#ncga: Jason Saine, no opponents but STILL hoovering up that special interest cash
Yessirree. We’ve heard all about the esteemed chairman of the House Finance Committee, the gentleman from Lincoln County, and his amazing rise from unemployment to finance kingpin.
His skill at “appropriating” his campaign funds toward *important campaign tools* like new clothes ($19,000-plus), iPads, airline flights, travel and meals have become the stuff of legend. (Fletcher Hartsell, I’m sure, is especially impressed.)
Young Jason had NO opposition this year in the primary or general election. Yet, official documents show his campaign is still raking in the special interest cash. Considering the dire straits of the House Caucus campaign finances, you would have thought he’d have steered some of that money to help a beleaguered colleague or two. Right?
As a finance kingpin, you would think the honorable Mr. Saine would have mastered filling out campaign finance reforms by now. He submitted notification of a $2500 check on 10/24 from a “Cathy Wilhelm” of Chapel Hill. No employer is listed on Mr. Saine’s form. And Chapel Hill is well outside of his legislative district.
We thought we’d help Jason out — to properly complete his campaign finance form. Our friends at Google tell us Ms. Wilhelm is the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) at Strata Solar in Chapel Hill. A company that desires subsidies from state government would be smart to make, um. “friends” with the finance chairman. Not coincidentally, I’m sure, Saine got a $4,000 check ON THE SAME DAY from the NC Energy Workers’ PAC. 
And then there’s Lindsay Cotton of Grosse Pointe, Michigan giving $1,000 to Saine. WHY, you ask, would Ms. Cotton of Grosse Pointe, Michigan (hundreds and hundreds of miles away from Lincoln County) want to give Saine $1,000?
Could it be that her husband Jon Cotton is the president and CEO of the Meridian Health Plan, which includes providing state government employee benefits and delivery of state Medicaid benefits as part of its business model? Just asking.
Jason Saine is the best politician that money can buy, at least that is what our hard core environmental movement thinks. He is happy to take our guys’ money and then vote for President Obama’s green energy policies. It is progressive Republicans like Jason Saine who make North Carolina the best state in the southeast for President Obama’s environmental policies. That it is the worst state for electric consumers does not matter.
We do not care if he spends many thousands from our contributions to buy fancy clothes. We do not care if he uses that contribution money to take fact finding trips to the Bahamas or Las Vegas. All we care is that he stays bought for President Obama’s green energy policies. We hope our Democrat friends in the US Attorney’s office do not give him the Fletcher Hartsell treatment. The fact that Jason is a big supporter of President Obama’s policies should help keep them off of his case.
Our biggest worry with Jason Saine is that some of those darn conservatives may find someone in his district who actually supports that silly Republican platform to run against our boy Jason in the GOP primary. They might elect a new legislator who supports actual Republican policy instead of Obama policy.
Yeah like fat and happy Lincoln GOP are interested in challenging this embarrassment with a conservative primary challenger.
On another note, it is interesting that this cash machine isn’t sharing his largesse with the conference. My cousin the County Chair got a fundraising letter from Timmy the other day begging for contributions. She doesn’t know how she’d gotten on Timmy’s mailing list but she was astounded that he’d think someone like her had forgotten about HB 373 and the primary abuses we’ve already witnessed from HB 373, such that she’d give the House caucus a dime.
Jason Saine badly needs a primary, and you are right that someone will need to be recruited from outside the GOP establishment. Jason Saine is one of the worst RINO’s in the General Assembly. Is there a Tea Party organization there?