Robin Hayes: “It ain’t MY fault.”
It was just 2012 in Tampa when then-NCGOP chairman Robin Hayes was caught on camera brow-beating his state’s delegates in a manner that surely had Lyndon Baines Johnson looking up from the hottest regions of hell and beaming with pride.
Fast forward to 2017. Hayes is once again state party chairman — thanks to a coup against a duly elected Tea Party-aligned chairman (who happened to be the party’s first black top official). Now, Hayes is looking less LBJ and more like the angry old man down the street yelling at the kids to get off his lawn. Here he is at a chairman candidate’s forum a few weeks back in Raleigh. *Not very chairman-ly, I must say.*
For the most part, Hayes has been a no-show as chairman — leaving a lot of the public heavy lifting to h
is mush-mouthed grandson Dallas Woodhouse. The NC Free Enterprise Foundation has a forum coming up in Raleigh on the state of state politics. Democrat chairman Wayne Goodwin will be there speaking for his party. NCGOP is sending Dallas.
Hayes has been rocked with some ethical questions. Party activists from the state’s east coast have accused Hayes of using is party position to lobby Gov. Pat McCrory to push through punitive regulations that are killing the coast’s commercial fishing industry. There are also some questions about whether the state party is footing the bill for fuel for Hayes’s private airplane.
Hayes didn’t have a very good weekend as chairman. Supporters of his opponent in the chairman’s race, Jim Womack, won key races in the 1st and 3rd congressional districts. At the 3rd district party convention, Hayes was confronted with some pointed, uncomfortable questions and pelted with boos that harkened back to Patriots’ fans’ treatment of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell during the Super Bowl trophy presentation. (Oh, we HAVE video.)
One of my favorite moments on the video? Hayes telling the assembled activists that it was THEIR FAULT, and not his, that Pat McCrory lost his reelection bid.
Since Ch Hayes has openly admitted that he was involved in the MFC appointments, that he HOUNDED our previous Governor over from early July until Nov 2, ( midway early voting) and the previous Governor has himself openly admitted to some of his past employees and appointees that he thinks those MFC appointments harmed his reelection efforts, how can it not be concluded that Ch Hayes did not aid and abett that loss? I feel sorry for Pat McCrory in that he breached his personal integrity by falling victim to the special interest Coastal Conservation Association. He knew better, that was why he had postponed the action. What was achieved by those appointments was the sale of CONTROL of the Division Marine Fisheries to the CCA.
Ch Hayes has been stumping for these tyrants since 1995. He claims he does not remember cosponsoring a failed net ban bill that was the 1st legislative shot that the CCA fired in N C. Wonder if he remembers lying to me about National committee woman Ada Fisher’s lie to the N C GOP as to the way she voted in California in 2012? ( caught on video at that) It to me is plain to see that Ch Hayes cannot be trusted.
Browny Douglas
DARE GOP Ch
Browny I know that pain.
I saw what CCA did in Ga and when I came here I heard rumors of them working w/in the state. They found allies in Ga the same as they found here.
Chris Weaver
Person County Ch
Here’s hoping the grassroots can overcome current leadership’s corruption.
Please get rid of this hayseed. What an embarrassment! It’s hard to tell the difference in this buffoon and the democrats.
I overheard him in Charlotte when the state convention was held after the Haley Barbour lunch, another hayseed, making fun of TEA party people. Oh the irony! This backwards good ole boy needs to go now. Retire already.
Haley Barbour, whose has been a lobbyist for the government of Mexico and a big amigo of illegal immigration, is one of Robin Hayes big buddies. It was Hayes who brought Barbour to that convention as a speaker. It is hard to get more obnoxiously establishment than Haley Barbour.
Barbour and his nephew Henry were responsible for the really nasty dirty tricks in the 2014 Mississippi GOP Senate primary runoff against the conservative frontrunner. The Barbours used some really sleazy racebaiting to stampede black liberal Democrats to improperly vote in the GOP runoff and throw the race to the establishment candidate who had finished second in the first round. That is the sort of establishment political hacks that Robin Hayes likes to pal around with. Here is the whole sordid story of what happened in Mississippi as told by a leading British newspaper:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2672565/The-worst-race-baiting-ads-Ive-seen-Radio-ads-Mississippi-senate-race-accused-tea-party-candidate-Ku-Klux-Klan-links-drove-black-Democrats-vote-against-REPUBLICAN-primary.html
Hayes sabotaged Governor McCrory when he put his radical environmentalist buddies ahead of the interests of the party to use his party position to con McCrory into appointing environmentalists hostile to the state’s commercial fishing industry to the Marine Fisheries Commission just before the election. Those appointments, caused by Hayes meddling on behalf of a non-Republican special interest cost McCrory tons of badly needed votes from people who normally vote Republican down east.
