Veteran outside-the-beltline GOP leader expresses concern over NCGOP’s election tactics
I had an interesting talk today with an individual who is (1) a well-known name in North Carolina Republican circles and (2) a battle-tested veteran of decades of political combat:
“Pat McCrory is looking very good right now. It looks like he is going to be our next governor. It looks like we are going to keep our majorities in the legislature. The battlefield is really on the council of state races. That is where a lot of the big decisions on policy and expenditures happen. If Pat wants to be successful as governor, he is going to need all the help he can get. A Republican majority on the council of state would be a big help to a Governor McCrory. But Pat and his team are running around the state sucking up all of the money.
We’ve got a great Republican ticket running for the council of state seats. They are all polling well against their Democrat opponents. Unfortunately, they are short on funds and name ID. Pat, with all of his money and name ID, could be a BIG help toward pushing these folks over the finish line and into the victory circle on election day. But Pat’s team, and the folks at state party headquarters, are not doing a thing about it. They are leaving these council of state candidates hanging out to dry.”
Recent news reports show that McCrory and the state party have outraised Democrat Walter Dalton and the state Democrat Party by FIVE TO ONE. My source tells me that the GOP candidates for lieutenant governor, treasurer, auditor, secretary of state, labor commissioner, insurance commissioner and agriculture commissioner have been meeting to try and form an alliance to pool their resources and help each other to victory in November:
“This is so hard to understand. Why are these council of state candidates struggling for resources when the party is out-raising the Democrats by such a great margin? People give money to the state party believing that it will be used to build the Republican Party in this state and get as many Republicans as possible elected. Unfortunately, most of that money goes toward the grossly-inflated salaries of a small clique of consultants and politicos within the state party organization. We’ve got a great political climate for the GOP this year. It would be a shame to come up short in some of these races because we’ve got some selfish, greedy people holding the purse strings at state party headquarters.”
My source wanted me to encourage readers to avoid giving money directly to the state Republican Party. My source says people interested in actually getting Republicans elected to major offices in the state should donate DIRECTLY to individual campaigns.
Your source is spot on as to NOT contributing to NCGOP. Give it directly to candidates. Since the Cobey dynasty insiders took over NCGOP, it is not to be trusted. Continually handing off the chairmanship to one handpicked successor after another is just sickening and this inbred clique needs to be replaced by grassroots oriented conservatives.
The first sign that the Cobeyites running NCGOP had no real interest in the Council of State races was the sheer incompetence of their failure to file a candidate for Attorney General for the first time in many decades. This in spite of the fact that the AG position will be critical in fighting Obamacare and quite likely illegal immigration issues, and the further fact that the SBI scandal makes this office for vulnerable than any time in the past. Whether it was some sick insider deal or just absolute incompetence that led to this failure, nobody in high positions at NCGOP should keep their positions after the elections. They all need to be run out of office.
As someone who is paid to read polls and come up with political strategy on a daily basis, I couldn’t agree more with Raphael. Giving to the State GOP is foolish, give direct to the candidate. Looking at some of the polls that the Democrats have paid for, but now don’t want released publicly, it is amazing how close all the GOP candidates for Council of State are to winning. John Tedesco with just a little bit of money will pull off one of the biggest shockers, but the money needs to go to his campaign, not filtered through someone else. Same thing with Ed Goodwin. Taking out June Atkinson and Elaine Marshall would be tremedous.