Tillis fanboy surfaces as a leading contender for NCGOP ED
We’ve been throwing out names of potential executive director candidates that have made their way back to us. One more needs to be added to the list: NC DPI general counsel (and deputy general counsel to Speaker Timmy) Jonathan Sink.
There is an interesting backstory to this guy that goes back to 2013 — when he was vice-chairman of the Mecklenburg County Republican Party. That year, state Rep. Larry Pittman (R-Cabarrus) was videotaped harshly criticizing then-House speaker Thom Tillis. All kinds of establishment types were hollering at Pittman to apologize.
Pundithouse, a Charlotte conservative blog, detailed how Sink attempted to defend Tillis’s honor against Pittman:
[…] At the Mecklenburg County GOP Executive meeting last week, recently elected vice-chair Jonathan Sink resigned his position and made it clear that his intention was to move to Cabarrus County and offer a primary challenge to Pittman.
What horrible timing, given the recent row between the legislators. There is no concrete proof that Tillis is behind this, but anyone paying attention can connect the dots.
In his phone calls to local Cabarrus GOP Party officials, Sink attempted to make it clear that his intentions were not motivated by animosity, but that residents simply “deserved a choice”.
Funny.
Conservatives are constantly berated when offering primary challenges against moderate to liberal Republicans. The calls for “unity” can be deafening. Interesting how when the other side wants to primary a conservative, suddenly it’s just “offering a choice”.
(On a personal note, I like Sink and supported his acquisition of the Vice-Chair position in Mecklenburg. However, I think this move is damaging to both his reputation and the GOP as a whole. If he wishes to comment, I will be more than happy to post in full and without commentary his response.)
Running with the assumption that this primary challenge is orchestrated by leadership against someone who dared to challenge the status quo, it’s a little like history repeating itself. […]
Okay. So, this guy quit his job and was ready to MOVE to another county to take out a Tillis critic. And he’s being seriously considered to be the new Dallas Woodhouse. (One wonders if he will pose for photos covered in Tillis campaign stickers like Dallas did.)
With someone that hardcore about defending Tillis running the day-to-day ops at NCGOP HQ, how can the Garland Tucker campaign expect a fair shake from the state party during the primary?
If that is the only lawyer being considered…. it’s him
Another bad choice to go with the other three. This guy is clearly an anti-conservative. He would be Woodhouse 2.0
I don’t agree, as you will see, if my first comment on this gets published here.
Let me clarify this a bit. Jonathan Sink did not know me back then. He was persuaded that I did not belong in the House, and that he should establish a Cabarrus County address and run against me. Some of my supporters spoke to him and convinced him not to do it.
After he came to work in Raleigh, he and I got to know each other and became friends. He frequently expressed his appreciation for the stand that I take in the House. He has been very supportive of me. We have nothing against each other, although we may disagree about Tillis. In fact, I have good friends who are close to Tillis, but have worked hard for me in my campaigns, just as I have other supporters who left the GOP because Trump won instead of Cruz. One size does not fit all. It is not up to me who becomes the next NCGOP Executive Director. I will say that I consider Jonathan Sink to be an excellent young man who is bright and talented and a man of integrity. I am sure he will do well in whatever he chooses to do. He is my brother in Christ and I believe he would do a great job for us, with a fair approach, minif chosen, which would be quite refreshing.
That should read “if chosen,” not “minif chosen.”
Regardless if he had made friends with you and buried the hatchet personally when he came to work in the legislature, someone who is this much of an extrreme supporter of Tillis, like Woodhouse was, is not what is needed when the party needs to stay neutral during a major primary for the US Senate. To resign a party position and plan to move to another county to challenge an incumbent officeholder over his extreme loyalty to Tillis does not reflect someone who coud be objective when Tillis is in a primary.
Thank you, Larry. I trust your judgement and honesty. You make me feel better about the answer to the final question Brant Clifton raised in the article above.
The RNC will by all appearances, will have nearly co-opted the the state party, as it is, more than enough to run this show. If this is the selection, it will not encourage any enthusiasm from the people on the ground.
Of that you may be certain! Some rural counties, without whom statewide candidates CANNOT win, have had enough of the Wake-Mecklenberg GOP and their rigged elections and I suspect a few aren’t going to offer a speck of cooperation to the new Swamp creatures on Hillsborough street. I learned that from a Tucker associate who also told me the campaign has been getting very warm receptions from a number of county gop leaders around the state.
I believe if Tillis is on the ballot in November, people will stay home, rather than hold their noses one more time & vote for a politician who clearly betrayed President Trump! Tillis saying he always supported Trump reminds me of when a wife catches her husband with his girlfriend & he asks her: “Are you gonna believe me or your lying eyes?” We will not forget, Thom! GARLAND TUCKER 2020
Staying home would make no sense in that case. You still need to vote for Trump and for all the other races down the ballot. They are all important. You don’t have to vote for Tillis to vote for the others. You can just leave that one blank or write in someone.
This guy probably wanted out with Mark Johnson. Mark is one of the dumbest politicians in the world. He is going to lose in 2020.
Guy is probably happy to be out of the DPI train wreck
The appointment of Sink has now been announced. It looks like the DH had this one pegged, and it looks like we might have been better off keeping fumbling, bumbling, bug-eyed Woodhouse. Sink comes from Tim Moore’s staff, which has a culture of serving the special interests and of caving in to Democrats, and the GOP base, the party philosphy, and the best interests of the party be damned. This is what we now have running the day to day operations of the party.
To make matters worse, Sink is infatuated with Thom Tillis. His sideshow of resigning to move to run against a conservative legislator simply because that legislator did something he considered hostile to Tillis marks him as a Tillis fanatic, and that is something we sure don’t need during a contested primary where Tillis is a candidate and the party is supposed to remain neutral.
What I do not see in his background is experience of managing a political organization, something that should be a basic for this position. Other than his brief stint as Mecklenburg County vice chairman up to his abrupt resignation, I do not see the level of party involvment that also should be a basic for this position.
Maybe the jig that many conservatives danced over the departure of Woodhouse was a little premature.