The NCGOP finance report: Chartered jet(s), primary-meddling and $$$ to Charlotte lawyer
We all know party chairman Robin Hayes has his own plane, and that the NCGOP has kicked in some $$$ for fuel for said plane. So, WHY is the state party chartering a private jet (or jets)?
THIS comes from the latest campaign finance report for the state Republican Party:
flyExclusive provides chartered jets for folks WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY above my pay-grade. Was the chairman’s 
plane unavailable? What business was so urgent for the state party that it required a chartered jet?
Another interesting item on the state party report: A $5,000 payment to the campaign for state Rep. Kelly Hastings.
The problem? He had a primary against fellow Republican Charlene High.
Oh, and one more interesting tidbit: $20,0000 to a Charlotte law firm — paid in FOUR $5,000 checks over an 11 day period.
I thought Tom Stark was on retainer to handle all party business? Perhaps, with all of his banning and surveillance-related activities and his quixotic kamikaze run for state senate, there just isn’t ANY TIME.
I will tell you like a NC GOP Chairman once told me “You do not ask Historical budget questions you ask hysterical ones”
We need answers to these questions.
As the Constitutional Party settles in, it needs to site / frame these Deep State shenanigans and run on the remedies. Term limits reduces these abuses significantly. Exposure to ‘near occasion of sin’ sort of a thing.
At first blush, term limits sound like a good idea.
However, unintended consequences will be a problem if we institute them.
The fourth branch of government, unelected bureaucrats, have way too much power now. Elected people come and go. They stay there “forever.”
If elected people are term limited, they’re lame ducks in their final term, and the bureaucrats will take full advantage and become even more powerful.
Our founders considered term limits, but did not include them. We the people should supply term limits when needed at the ballot box. That will keep bureaucrats guessing and a tad less sure of themselves.
The fallacious election = term-limits trope no longer is credible. Per the Cato Institute, incumbents are re-elected 80% of the time … EVEN IF THEY DON’T CAMPAIGN!! The Founders never imagined their concept of citizen legislator who sacrifices his time, goes to the legislature, serves his best, and then comes home to live among his friends, neighbors, family and community under the laws he helped enact, would be compromised by a decline in morals, honor and integrity, bought by the highest bidder and kept in place as long as the special interest(s) deem of value. See the Moore County Deep State and the recent NC Senate District 25 race as poster event in favor of term limits. Raleigh elected this interloper, walking a yet-to-be judged legal line the whole while. plain and simple.
A Convention of States ( another myth is that is will ‘run out of control’, so don’t waste your breath) can take care of the Administrative State the lives in every Congressional front office. That might be a viable part of the new Constitutional Party that now has the opportunity to breath life back into the cadaver of American governance.
Term limits along with a thorough house cleaning. Throw all the bums out. Clean slates from top to bottom!
The Kelly Hastings payment should get everyone connected with it fired. That likely means at least the Executive Director and the Treasurer, and perhaps the chairman. Hayes, however, has probably delegated everything to Woodhouse and is in ignorant bliss. Money should NOT be sent to a candidate in a primary from the State Party.
The lawyer payments may or may not be legitimate, but the question about what they are for should be asked. If they are for defending Stark’s antics, such as defending his State Bar grievance, then they are inappropriate in the extreme. If they involve fighting some underhanded Democrat move against our candidates, they would be legit.
Chartered jets? That seems to be very wasteful spending.
Just to clarify all of these expenses questioned here are caucus legislative issues
As far as support for candidates, the legislative caucus have a long standing policy that their members can have money they send to the state caucus accounts, money in fact raised and sent by the candidates themselves refunded back to them if they have a primary election.
This does not amount to “support” of a primary candidate, but simply a return of their own money.
We have had to engage outside counsel to deal with a high number of candidate filing challenges, both ones we filed against democrats and ones they filed on us.
De Plane De Plane what about De Plane De Plane https://youtu.be/USfKJYZcUmI
SO, if you need this outside counsel, what good is it to have Stark hanging around on the payroll? I thought that type of thing was his job. four payments of $5000? round numbers always get antennas twitching. auditors, irs, those types of people.
Sounds like the party treasury is now a bank where you can park money and withdraw it. Do you guys pay interest on deposits? Do new depositors get toasters and other cool gifts? Is the money insured by the FDIC? Do you check to confirm if the money is tainted by actual criminal activity (drugs, mafia) or just plain old run-of-the-mill shakedowns before accepting it?
Oh, and the plane. Is it just a coincidence that this plane was chartered right about the time speaker Moore and his special friend Madison were in little rock. ark to meet with a CEO who has facilities in NC? Said CEO is listed on your report as having written two checks to the party for $25,000 each. Doesn’t little rock have an airport? Is Little rock inaccessible from raleigh or charlotte? is little rock “hard to get to”?
Previous General Counsels have not milked the party for fees.
Campaign reports are set up so you can report refunds as refunds. I do not see the word “refund” in your contribution to Hastings.
To be clear. The legislative caucus have long refunded money supplied by the candidates to the caucuses if those candidates have a primary. This is not support for candidates but refunds of their own money.
We have had to engage outside counsel on a number of candidate issues across the state, both ones we have had to respond to, and ones we filed.
The flight in question was an unusual situation, assisting some of our candidates connect with important party/caucus supporters in distant hard to reach places. It ended up being a successful trip that helped the party reach some significant fundraising goals. Governor Cooper is raising a ton of money and we are doing everything we know how to do to stay competitive.
While extremely rare, some of our key elected folks needed to see some extremely hard to reach donors. This ended up being an extremely successful venture.
Extremely!
Where the donors in Russia? That is a hard to reach place and they have lots of vodka and people like vodka
When we need Russian Rubbles they just fly them over on Putin 1!
what about the vodka you forgot about the vodka
I’m looking at buying a new car. Can I have my money back? With interest, that should be a chunk of change. Where’s my statement? I’ve never received one. Next time you need to get to some hard to reach place, like Memphis or LA, call me. I know a guy.
Don’t tell us it was a successful trip. Tell us the details. Stop being evasive.