The long knives are out. (It MUST be close to NCGOP convention time.)
Such *great* timing, too. The name of our senior US senator is on the lips of the national conservative and MAGA movements. And those lips appear to be spitting a lot of venom — cursing Thom Tillis and every branch of his family tree. (I can just hear it now: *”Yeah, my name’s Tillis. No relation to Thom. I’m one of Mel and Pam’s people.”*)
Thom is the first Paul Shumaker client since the late, not-so-great Richard Morgan to generate this kind of venomous hatred from the people he’s supposed to be representing. (Go ahead. Bring up Tillis’s name in a public setting. See what happens.)
So, in the wake of the whole Ed Martin fiasco in DC, there’s bound to be some discussion of Scraggly Thom and his future at the upcoming NCGOP state convention. It likely won’t be very cordial or civil.
Some resolutions are already making their rounds across the state’s Republican circles. Here are some recently passed by GOP leaders in the 13th congressional district:
Condemnation of Thom Tillis. We’ve heard all of the evidence. Refresh your memory by reviewing our archive — accessible via a link just below the masthead on our site — talking to informed conservative pals, or by reading the attached resolution for yourself. THIS guy seriously thinks he and his sad, pathetic voting record deserve six more years in DC.
Senator Phil Berger and Party Disloyalty. The state senator from Rockingham County has done such a soviet job at consolidating state power in his hands that the old comrades from behind the Iron Curtain are looking up from Hell and beaming with pride. This resolution deals mainly with his attempt to aid and abet a liberal Democrat judge’s reelection against a solid, conservative Republican challenger.
Dismiss the convention’s credentialing chairman. This resolution suggests that the party activist — currently serving on her county board of elections — named to chair the convention committee is violating state law. The General Statutes appear to state that no one can serve on a county board of elections AND in a party office concurrently.
That’s not all the drama in store for convention attendees. Hotly contested races for state chairman and vice-chairman will be decided.
Jason Simmons is on the hot seat on a number of issues. Will he allow censured Thom Tillis to have any convention role? If he does, that alone should result in a new chairman. Simmons is also stonewalling on calling a state executive committee meeting to deal with the disloyalty charges on Berger. That should disqualify him from reelection.. Is Simmons covering up for Tillis and Berger? It would appear so.
Also, delegates need to know what, if anything, Simmons did to whip Tillis into line on the Martin nomination. If the answer is “nothing” as most suspect, that is another reason he needs a pink slip.
Then there is the monstrosity of a power grab by the party elite in a top-down oriented new Plan of Organization that is being proposed, which the Haymaker has already covered. That document is anti-grassroots in the extreme.
Does not help Trump comes out this wk SUPPORTING Simmons. How I wish he kept his mouth shut and OUT of local politics he knows NOTHING about.
HE has NATIONAL matters that need MAJOR attn rather than piddling in NC politics and supporting an absolute horrid chair.
So true. Trump makes endorsements that make his job and ours, harder. Simmons is a jumped-up staff puke who like his predecessor Whatley, can’t manage a bucket of sand let alone lead a state political party. The Vice Chair candidates waiting in the wings are also atrocious. I don’t know much about Dillard other than she has establishment credentials but my contacts over in Granville County have been informative as to what a disaster Magnanti was as County Chair.
Stonewalling seems to be the favorite tactic among the Party’s mafia-like elite. That is how they prevent plainly-written Party rules from being respected and enforced. It looks like the new Plan of Organization will do more of the same — if not actually strengthen the hands of the “bosses.” We are going to pay for this corruption at the polls one day, because it is the same kind of abuse that has gotten the Democrats into so much disfavor.
I got a text message from a phone number connected to simmonsncgop.com saying, “NC deserves a Chairman who believes in the grassroots” – like Jason Simmons does. I suppose that doesn’t sound odd on “Talk of the Town,” but in normal conversations it seems twilight zone like. A real chairman would have addressed all of the issues you presented. Simmons has not, and that disqualifies him for consideration for chairman, for me. I’m with Trump on most things, but many of his NC endorsements leave a bad taste.
Simmons failure to follow the PoO to call a state ExCom meeting to hear the party disloyalty complaint on Phil Berger tells you that Simmons has nothing but distain for the grassroots, and, heck, for party rules as well.
That Plan of Organization rewrite is to shut out the grassroots. It stinks to high heaven.
Got another text this morning asking if I am going to the convention, because Simmons needs my vote. I’m looking forward to Simmons explaining his record at that convention. I’m also looking forward to seeing what kind of electronic voting antics they’ve got in store this time around. I do hope some credible people show up to try to keep this cluster foxtrot honest.
I think I’ll attend for the first time in a few years. I once was a member of the Rules Committee and tried to eliminate electronic voting but the Rules Chair said “That’s how Billy wants it” and the rest of the sheep on the committee fell in line, much to my disgust.
Yo Haymaker …. you are an acknowledged and certified Political Historian for NC. …. help me out here …
Is “Thommy” the single most despised elected official in NC since Derm’s infamous DA – Mikey Nifong? It has to be a short list to challenge either one of those choices.
I think the late not – so great state rep. Richard Morgan belongs in that distinguished group you cited. Hands down.