Hayes’ fingerprints are on McCrory’s defeat due to Hayes planting the knife in McCrory’s back on those corrupt appointments. He had to have known his meddling on the Marine Fisheries Commission would hurt McCrory politically down east, but he did it anyway. McCrory, not Hayes, would be the public face of the appointments. This clearly shows that Hayes’ principle loyalties are somewhere other than to the GOP and its candidates. We need a state chairman who does not play games on behalf of outside liberal special interest groups.
What happens if Womack wins?
Are the party insiders going to make up criminal charges against him and purge him like they purged Harnett?
At this point, the only thing to do is form an alternative Republican Party and win primaries. Suck the money away from the real party and win in the court of public opinion. The real party will die off, hopefully.
I refuse to participate in anything organized by the NCGOP. I don’t want any of my hard earned money going to support any criminal conspiracies.
I see things through a different lens. We need to REVIVE and SAVE the NC GOP. Jim Womack is fully capable of doing that. He does need enough of us solid conservative types to back him to the hilt, and I see us lining up to do just that!
That, my friend, is why we’re endeavoring to change the District leadership before we change the State leadership, a lesson painfully learned last year.
It’s coming. Think about a problem marriage. It starts with an argument. Kiss and make up. Then another argument. Kiss and make up. Then more arguments. Kiss and make up. Then one spouse strikes the other. The striker apologizes profusely, and then they kiss and make up. Next is the affair. At this point, enough is enough. The marriage is dead. The love is gone. There is no sane reason to prolong the agony. There’s a profound sense of hopelessness. That’s where I am with the Republican Party.
Jim Womack is no Hasan Harnett. Hasan had never even been a precinct chair and was a registered Democrat, including a field worker for the 2008 Obama campaign. Hasan would disappear and no one except maybe Rufty could get a hold of him.
Jim Womack has all the credintals, connections, and experience to make a great chairman of the NCGOP.
Jim Womack has much more experience in the party structure than Robin Hayes did when the secretive clique that was then running the party first annointed him as their chairman candidate in his first term. Hayes had never been a county chairman like Womack is. The only office Hayes had even held in the party at that point was serving ex officio on the state executive committee by virtue of being a legislator and then a Congressman, and he did not even attend those meetings so he did not even have any real experience there. Womack is light years more qualified than Hayes was when he was inserted as chairman the first time.
That is probably why Hayes is so arrogant toward the grassroots.
It ain’t my fault. It is sad when your duly coup elected dictator gets booed by his subjects. You should bow to your king. Mccrory was just a test like my bud in North Korea testing his IBCM. We may fail sometimes but in the end my minions and I will take America by storm and the NCGOPE will rule the world. And we will make all you tin foil hat wearing Ron Paulers and tea baggers our minions for good.
After viewing the video, as well as being there, it is clear to me that Ch Hayes was aiming at the countys that home the commercial fishing industry and those other counties that support them. Yes Pat McCrory lost the race BUT Dare delivered big in his favor. It would have been even bigger if the then Governor had not followed Ch Hayes’ lead and made those rogue appointments to the MFC.
Browny Douglas
Dare GOP Ch
I have read numerous posts on this site stating the reason McCrory lost is because of the commercial fishing issues. Although Browny Douglas would like to make that seem accurate it just aint so. McCrory lost for several factors and I would say he lost more due the fact he forgot who got him there-meaning GOP supporters–not just the fisheries issue Browny would like everyone to believe because it fits his narrative.
The facts are this McCrory overwhelmingly carried the coastal counties. The reason I am pointing out these counties is those are where commercial fishing has an impact. I did quick math but it was 268750 for McCrory and 177392 for Cooper in these coastal counties. McCrory lost two counties on the coast and those were Pasquotank and New Hanover. And thats to be expected. In Dare County McCrory won over Dalton by 2964 in 2012 and by 2616 in over Cooper. Hardly the difference in the election.
I have no problem whatsoever in pointing out the problems in what cost McCrory the election and the shortcomings of Robin Hayes. I just believe they need to be accurate and truthful to keep from those mistakes occuring again. False narratives may help a personal agenda but not the reality of the real issues.
