#ncga: A gathering storm over NC House GOP caucus?
At the end of each session we often hear rumors of challenges to the leadership of Speaker Tim Moore. There is a lot of talk, but nothing substantial ever materializes.
Something feels a little different this time. We’ve detected some internal grumbling among House Republicans about various caves on things like Medicaid expansion. The apparent fear of leadership over possibly angering Ol’ Roy and provoking a veto is also apparently not sitting well with the troops.
I’ve been peppered with questions from some rather interesting political folks in Raleigh about my feelings re: majority leader John Bell. Bell has been mentioned before as a potential candidate for speaker, but the challenge never did come to fruition.
However, this time, Bell appears to be hitting the trail — like Speaker Timmy — courting rookie Republican nominees for House seats. Like Moore, Bell has been speaking at campaign events and keynoting fundraisers for a lot of potential new House members. (You know, the folks who — if all goes well in November — will have a vote in the election of a speaker for the upcoming session.)
If this is going to happen, I have to admit that I don’t see a win for conservatives in either option. There’s, honestly, not a dime’s worth of difference between Bell and Moore. They are both swamp creatures.
There is one interesting factor at play here. Thanks to redistricting and retirements, the GOP House nominees this go-around appear overall to be more conservative than in recent cycles. There is a good chance that the GOP House caucus next session will feature a substantial bloc of conservative members. That fact could end up pushing any candidates for speaker, or other leadership posts, to the right. It could also force candidates to offer concessions (chairmanships and other vehicles of influence) to the conservative bloc.
Back to the behind-the-scenes jockeying. Something else makes me think a serious challenge to Moore is afoot. I have been flooded with all kinds of opposition research on Speaker Timmy in recent weeks. Some of it I already knew. Some I did not — like the documentation which appears to show Moore has apparently collected more than $100,000 in per diem and other reimbursements this session (which is not over). That’s just ONE piece of the ‘dirt’ I have accumulated.
Of course, there is a good chance that GOP jockeying for speaker may be a moot point. The House caucus — and their colleagues in the other chamber — have been doing a bang-up job of pissing off their base this session. Legislation clearly meant as payoffs to favored lobbyists and special interests. Medicaid expansion. Even more of that solar crap. The burying of conservative legislation. Allowing Ol’ Roy to get away with one too many power-grab executive orders. Quivering in fear over a Cooper veto. “Crossing the aisle” way too often to get legislation passed. (Think back to the times where Democrats ran the place. How often did they give ONE DAMN about what Republicans thought? Oh, and why are “compromises” always consisting of the GOP moving left toward the Democrats? Why can’t the Dems be forced right, for once?)
We’ve seen how the House was run with larger GOP representation. I, for one, was not impressed. (Others sharing my feelings probably explains why the GOP margin on Jones Street has been shrinking.)
How are we to expect improvement this time around — if these guys and gals are blessed with more bodies and more votes? Why can’t we hear more about a platform and a legislative agenda? Having (R) after your name might just not be enough this year. Let us know you’re serious this time. Let us know how things will be different next go-around. We’ve seen a GOP-run House this time vote far too often for stuff that makes liberal hearts go pitter-patter. (If NC PolicyWatch, WRAL, and The N&O are praising you, YOU have screwed the pooch.)
I’m to the point, I”m NOT a national republican (McConnell & McCarthy) don’t represent me. I’m NOT a NC republican, non-represented by so-called NC leadership.
IF any candidate running for office is voting for McC and McC in DC; NOT supporting. Same in NC. Voting Moore, Berger, NOT.
DC republicans have turned over the USA to Biden & Co. NC republicans have given the state away to Coop & Stein.
The big problem in Raleigh is the special interest Republicans. That is what Timmy Moore is, in spades. It is what Phil Berger has become. John Bell thinks the same way. These people care more about the lobbyists and the woke special interests than they do the voters back home. That is why they used last minute power plays to push through the NC Green New Deal, HB951, which will ultimately send our power bills to the moon, to please “woke” Duke Energy and its worship of ESG, and the solar and wind grifters. The energy policy of Berger, Moore, and indeed Bell is not much different from that of Biden, Schumer, and Ocasio-Cortez.
One huge irony is that Berger and Moore threw away their super majority when they caved in to Roy Cooper and the woke special interests on HB2. In 2016, when Republicans ran supporting HB2, we actually increased our supermajority, because the GOP base had our legislators backs in spite of lots of special interest out of state money thrown at them. After the cowardly and disgusting Berger / Moore cave to Cooper and the special interests in repealing HB2, Christian conservative voters abandoned those establishment Republicans who sold them out on HB2 in 2018 and we have not had a supermajority since. Berger and Moore screwed the pooch on that one, and they should be held accountable.. When it sinks in to voters what Berger and Moore did to us on HB951, that is going to be a huge election albatross, too.
I have heard some rumblings of support for Freedom Caucus chairman Keith Kidwell for speaker. That would make an interesting three way race, and Kidwell is more a man of principle than the other two. Kidwell is also travelling around the state holding Freedom Caucus rallies for conservative House candidates. The second one was last Saturday.
In the Senate, there is an extremely ambitious potential challenger to Phil Berger, Jim Perry, the Kinston RINO, but he is even more of a creature of the special interests than Berger. If Perry jumped in, maybe somebody who actually cared about the grassroots voters might see an opening and give us a real choice.
In our GOP “leadership” in Raleigh we now have “the best leadership that money can buy” and that needs to change. As the old saying, if you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.
It’s a total replay of DC. Burr and Tillis have voted for Biden bills and discarded our representation and values for 2Y now. We can’t find DC principled conservatives nor NC principled conservatives. They come running every 2Y and 4Y when they need votes against even worse dems.
Mark Robinson gave a rousing speech last wknd. I’ve seen nor read any accounting of the speech. It’s like they have wished him or washed him away. PLEASE RUN Mark Robinson. But I suspect he will be sabotaged at every turn by establishment GOP. They WILL FIND spines to discard him away.
I’ll take my chances with Kidwell. He can’t be any worse than Moore, and (from what I know of Kidwell) would probably be a huge improvement. Moore and Berger should both be ashamed of themselves. They have thrown away an historic opportunity to make the GOP the dominant party in NC for decades to come. Their dereliction of duty will come back to haunt us.
A cesspool of awfulness: Tim, John AND Jim, who has claimed that Boliek, Jr has ‘nerves of steel.’ This guy? https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2022/08/fit-to-print-uncs-settlement-with-nikole-hannah-jones-is-bad-news/
Burn the party to the ground. They HATE you.