NCGOPe: Rules for Thee, but not for meeeeeeeeee … (the sequel)

Earlier this year, NCGOP officials from Murphy to Manteo were hit with written warnings to refrain from any up-close-and-personal activity in party primaries. Stay neutral until after the primaries, in other words.

As you know, the NCGOPe is playing a game of “Pretend there will be no US Senate primary.”  Elected officials and other Raleigh and DC politicos have adopted quite heavy-handed tactics aimed at, um, *persuading* the little people back home to shut up and mindlessly support a ziploc bag of leftover mashed potatoes they call *Michael Whatley.*

While most rank-and-file party officials are being told to stay out of the primary, all kinds of local and state officials are falling all over themselves to campaign / fundraise for Raleigh and DC’s choice. 

As you might expect, they’ve overplayed their hand.  The heavy-handedness has whipped up quite a hornet’s nest across our great state. The kind of unity parties aim for ahead of big elections is looking like less and less of a possibility.

The sad part?  None of this had to happen. If the guy Raleigh and DC have selected as their champion is really ALL-THAT, why not have him run in a real primary against any and all GOP comers?  College and pro teams play scrimmages all the time before they start the real season.  Scrimmages – like primaries – often help to identify potential weaknesses that can hopefully be addressed before the start of the season.

Heavy-handed tactics emanating from DC are also taking a toll on Republicans in Tennessee and Kentucky, among other states.

The establishment should take its thumb off the scale and allow for a healthy internal debate.

Anyway, here’s another example featuring, this time, a GOP activist from Henderson County being harassed for exercising the same rights establishment goons have been exercising for months:

 

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First, there is NO evidence that Whatley is the most electable.  In his races for state party chairman, he had to be bailed out by the weighted votes of the General Assembly members. Rank-and-file activists clearly didn’t want him. His last reelection bid was conducted with some extremely flawed electronic voting technology that failed to produce a credible result. Instead of investigating THAT election integrity issue, Whatley was simply allowed to stay in office.

Every public poll out there shows Whatley losing big to Roy Cooper. One poll found a generic Republican doing better against Cooper than Whatley does.

The fundraising prowess theme is a joke.  Throughout Whatley’s era, the party treasury was stuffed with cash from the RNC in DC and General Assembly leadership’s shakedown proceeds.  He had nothing to do with the arrival / deposit of any of that revenue.

The so-called DJT endorsement is actually something a little closer to THIS scenario: A Raleigh lobbyist close to Phil Berger and the rest of the NCGOPe is also a drinking  and / or hunting buddy with one or more of the presidential sons.  This is the Raleigh swamp trying to influence the president via his sons. 

Michael Whatley, as state party chairman,  allowed the Young Republicans to join with Black Lives Matter to picket NCGOP HQ.  Whatley boasted to the drive-by media about being the first state official to condemn the J6ers.  (Meanwhile, Whatley’s alleged hero pardoned all of those folks.)

Trump reportedly put Whatley in charge of hurricane relief for western North Carolina.  The word is that Whatley is even screwing that up.  Money hasn’t made it to where it’s needed. And Whatley has been scarce in that part of the state.

In his private business dealings, Whatley has preached the gospel of (and made money from) ESG and government subsidies of solar and wind power.

Meanwhile, Don Brown is a Navy veteran who has worked as a federal prosecutor.  He defended some J6ers in court and helped them win pardons.  Brown worked with Pete Hegseth to secure some much needed reforms within the US military. He defended military personnel the Obama and Biden team tried to imprison for simply doing their jobs.

Don Brown is more likely than Whatley to be a dependable vote for the MAGA agenda.  It makes NO sense whatsoever for the president to endorse Whatley.  Trump is likely being misled by bad actors from North Carolina misusing their relationships with the Trump sons.