#NCSEN: If you pay him, he will come.
S
tate House speaker and US Senate candidate Thom Tillis has been catching some flak from GOP activists — and finally from the mainstream media — for skipping out on candidate debates in the GOP primary race. His people are promising that he will show up in the same room with his opponents some time before May.
In the meantime, he found a few minutes in his “busy” schedule — while the House is out of session — to appear at a press conference featuring home health care interests seeking changes in ObamaCare. It’s interesting he is showing so much more passion for tinkering with the existing law than he did for the NCGA refusing health exchanges, or for Ted Cruz’s defund ObamaCare effort.
(O-Care doesn’t need to be tinkered with. It needs to be completely trashed. Before it finally trashes our economy and our country.)
Today’s event got me curious. What was so special about this particular event that made him step out in front of the cameras? For answers, I took to his campaign report — which tends to tell a lot about ol’ Thom’s motivations.
Harold Brubaker — the only other GOP speaker of the House since Reconstruction — represented the Asheboro area in the NCGA for aeons. He and ol’ Thom were close allies during the time their House tenures overlapped. Brubaker resigned from the House in 2012 to jump into lobbying — and Thom was there with the kind words, referring to him as “my mentor, a trusted colleague, and a dear friend. “
Here we are in 2014, and it appears Brubaker’s lobbying practice is going gangbusters. According to the secretary of state’s web site, Brubaker is affiliated with Liberty Partners Group of Washington, DC. The lobbying firm’s clients include: Bayada Home Health Care, Encompass Home Health, Guardian HealthCare, LHC Group, Partnership for Quality Home HealthCare, and SunCrest Home Health. In other words, Tillis’ “mentor, trusted colleague, and dear friend” is affiliated with a lobbying group that represents a bunch of home health companies. Ol’ Thom appears at a press conference today tooting his horn for the interests of home health providers. A donation for $2600, in the name of Brubaker’s wife Geraldine, showed up in Tillis’ campaign report in September 2013.
Staying on the health care theme, let’s refresh our memories about Greenleaf Health, LLC of Illinois. Illinois resident Patrick Ronan, of the firm, donated $5200 to the Tillis campaign in September 2013. His wife, Kimberly, donated $5200 to Tillis on the same day. If you read Greenleaf’s site, they place a huge emphasis on helping health care related firms navigate the federal bureaucracy. And here Thom is today — urging the federal bureaucracy to help out the home health crowd.
Let’s get back to Brubaker. We talked previously about Tillis scooping up all of this beer and wine wholesaler money during the time the NCGA was debating giving craft brewers more independence from wholesalers. The National Association of Wholesalers put on a fundraiser for Tillis in DC. According to the state, Brubaker — Thom’s “mentor” — represents the wholesalers in North Carolina.
Of course, there is the Massachusetts law firm owned by Thom’s brother-in-law. I am sure it is simply an amazing coincedence that the firm’s clients have been well-taken-care-of in the North Carolina General Assembly. (Thom’s brother-in-law and mother-in-law, who both work at the firm, have each donated big to the Senate campaign.)
I am starting to see a theme here. If you or your representative throws Thom some cash, he’ll show up at your stuff and take care of you. Candidate forums that don’t pay you — not so much.
I received a flier in my box as did many of my neighbors with this website address to learn more about Thom Tillis. I live in The Peninsula in Cornelius and am one of his neighbors and I can tell you I am mad as hell at him as well as many of my neighbors are. He has never looked out for us and done nothing since he has been in Raleigh except to climb the ladder and us be damned and always asking for money. I do not know anyone that is voting for him and many who will be voting against him. Thank you for this website so that we can share with more of our neighbors about what he’s up to. I will do everthing that I can to make sure his opponent wins whoever he or she may be. Maybe if we put a $10 bill on his front door step, he’ll go home and stay the hell there permanently.
His main Senate primary opponent is Dr. Greg Brannon, a physician and constitutional conservative. All the wealthy DC big money people (like Karl Rove) are trying to force Tillis on us.
http://gregbrannon.com/
Now Republicans and Democrats can agree on one thing, Tillis is terrible. Any conservative could make the statement below.
“Speaker Thom Tillis has made a mess in Raleigh — imagine what he’d do in Washington,” said North Carolina Democratic Party spokesman Ben Ray.
If he can’t even show up for a simple opportunity to meet his constituents 5 minutes from his house how will he tackle the more challenging task for him like long division.
And yes, I’m a Peninsula resident and neighbor too Toll Roads Thom!
Tilli$ is nothing but a rent boy for the $pecial intere$ts, and does not give a hoot for what GOP voters think or want. His systematic ducking of candidate forums spells that out loud and clear.
A good example is Tilli$ and illegal immigration, where Tilli$ is a big amigo of the illegal aliens. He pushed through a bill in the legislature to gut e-Verify in North Carolina to make it easier for illegal aliens to take jobs that should belong to citizens. He tried to push through a bill to allow illegal aliens to have driving licenses. He told the NC Farm Bureau that he supports a ”pathway to citizenship” for illegal aliens, which is known to most of us as Amnesty for illegal aliens although Tilli$ prefers to use the liberal buzzwords. Why is Tilli$ betraying Republican voters and the Republican platform on this issue? Simple. He thinks it will get him big bucks from Big Ag special interests.
Tilli$ is a corrupt politician who is for sale to the highest bidder in cash.
I am a Republican but I can’t understand, I thought the Republicans were the good guys. I am so disappointed and saddended by this. Now I’m just upset. I found this video of pig Tillis being led to the the trough by pig Rove. Are they now involved in taking money from foreign countries too. Why can’t they just represent us? http://specialinterestthom.com/ I will never vote for Thom Tillis ever again.
Greg Brannon is the ONLY worthy candidate for US Senate 2014 NC …
the ONLY one…
then we have to find another to replace Burr soon…he’s done too.
I received a flier today too with your website address and have been studying the candidates. I used to be a Tillis supporter but no more, I’m done with that snake. I can’t trust what he says anymore and the video of him with Karl Rove is really upsetting. My neighbors are talking about it too and say that they believe Greg Brannon will do what he says, they believe him to be concerned about us, not a calculated career move like Tillis to benefit his wallet. I learned that Greg Brannon has campaign offices all over the state and now has opened one in Cornelius right down the street from where I live in Cornelius! I am so excited that I will get to meet him. I am going to volunteer for his campaign.