#ncsen: Key Tea Party group backs John Rhodes write-in effort
One of the Tar Heel State’s more significant Tea Party organizations — Asheville Tea PAC — has stepped forward with a recommendation that voters write in the name of former Mecklenburg County legislator John Rhodes for US Senate.
Lately, western North Carolina has been sitting up and taking notice of the group’s aggressive conservative grassroots efforts. In the May primary, ATP backed Cary OB-GYN Greg Brannon.
Contrast this with the — what I’m told was controversial — endorsement of Thom Tillis by Conservatives for Guilford County. Tillis has been avoiding the group like the plague. He didn’t bother to show up for the group’s candidate forum during the primary. C4GC held a straw poll on the primary field in January, and Tillis came in dead last.
I’ve heard some people compare actions like C4GC’s to battered spouse syndrome. They believe things might change if they hang around. They might be listened to — and given a little more respect — if they hang around and “behave.”
Washington is pumping up the cost — and destroying the quality — of the best health care delivery system in the world. (Both parties have abandoned the idea of killing ObamaCare and are talking ONLY about “fixing” it. Never mind that John Boehner got his speaker’s gavel based on the promise of killing off that beast.) No one is taking our $17 trillion — and growing — federal debt seriously. The “debt limit” keeps getting knocked upward by the political class for the sake of pacifying the rubes back home and getting the media off their backs. Regulatory growth and overreach are decimating the economy and pushing a growing number of folks away from self-sufficiency and toward government dependency.
Republican majorities have come and gone. Republican presidents have come and gone. Yet, HERE WE ARE.
The way to putting America back on track will be paved with new, innovative ideas. How’s that going here in North Carolina? The takeaways, so far, in this campaign are: (1) Sean Haugh smokes pot, (2) Thom Tillis wants to be all in the middle of your visit to the OB-GYN, and (3) Kay Hagan missed a committee meeting.
November’s vote will make very little difference in the battle to cleaning up the country. (ONE of the two major party candidates might actually slow our slide into the pit of decline.) You can be a good soldier and fall in line either in the R or D column. (And be dismissed for two to six more years.) OR you can take a stand and demand leadership on the things that matter in the fight to save our country.
I had the satisfaction of writing in John Rhodes today in Transylvania County….you know out west.
John Rhodes would like to thank Ash TEA PAC for their endorsement, more to come.
i will be writing in John Rhodes tomorrow at early voting! I urge all voters concerned about the direction of our nation and state to do the same!
Good choice Asheville TEA PAC. I appreciate your courage to take this stand. This shows you guys are not sell-outs.
TEA Parties should be independent of party affiliation and should endorse the candidate who most closely matches their values. The culture of corruption will never change as long as the people go along to get ahead! Thanks to the Asheville TEA PAC for leading the way.
Why wouldn’t any conservative want to strengthen Cruz, Paul, Sessions, & Lee by voting for Tillis ? How does sending Hagen back to DC stop Obama and the fanatical left’s “Long March?” 7 days left to stop King Lear Obama. From hatchet wielding Islamist-Jihadists to savage illegal alien murderer’s killing our cops on our streets I will proudly vote for the guy who will stand with Cruz. Once the thin blue line is gone, your next. Not to mention that genocide against Christians throughout the world. Democrats are a closed shop. We have a chance with Tillis to get “up in his business” and demand leadership to right this ship.
Tillis has ALREADY been bought and paid for by the Chamber of Commerce and the likes of Karl Rove before setting one foot in DC
Therefore, on whose behalf do you think he will vote if elected?
Why wouldn’t any conservative want to strengthen Cruz, Paul, Sessions, & Lee by voting for Tillis ?
Why? Because Tillis will work against everything conservatives stand for to make mucho dinero for his Amnesty, Common Core, Agenda 21 loving sorry A _ _ .
Stand with Cruz? Maybe you ought to follow politics more closely. Tillis would not stand with Cruz, Jeff Sessions, of any of the other conservatives in the GOP caucus. He would stand with Mitch ”Kentucky Kickback” McConnell, whose attitude toward conservatives was summed up in his statement to the New York Times a few months ago when he vowed his clique would ”crush them everywhere”. McConnell’s viciousness toward conservatives was also shown by his arranging the financing of the very worst dirty tricks pulled against conservative frontrunner Chris McDaniel in the Mississippi primary this year. Reid and McConnell are both anti-conservative suckweasels.
The key in any campaign is issues. I kept waiting for Tillis to make a case on the issues as to why conservatives should vote for him but he never did. In fact, when he bothered to deal with issues, he kept pushing us away. The final nail for me was his support for the Obamacare Medicaid expansion. Tillis is for the welfare state and for Obamacare. I cannot think of an issue I trust him on, but I can think of plenty of key issues on which I actively distrust him due to his record and statements, and who he associates himself with.
It all comes down to party loyalty really. Tillis is NOT loyal to the principles of the party on whose ticket he runs. He is a phoney. He is more supportive of the principles of the other party. Thus Republican voters have no obligation to support a nominee who is not a loyal advocate for the party’s principles.
I so wish there was a LIKE button on this site!
We do have a facebook page. Go to the top left of this page and click on the facebook logo.
To answer your question the only way for the Tea Party to remain relevant is to derail the Tillis campaign. By reelecting Kay Hagan they punish Tillis for beating their man Brannon. Of course Brannon beat himself or maybe his defeat was at the hands of the poor job done by the Tea Party in support of Brannon………take your pick. Either way Tillis did not have too much trouble in the primary.