It’s never just any one thing. McCrory offended a lot of different kinds of conservative factions. On the coast it was fishing families. Along I-85, the anti-toll road crowd had probably the biggest impact against McCrory. As I remember, they were badly treated at previous ncgop conventions. McCrory also offended a lot of Confederate descendants and ordinary GOP activists who’d seen enough of his meddling in Party affairs and couldn’t get him to back off any other way. After awhile, all these disaffected factions begin to add up to a lot of lost votes.
Paul, if I have said or penned that ” the reason McCrory lost was because of commercial fishing issues” I was in error. I acknowledge there were more reasons for the loss. However I know I have said and penned many times that the reason McCrory lost was IN PART because of Robin Hayes, for months, pounding him to make the 3 MFC appointments that he consequently made. Even the loss of 1 vote satisfys IN PART. Trust me, it was way more than 1. Also if you will notice my post just above yours I pointed out that McCrory carried Dare BIG. Also I pointed out that the margin would have been greater had McCrory not bowed to the CCA which Hayes was representing. Therefore I say once more that the Republican Governor’s loss was due in part to the MFC appointments he made.
This is a bit ugly but IT IS THE TRUTH and I feel sure it is at least part of the reason that McCrory tried to avoid making those appointments until after his intended win. I am POSITIVE the then Governor knew this fact. I cannot imagine that Robin Hayes did not know. That fact is that one of those 3 appointees was SO SO SO despicable and disgusting while carrying out his duties as a MFC commissioner that when the late Paul Rose died ( then Chairman of the MFC) his immediate family via phone instructed Dr Louis Daniel ( then Director of the DMF) to inform that particular commissioner that he was NOT to attend the funeral. Every then member of the MFC attended but that particular one. Who was that? Hint hint. A commercial fishing friend of his called him “Heavy”. Fits.
Browny Douglas
Browny if you truly think the average voter knows who the three people appointed to the MFC then you are ignorant.
Your argument doesn’t win but hurts your cause. Get people elected that think as you do. I’ve recognized the party structure isn’t the way to do it.
Just over 10k votes separate Cooper and McCrory. That’s ok average 100 extra votes per county in the State of NC. 100 extra votes per county, that’s it! Trump received over 100k more votes than HRC. With all due respect to our brothers and sisters on the coast, it sounds like an structural and ground game issue within the party and the campaign.
The concern is not average voters, it is niche voters, and McCrory screwed up big time with them. The I-77 toll lane issue mattered nothing to most voters in the state, but to the thousands in North Mecklenburg and South Iredell who drive it daily to work, it mattered a lot, and McCrory screwing up on that issue cost him more votes than he lost the election by. Similarly, McCrory screwing up on the Confederate flag license plate cost him thousands of Southern heritage voters, although it made no difference with the ”average” voter.
Similarly to commerical fishermen and their families, who got those MFC seats made an enormous difference to their future and that was probably the most important political issue to them. They focused like a laser beam on it, and when McCrory, thanks to Hayes stabbed them in the back, they acted and they ran their mouths to others. The only reason it did not hurt McCrory as bad as the other screwups mentioned above was that early voting was half over when the word got out. Still, it cost McCrory votes that could have helped close the gap.
There is an old saying in politics that you do not piss on your base. Southern heritage voters, North Meck and South Iredell voters, and commercial fishermen have traditionally voted Republican. McCrory pissing on his base with these normally Republican voters is what cost him the election.
But, the point about ignoring Republicans once he was elected, also meant that Republican activists did not have the fire in the belly for McCrory that they had had for Governor Martin. Martin did appoint Republican activists for the most part while McCrory ignored them. There is another old saying that McCrory ignored which is ”ya dance with who brung ya”.
Paul, the names of the appointees are irrevelent.
You need to get your dictionary out, Paul. ” Ignorance is bliss”. I almost wish that was the case. The CCA and it’s cabal of marine industry corporatist, disguised as enviromentalist CONservationist, have $$ bought control of all N C coastal waters. Pat McCrory consummated that with his Nov 2 MFC shenanigans. Consumption of and production of fresh healthy seafood is soon to be a thing of the past in N C. That is what the average voter needs to understand. The CCA owes Robin Hayes BIG TIME. Pats on the back will suffice I’m sure.
If your use of the word ignorant was meant to imply I am stupid, which I think it was, I’m not sure you are not correct.
Browny Douglas