#ncga: Meck GOP chairman gunning for Mike Hager
Somebody call Ripley’s. Believe this or not.
My sources are telling me Mecklenburg County GOP chairman Curtis Watkins has spent the day calling all over House majority leader Mike Hager’s district looking to recruit a primary opponent for Mr. Hager. I talked with several sources familiar with Watkins’s activities today. One of them told me:
“He’s telling people that he has the money lined up to help anybody at all who wants to file against Hager. He’s saying the Raleigh crowd wants Hager gone and they are willing to pay to make it happen.”
Another source told me Watkins was confronted about doing this while serving as a GOP officer:
“He defended himself by saying ‘Hey, I didn’t tell them I was the Mecklenburg County Republican Party chairman.’ Unbelievable.”
I am thinking this guy Watkins did not dream this up by himself. His home county is also home to party establishment figures Pat McCrory, Thom Tillis, and Robert 
Pittenger. Many of the more outspoken conservative rebels in the state House have gravitated to Hager as their spiritual leader. Speaker Tim Moore and his allies are clearly concerned that Hager could likely build up enough momentum to depose Moore in the next session.
There is a war on conservatives going on at both the national and state level. These establishment guys hate conservatives in their own party more than they hate Democrats. This sort of stuff threatens to make conservative voters sit out certain races on election day, and could backfire big time on the Big Government Republicans. Is it better to have a Democrat who stabs you in the front or a Big Government Republican who stabs you in the back? Why bother to vote in that race if those are the only choices? It is the Big Government establishment Republicans who are blowing up party unity, and they are the ones who may reap the whirlwind.
Good grief he is the party chair surely he knows the rules in the party platform, maybe Dallas Woodhouse can show him how to send out an apology letter and that will make everything OK right ?
Monkey See Monkey Do
Mecklenburg county has become a backwater now that McCrory, Tillis, and Myrick have moved on. There are still donors to be milked, but it’s widely acknowledged to be a dwingling organization. It’s kind of like the tobacco industry, it makes money, but less every year.
This past Charlotte election, a total goofball filed as a Republican candidate to embarrass the party. The MeckGOP could not keep him off the ballot because it’s too hard to recuit people anymore for a full slate.
I can believe that. Probably lose a few House seats out there, too. If so, that super-majority will be razor-thin.