I can’t imagine why the Tea Party did not work as hard during the primary against Tillis as they have during the general election. It is almost as they have allied with Hagan. Maybe after Hagan wins she will reward them for their support. Maybe the Tea Partiers have gone so far right they have met up with the left thus further proving the earth is round.
I think the Tea Party feels that by acting childish they will gain the respect of the Republican Party in years to come. I question their judgement but then again I am an adult.
You seem to one of those who believe that politics is about personalities. It isn’t. It is about issues and principles. Tillis had the chance to draw in conservative votes by taking conservative stands on issues. He didn’t. He told the media he did not intend to do anything to mend fences with conservatives, and he didn’t. He is paying the price for that now, and it is his own fault, not that of Tea Party or other conservatives. Tillis bringing in major amnesty supporters to campaign for him and coming out in favor of the Obamacare Medicaid expansion just doubled down on stupid.
Please remember that Mark Harris was backed by the Republican Party under the former Republican NC Chair, Robin Hayes. Harris was a stalking horse candidate designed to take votes from Greg Brannon. We will not hold our noses and vote for their corrupt candidate. We worked very, very hard. This defeat is on the Republicans not the Tea Party. Look at what has happened in Mississippi with Chri McDaniel and Chad Cochran who took money from Mitch McConnel, Richard Burr, John McCain, Lindsey Graham and other RINOs who gave tens of thousands of dollars to Cocheran to buy Democrat Black voters. We will not stand for this. The Rs need their noses bloodied. If we are to save this nation, we need to stand up and stand for the values that this country was founded upon. Tillis is a pariah, corrupt, individual who is diametrically opposed to everything that this great nation was founded. We will be in the column of being on the ‘right side of history’ when posterity looks back at this pivotal time. Good luck to all of us. Our nation is failing on every front. The Rs will go down in history as those responsible. We will be on the side of those trying to save it. We gladly wear that badge.
I will write in John Rhodes or David Waddell. This not only does not violate my conscience but this is the only means to effect real political change. If the GOP can count on voters to vote for the lesser of 2 evils there is then NO motivation for them to stop funding and promoting traitors. We need to vote for good men and understand this will bring about change. If Tollus loses by the votes to the write in candidates this is victory. And we can then build on this momentum and perhaps see a viable new political party in NC at some time in the future.
I saw one of the Tillis commercials tonight where he says he thinks Representatives should vote their convictions and be willing to stand up to their party. This is in direct contrast to the way he bullied people in the House to vote his way or else. Ask Rep. Robert Brawley if he allowed the Reps to vote their convictions. He did exactly the opposite. I’m so glad I did not donate money to the Republican party this year.
That tells you exactly what Tillis is – a undocumented Democrat who will be crossing the aisle so often it will make your head spin. Between the top two candidates, voters are offered merely two brands of Democrat – one documented and one undocumented.
I just hope these “hard cases” are true to their word and start their own party.They couldn’t elect a soil and water commissioner.They need to take their toys and play with each other.
That mushy thinking is a lot like British Prime Minister David Cameron a couple of years ago when he and his crowd dismissed the UK Independence Party on his right flank. Then with two annual sets of local elections where UKIP picked offs lots of Conservative Party seats, followed by a nationwide election for the UK’s seats in the EU Parliament in which UKIP ran first nationally and the Conservative Party third, and now a pair of special elections for open seats in the national UK Parliament a couple of weeks ago, where in the former Conservative Party safe seat at Clacton, UKIP won a landslide with 60% of the vote, with the Cameron’s Conservatives second at 25%, and in a former Labour Party safe seat in Lancashire, UKIP nearly took the seat, forcing a recount. Now another special election looms next month at Rochester and Strood, another seat that has been a Conservative Party safe seat but polls now show UKIP ahead by 9 points.
You establishment hacks can whistle past the graveyard all you want. If the GOP establishment keeps playing the games they have with conservatives, the GOP will be facing its very own UKIP moment. You may not think it could happen, but neither did Cameron.
The TIllis senate candidacy has been tragic for any number of reasons. What should have been a cake walk is a potentially devastating loss for NC Republicans. Yes, Tillis would be better than Hagan, but after what happened in Mississippi, who can blame the Tea Party voters? And the Tea Party is correct—Tillis was bought and paid for by Karl Rove and the corrupt GOP Washington Establishment. All of this is very sad and even absurd, but not as absurd as former Governor Martin spending a day in Raleigh playing his tuba for McCrory instead of campaigning for our candidates. The GOP has simply lost its way. We will pay the price.
Too much truth in this thread. (Wrote in Rhodes a few days ago).
The early voting demographics are looking very bad for Tillis. About 33% GOP and high turnout by women who will probably tilt towards Hagan. I doubt Tillis will pull the 60% or so of unaffiliateds that traditionally can be captured. I think there is a real possibility of Hagan getting over 50% in Tillis low 40s.
Greg Brannon isn’t on the ballot so why do you Republican waterboys continue to bring him up? Of the eight GOP candidates in the primary, I could have voted FOR as many as six in the general election. Tillis will win by a skinny margin and then the Daily Haymaker can continually present articles on how Tillis is and will be bad for (r)epublicanism.
At my voting place they give you a little sticker that says “I voted.”
However, if you write in a candidate they give you a sticker that says “I am a fruitcake.” If you put your sticker on your tin foil hat and wear the hat to any participating fast food restaurant they will give you a free refill on a small coffee. Seriously.