Meddling in Primaries: Rules for Thee, but NOT FOR US !!!
It’s amazing that ALL of the alleged ‘wise men’ of the NCGOP live in localities (Wake and Mecklenburg) that have some of the lowest GOP elected representation in the state?
But, I digress. It seems like just yesterday that NCGOP ‘wise men’ were lecturing the peons in fly-over country (the areas between Murphy and Manteo and outside Charlotte city limits and the Raleigh belt-line) about the naughtiness of getting involved in primary elections while holding a party office.
Meanwhile, we have DC- and Raleigh-based thuggery intimidating voters, party officials, vendors, drive-by media, consultants and the like into staying much more than six feet away from GOP US Senate candidate Don Brown.
The state and national GOP have already gone public announcing that they’re going to pretend that there won’t actually be a primary for US Senate in North Carolina. Their hand-picked choice, “Schlub” Whatley, will go ahead and get every bit of financial, political, and other logistical assistance the party organizations can muster. (*What primary?*)
This is not just a predicament affecting the US Senate race. It’s bled over into statewide judicial races. The Pauls – Newby and Shumaker – have issued a public decree identifying the only acceptable registered-Republican judge candidates. Oh, someone else could jump into the GOP primary. But the party of their registration will ONLY be assisting the names IDed on The Pauls’ ticket / decree.
As a matter of fact, someone not listed on The Pauls’ ticket — state administrative judge Michael Byrne — has announced his candidacy for the state Court of Appeals. That means there will be a primary for the GOP nod for Court of Appeals.
But that’s not stopping NCGOP officials / office-holders from openly taking sides in the judicial primary. Check THIS out:
As you can see from above, Collins has been blessed by The Pauls. So, it’s apparently A-OK to do whatever you want with him (even if you are an official within the NCGOP).
Some of you may remember Collins as the big loser to political rebel Hasan Harnett in the 2015 NCGOP chairman’s race. Collins was the establishment’s ‘Whatley’ well before anyone had ever heard of the current one. While the establishment went to work torturing Harnett as revenge for the defeat of Collins, Collins was awarded with all kinds of political appointments — including an appointment to a judicial seat. Who knows? Perhaps this current run for Court of Appeals is still part of making amends to Collins for the 2015 ‘tragedy.’
It’s nice to get actual conservatives – with a healthy respect for what The Constitution actually says — elected to the bench. But stuff like this — judges and a senator ignoring written rules and policies – just isn’t going to fly.
The rules apply to either EVERYBODY or NOBODY.
Conservatives never do nothing about ncgop corruption but moan about it. Taking action like deserting the Party en masse and going third Party where conservatives are actually welcome? Nah, that would be too much. And yet, that seems to be the only way to get The Donald’s attention that something is dangerously wrong in the North State.
It also elects dems; like Anita Earls and Riggs. I DON’T like, I DESPISE, I cannot write how despicable the nc gop IS and HAS BECOME; however, look at the damage done when we give up the Griffin seat to Riggs?
3rd party won’t win and I’m NOT trying to not support your measure here. We just know the 3rd party can’t garner enough votes to win a seat. The dems win every time.
Some propose working inwards in the party; only solution I can think of but it sure seems difficult to gain inroads.
AGain, I support what you say 100%; voting for these stinking party supported candidates is disgusting.
I can attest our party’s county convention this summer went on for hours, many, many hours due to shenanigans coming forth during the process of electing officers. One was an elected state rep and the local gop chair in collusion to elect a slate of officers. The convention started mid-morning and lasted to about 3 with no lunch break and no food/drink available. It was nothing more than wear people down and force them to leave.
One of the most important races in the state next year is defeating far left Soros Justice Anita “Antifa” Earls on the Supreme Court. To do that we need our strongest candidate and our best campaign. We should rely on Republican voters in the primaries to choose nominees, not some secretive backroom cabal that puts forward a Tammany Hall style “slate”.. When I vote in a judicial primary, I look at who will be the strongest candidate in the general election, and who best represents Constitutional principles of judicial restraint. If all else is equal, I will vote AGAINST the one who is on a slate.
From everything I have seen, our strongest candidate against Earls would be one of our sitting female Court of Appeals judges. Why is one of them not running? I want to see Earls G-O-N-E, and the best candidate to do it is someone who is already an appellate judge. There are lots of vulnerabilities that a legislator running for this seat would have that a Court of Appeals judge would not. Plus, each of our female Court of Appeals judges could serve out the full Supreme Court term, while Stevens would face mandatory retirement at about 5 years into an 8 year term, and be replaced by appointment from the governor. Did the backroom operatives who assembled this slate even think about THAT?
At all levels, we need to avoid a backroom elite trying to dictate who our nominees are going to be. That should be up to our GOP base when they vote in the primary..