paying attention, disdain is growing. Its going to hurt us all at some point.
I’m going to be totally selfish here, I think the RNC deserves all the help it can get, and that includes a full time counselor.
I will be equally selfish for NC in suggesting we need a Full Time Chair.
Ideally one without a leg twitch.
Chris Weaver
Past Chair, Person County
One of Whatley’s worst legacies is his appointments of Chairs for standing committees. Naturally he wants people who will do what he tells them to do without regard for the Plan of Organization, but some of them are so inept at running meetings that the meetings are free-for-alls.
In one respect I disagree that the convention fees are intended to keep the little people out. They’re strictly to raise money to support the staff at the NCGOP who never answer their phones or return emails. A side effect of that policy is that there are many people who can’t or don’t want to pay to attend.
As much as I dislike Whatley, as I’ve posted here numerous times, I cannot vote for John Kane (I almost typed John McCain) who has never even been to a precinct meeting. We need a new chair, but it’s not Kane. I wanted to support him until I saw his videos on his Rumble account. He clearly understands nothing about the political system.
One huge concern I have had the past few conventions that is also lurking at this one is the sketchy Dominion-style “electronic voting” in place of the usual roll call of the counties after written ballots within each county delegation. The roll call method is transparent and honest. Electronic voting is non-transparent and consequently nobody knows if it is honest or is as crooked as a snake, just like Dominion. We oppose electronic voting in elections for public office, so why the heck should we tolerate them in elections for party office? I am tired of hearing multiple people after a close electronic vote at an NCGOP convention express concerns about the honesty of the count, as I have heard following two such elections.
Electronic voting is one of Dallas Woodhouse’s brain farts that needs to be junked.
The last time they used electronic voting to vote for chairman and vice chairman, the name of the company they were using for electronic voting was mentioned in some of the convention communications, so I looked them up online. They had a website with a whole lot of fluff but nowhere on it did it tell the names of the people running the company or even where it was located. It could even have been in China or Russia. Not only was the voting method itself non-transparent, so was the company running that voting system. This should absolutely not be tolerated in the Republican Party.
This time, I have yet to even see the name of the company they are using.