Monkey Business Report: Rockingham County GOP edition

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Senator Phil Berger‘s passion for benefiting himself, his friends and family at all our expense is becoming precariously close to hurting GOP fortunes in his county and screwing the rest of us.

We told you earlier about the NCGOP HQ in Raleigh inserting itself into the Rockingham board of commissioners race.  (There are three seats to vote on.  One of the five candidates for those three seats is Berger’s son.  Two of the five candidates support Phil Berger’s plans to bring a casino to Rockingham. All are Republicans.  Guess WHO got all of the *love* from the Raleigh GOP machine?)

Republican Jeff Kallam is one of the three GOP nominees for county commissioner.  He has been a vocal critic of the Berger machine’s efforts to bring a casino to Rockingham County.  Kevin Berger, the senator’s son, and Mark Richardson are being supported by the pro-casino Berger group.  Two other Republicans – casino opponents Cyndy Hayworth and Lynn Knight – are seeking to defeat Richardson and Berger.  (The aforementioned NCGOP mailer on this race to Rockingham voters neglected to mention the presence of Kallam, Hayworth or Knight in this race.)

A local political operative in Rockingham County has briefed us on how the Berger gang’s hard-nosed casino tactics are affecting the political process in the county:

[…] “The county party had Jeff [Kallam}’s name on their local Republican Guide and then had their monthly meeting and told everyone to black out Jeff’s name. This created a problem at the Rockingham County Board of Elections during early voting. Ten percent of ballots on the first few days were ‘spoiled’ because voters were actually marking through Jeff Kallam’s name – like local Republican leaders did on the Republican guide.” […] 

Senator Berger used every bit of political muscle he had to ram approval of casinos through the General Assembly — even holding the state budget hostage as leverage.  Berger and his little buddy Timmy in the House couldn’t scrounge up the votes to get it done.  So, don Berger was denied (for now).

Adding to the headaches for the pro-casino crowd in Rockingham County are recent moves by concerned landowners and groups like Citizens for Good Growth in Rockingham County:

Rockingham County, NC – Camp Carefree, a camp for special needs and disabled children, along with other nearby landowners continue to fight the casino developer who rezoned nearly 200 acres right beside the Rockingham County camp. The Camp and affected landowners filed last week their brief with the North Carolina Court of Appeals arguing that the lower court wrongly dismissed their rezoning lawsuit earlier this year.

In April 2024, Judge Clayton Somers, who had been appointed by the legislature as a Special Superior Court judge only weeks after the Camp filed the lawsuit in 2023, dismissed the lawsuit outright, finding that the Camp and others did not have standing to bring the lawsuit. In the brief, the Camp and other landowners argue that the damage that would caused by the rezoning of the land by the casino developer gives standing for the lawsuit to proceed.
While some have believed the casino issue to be done, the casino developer has continued to pursue the rezoning of the land in Rockingham County. Senator Phil Berger, the leader of the state Senate, was the primary champion of casino legislation in the legislature told a newspaper in July of this year that casino legislation is dormant, suggesting it may be brought back up at some point in the future.
Knowing that the casino issue is not dead and could easily be brought back up after the election, the casino issue has continued to rile up Rockingham county residents. It has led to grassroots write-in campaigns for County Commissioner candidates Cyndy Hayworth and Lynn Knight who are anti-casino. They, along with the top Republican primary winner, Jeff Kallam, are seeking to unseat the incumbent County Commissioners Kevin Berger, son of Senator Berger, and Mark Richardson who voted to grant the request of the casino developer to rezone the property. Cyndy Hayworth had served on the county Planning Board and voted to not recommend the rezoning and was later removed from the Planning Board by Berger, Richardson, and other Commissioners.
The write-in County Commissioner campaigns have drawn special attention despite there being no Democrat opposition on the ballot. The North Carolina Republican Party sent out mailers to county residents during the early voting period that highlighted Berger and Richardson who sided with the casino developer.