NC Treasurer adds former Richard Morgan crony to his team
Many of you out there may remember the 2002 election where voters gave Republicans a 61-59 majority in the NC House. Out of the blue, a Republican member from Forsyth County switched parties and left us with a 60-60 tie in the House.
Rep. Richard Morgan, a Republican from Moore County, proposed an unprecedented power-sharing agreement with House Democrats. Morgan and a handful of his friends in the GOP caucus, would vote for a Democrat speaker in exchange for Morgan being named the unprecedented “co-speaker” and his friends getting a few perks. Despite an election that gave the GOP a slim edge in the House, Democrats — thanks to Morgan’s deal — retained de facto control of the lower chamber on Jones Street.
Morgan used his co-speaker role to help Speaker Jim Black and the Democrats advance their agenda, while targeting Republicans who protested the aisle-crossing betrayal. The state GOP voted to censure and excommunicate Morgan in 2004 for “party disloyalty.”
I was proud to be part of efforts in 2004 and 2006 to rid Moore County and North Carolina of the stink of Richard Morgan. We came close to knocking him off in the 2004 primary. We — with lots of outside help — finally got him in 2006.
In 2007, federal lawmen finally busted House co-speaker Jim Black (D) for his role in a bribery scheme,
Morgan – with his consultant Paul Shumaker — waged war on conservative Republicans. They worked overtime to primary conservatives and replace them with lefties. Thom Tillis‘ rise to the NC House was part of this effort.
One would think the traitorous legacy of Richard Morgan would be something most Republicans would run away from. But Jim Blaine product Brad Briner is not ‘most Republicans.”
Briner rose through the GOP ranks in 2024. His generous deposits of money into GOP campaign coffers caught the eye of Phil Berger‘s team and earned him a spot on UNC’s big board. Incumbent treasurer Dale Folwell was leaving his post to run for governor. A serious replacement was needed and Briner – who could self fund his campaign — was an attractive choice to the unipartiers who call the shots for the GOP in Raleigh. Not principle or ideology.
Briner – a Chapel Hill Republican – spent much of his campaign trashing the Folwell years at the treasury. Briner boasted of his professional ties to two major Obama fans — Michael Bloomberg and Steven Rattner. During the first half of his rookie term as treasurer, Briner has worked hard to restore Blue Cross and Wall Street influence at the treasurer’s office — two entities Folwell had worked hard to reduce or eliminate.
Briner has shown he isn’t shy about stepping outside the GOP to hire aides. His chief investment officer was a former top aide to a former Democrat treasurer.
Now we learn that Briner has hired – as his officer’s general counsel – a former “special assistant” to the traitorous Richard Morgan:
Richard Morgan got to be co-speaker with a Democrat-dominated majority because his fellow Republicans would not agree to elect him speaker. Voters elected more Republicans than Democrats in 2002, but the Raleigh political class thumbed their nose and concocted a way to keep Democrats in control for eight more years. Morgan and his consultant went to war against fellow Republicans who didn’t like this sleazy deal.
Picking someone as a top aide who gleefully worked for Morgan during this time speaks volumes. And it doesn’t say much for those of us who have worked so hard for some kind of conservative reform in Raleigh.
