#ncga: No Moore Mr. Nice Guy?

The honeymoon appears to be over with House Republicans. Tim Moore handily won the race to succeed Thom Tillis as speaker of the state House.  He disseminated a flashy full-color brochure promising a tenure of openness and teamwork within the caucus.  Four months into his tenure as speaker, the House majority has been seeing something dramatically different.  Says one of my House moles:

“There are a lot of people who don’t even bother going to caucus anymore.  There’s not much said there that’s not already public knowledge.  And we all know that — despite what any of us has to say — the Three Amigos are going to have the final say. We’re doing what those three want to do.”

The “Three Amigos” my source refers to are Moore, David Lewis, and Nelson Dollar. Dollar has been the at the center of recent heated discussions about the finances of the House Republican campaign operation.    (Sources familiar with the situation tell me that hubbub has resulted in some significant hesitancy by members and outside donors to continue donating to the caucus.)  

Moore and Lewis are taking heat for — among other things — what my sources refer to as a general environment of chaos and disorder. One GOP source explains:

“It took forever to get the committees organized and off and running.  And don’t get me started on the schedule.  With Tillis, you could actually make your plans around a firm timetable for floor business. Now, you find out definitely what is going to happen on the floor at the very last minute, and it is very likely to change a few more times then. It’s very much a JV-type operation.”

Other sources tell me there appears to be some retribution and back-stabbing — in the form of slander campaigns, committee post and office downgrades / reassignments,  among others things — going on against Republican members who ran for speaker or even thought about running for speaker:

”If you made the mistake of even thinking about getting between Tim and his prize, he and his crew are making you pay.  All of that talk about teamwork and coming together is out the window. They’ll even come after you on the floor — directly attacking the interests of your district, or killing some legislation they know is very important to you.  The same stuff we complained about in the minority is what we’re doing now in the majority.”

One Republican House member talks about walking through the legislative building one day to see a media gaggle surrounding Moore and several Democrat legislators.  My source tells me he had no idea what this media event was all about. (Those Democrat members sure knew, though.) My source quipped:

“All that stuff Tim preached, when he was running for speaker, about working as a team and being open?  Some of us are thinking that he actually meant all that talk for the Democrats.”