NCGOPe not so interested in playing nice with conservatives as November looms ahead
The usual post-primary strategy involves reaching out to your former rivals and patching things up as you prep for battle against the other party in the general election. Some NCGOPe types are turning that tried-and-true strategy on its head this year.
In Moore County, we had a pretty vicious GOP primary for state Senate between incumbent Tom McInnis and Whispering Pines mayor Michelle Lexo. McInnis ran a hard-nosed, aggressive campaign that had the full blessing of Raleigh’s GOPe leadership and the special interests who run that town. Some are arguing that McInnis’s strategy during the primary was more had-nosed and cut-throat than anything he had ever tried against the Democrats. 
The smoke has cleared. McInnis got renominated. And yet there has been no apparent effort by the McInnis camp to reach out and patch things up with Lexo and her supporters. You would think a mostly-unified GOP organization would be a good thing headed into November. (One would think so.)
Let’s head east to Senate District 1. GOP senate nominee Bob Steinburg can’t get his primary opponent off his mind. It’s been four months since he dispatched Clark Twiddy. It’s about two months until the general election. Twiddy has stayed below the political radar — basically on radio silence.
Phil Berger rolled into Edenton on September 11 to help Steinburg raise some money for his campaign. My sources on the scene tell me Steinburg devoted an inordinate amount of time at the Edenton event — more than for his general election Democrat opponent — to bashing Clark Twiddy. One would have thought Twiddy was also on the November ballot.
I also understand there was other controversy at the Steinburg event. Candice Hunter, who challenged Steinburg ally Ed Goodwin in the House district 1 primary, showed up seeking to make amends and donate some cash to Steinburg’s effort. Sources on the scene report she was verbally abused and physically removed from the event by Steinburg campaign aides.
Granted, these are just three examples. But the fact they are public knowledge, and 
Berger, Moore, Hayes, et.al. are silent on the matter, is disturbing. Maybe they believe that there are so many sheep beyond the Raleigh beltline willing to mindlessly show up and mark the Republican line that they don’t need diplomacy or good manners or nice play.
Who knows? Maybe they are right. But in this climate, is it worth the risk to find out?
Your reporting on the Steinburg event is very incorrect. I was there and never heard Twiddy’s name mentioned once. Both Steinburg and Berger talked about how far the GOP has taken this state in the right direction and how we needed to keep the majority in both the House and Senate.
As far as Ms. Hunter is concerned, she was not invited to the event due to her bashing of Rep. Steinburg. I personally asked her to pony up the money to be there and she refused. The person who she said asked her there, asked herr to leave. Neither she or Twiddy ever congratulated the people who beat them.
Ms. Hunter has no money to give anyone. She has now rented an office that she calls her home. She has divorced her husband and no longer lives in the marital home.
I put my own name to this since I don’t believe in abstract names that people too afraid use.
Steinburg hopefully will learn that when you run nasty filthy campaigns like he did in the primary, it is hard to unite for November. That was a really stupid ploy in an R+1 district in an election year like this.
But once Stienburg started it, Twiddy committed political malpractice by not responding in kind. If Twiddy had, he would be the nominee today, but still with a divided party.
Dianne,
I mailed my check to Bob’s campaign. The event was posted as a public event on Facebook. We have also contributed to Ed Goodwin’s campaign, Bobbie Hanig’s campaign, and Keith Kidwell’s campaign.
I am a stepmom and while the oldest is attending her freshman year at Alabama this year, we still have to have residency just a few more years at the “marital” house for our teenage boy.
The office space had been a tremendous amount of work this summer, but is now absolutely amazing and the largest of the 6 rooms (the size of a DC yoga studio along with a remodeled bathroom) will soon become the headquarters for the multi-county Women’s Republican club that is in the process of being chartered, as well as the PQ Republican Headquarters.
#stillmarried but of course, do find it entertaining you know more about my life than I do. Next time I see you, please don’t lay your hands on me and fantasize you are a football lineman. That’s called assault. Just saying.
Might I recommend and do believe you might benefit from spending some time focusing on your own happiness. I am the next generation. Thank you for your service. There is much to rebuild after the “hurricane”… as one might imagine.
Yours truly,
Candice
Give her hell Candice! Dianne is a worthless loudmouth piece of slime, and I’m being kind! Her and Stienburg are best friends with Harvey West, the convicted child sex offender. Enough said.
Say what you want about Steinburg, but in 2018 you need candidates who play to win. Steinburg did just that. Clark was just too nice a guy to defeat the communist Democrat running in this seat, and never explained why he was running or what he planned to do in Raleigh. Clark needed to explain why someone who has already represented 56% of the primary voting Republicans was not up to the job, and that never happened.
In short, Twiddy refused to go negative. If he had, he would have won. Steinburg’s record was what they call in the military a target rich environment, but Twiddy failed to take advantage of that. He had gracious plenty to explain with and just failed to use it. His consultant should have had a real come to jesus talk with Twiddy on this and apparently failed to do so.
Steinburg’s radical environmentalist connections will cost him enough of the base vote that he will have a problem winning in an R+1 district, and on top of that he has this basketball tournament scandal. He is a flowed nominee and therefore weaker than Twiddy would have been in a general election..
But Twiddy is a friend of Dan Forest, and I hope this race wakes up Forest on the need to go negative when necessary, both in the primary and the general. The old saying “nice guys finish last” is often true in politics. His Lt. Governor races had particular chemistry that allowed him to stay positive. The 2020 governor’s race will not.