#ncga: Kelly Hastings. No opponents. But STILL paying himself from campaign funds.
You would THINK that the current predicament Fletcher Hartsell finds himself in would be making some folks on Jones Street think a little harder before they act. But apparently THAT is not the case.
We’ve written previously about Kelly Hastings, a Republican legislator from Speaker Tim Moore’s neck of the woods. We found all kinds of instances of payments to himself, his wife, and family members coming out of his campaign fund — in a year where he has had NO opposition whatsoever.
The latest filings from Hastings’s campaign indicate that not a whole lot has changed. Sure, he’s dumped some money over to his colleagues who have opposition. Hastings reports raising, in the 3rd quarter of 2016, a total of $30,367.49. He also reports spending, for the same period, $13,208.21. (Remember, he has had absolutely NO opposition this election cycle.)
From that disbursement amount — and during that same period — we found that Hastings reported paying himself $2091.79. Accordings to his campaign reports, those payments occurred between July 1 and 
October 2. (That’s about 15 percent. * Maybe it’s a tip.*)
In August, the Hastings campaign reported shelling out $858.34 to “Alpha Mailing” of Shelby for “invitations” and “mailing and postage.” Again, this was done in an election cycle when Hastings has had ZERO opposition.
Some other puzzling disbursements include $10 to “GOP headquarters” on July 11 and $62 to Appalachian State University for a “legislative visit” on October 8. (Boone is NOT in Hastings’s district.) The 8th was on a Saturday during football season, but App’s team had a bye that week.
Awww! Don’t pick on poor little Kelly. He is such a good progressive, a recipient of cash from our hard core environmental allies, and someone who once bought, stays bought. He will back President Obama’s green agenda, not your silly Republican platform.
I am sure that our green left allies who have contributed to Kelly Hastings won’t mind one bit if he uses that money to buy himself some cigars or some fancy clothes, or some nice trips or whatever he wants. His backing of President Obama’s green agenda should keep the Obama-appointed US Attorney off of his case.
One thing you Republicans should not do is run a real Republican in the primary against Kelly. We are so much better off with Obama Republicans like Kelly Hastings in office.