NC-03: More vultures?
While incumbent congressman Walter Jones recovers from an injury and the resulting surgery, a number of Republicans are already jockeying to replace him.
We’ve heard from perennial candidate Phil Law. Now, state Rep. Phil Shepard (R-Onslow) is stepping out there publicly:
Law and Sheppard would appear to be fighting over the same base of supporters in the Jacksonville area.
For what it’s worth, the name of Jonathan Brooks — a longtime GOP campaign consultant and “government relations” expert — is also floating around political circles inside and outside the Raleigh beltline as a possible candidate for NC-03. Brooks has worked on a number of Jones’s reelection campaigns.
Again, there has been no indication that Jones plans to leave office early. He just got reelected in November. If Jones were to resign (or, God forbid, pass away while in office) there would have to be a special election. There would be no appointment — like you see with state legislative seats. According to the state board of elections, there would be a 30% threshold that would need to be reached in the primary to avoid a runoff.
(Former Greenville mayor Allen Thomas is the only Democrat being floated as a possible candidate for the seat in 2020. )
All this jockeying for Jones’s seat, while he is recovering from illness and injury, sure is starting to resemble vultures circling above a potential meal. It’s unseemly.
Phil Sheppard was one of only three Republican legislative candidates in the 3rd Congressional District last election who REFUSED to sign the 3rd Congressional District Republican Party’s pledge to support the North Carolina Republican Party platform, despite repeated requests to him. (The other two were Senators Harry Brown and Louis Pate, with Pate saying he would do whatever Brown did)
If Phil Sheppard will not agree to support Republican Party principles as laid out in the NCGOP platform, why should Republican voters give him any consideration?
There is one item that might make vultures anxious. The NC 2020 primary is less than 12 months away when you consider absentee ballots. March 3rd is the new primary election date here in NC. It is pretty hard to comprehend as I think of 2018 midterms were just here.
How about Rino Murphy? He’s traveling all over the district campaigning for Walter’s Seat. Hell, he even brought his wife to the Third District GOP meeting.
Murphy LOVES Wind and Solar. He also wants to expand Medicaid.
Watch this one. He can raise lots of dollars.,from Doctors and Hospitals. This means no repeal of CON and Rural Healthcare will continue to suffer.
Greg Murphy is an Obama Republican, supporting much of the Obama agenda, from Obama’s Obamacare Medicaid expansion to Obama’s “green energy” jihad to even Michelle Obama’s nutty “food deserts” crusade. Murphy is as liberal as they come.
I think it is great that Harry and Louis would not sign a pledge for you, or anyone else. They are elected by the people…and let’s be honest, they are not the only folks who will not sign them.
Murphy’s Bill proposed Carolina Cares, not medicaid expansion. I read about it, the goal was to provide more healthcare, but keep us away from the downside exposure of medicaid expansion.
Murphy tried to dress it up as something else, but it was the Obamacare Medicaid expansion. When Murphy first sought this seat, he openly said that the Obamacare Medicaid expansion was his main reason for running. His advisers got him to walk that back, but it was clear as day when he introduced the bill.
Murphy has also sold out Christians on bathroom privacy (HB 2), and he is in the hip pocket of the corrupt crony capitalists of the Big Solar and Big Wind boondoggles that threaten to greatly increase electric rates for ordinary folks.
We need a Trump Republican, not an Obama Republican like Murphy as our congressman.
When a candidate refuses to support the Republican platform why should Republicans support that candidate?
All of the State House candidates except Phil Sheppard signed the pledge to support the platform, as did all of the State Senate candidates except Brown and Pate (and Pate indicated he was following Brown’s lead on the subject). The pledge asked them to either pledge to support the platform, pledge to support it with specific exceptions, or not to support it. Sheppard, Brown, and Pate refused to do any of the three. They were refusing to be transparent with the voters.
There is an old saying in politics that “Ya dance with who brung ya”. Republicans voters want to be sure that our candidates will follow our principles and not stab us in the back. If there were specific areas of disagreement, there were provisions to set those out in the pledge.
There is also another old saying in politics that “those who stand for nothing will fall for anything”. This is the type of sleazy self-serving politicians that Republicans voters want to avoid.
Anyone but that liberal RINO Scott Dacey! So far my contributions go to Phil Law.
You are right about liberal and John Boehner buddy Dacey. He is a non-starter. Just as bad, he is a long time lobbyist.. Putting a stinking lobbyist in Congress is about like hiring a bank robber as a local bank manager. But there are others in this field like Greg Murphy, who are just as bad.
It is so wonderful to see disciples of former President Obama’s green energy legacy running in Republican primaries. Getting our guys in through your primaries is how we will save the polar bears. Phil Sheppard and Greg Murphy have been big supporters of our solar energy friends in the legislature. Neither seems to care about your silly Republican platform that calls for treating all electricity producers equally. Neither are they concerned that their solar energy policies will drive up electric bills for North Carolina’s peons. Why should rednecks be able to afford air conditioning anyway when the polar bears are at stake? And, of course, a lobbyist like Scott Dacey would be very easy for our lobbyists to cut a deal with.