Wednesday Morning Quarterback
Well, the smoke has cleared. The damage has been done. Some people have celebrated. Some are sobbing pitifully. We’d like to take a few moments to recap Tuesday’s action and talk about what it may or may not mean for the future:
PRESIDENT: I know it was a shocker, but GOPers renominated Donald Trump. State Dems went with Joe Biden. As I said before, I cut my teeth on politics in the 1988 presidential election as a low-low-low-level aide to the Bush-Quayle campaign in the Carolinas. I remember the big scandal that year involving then-Democrat candidate and US Senator Joe Biden (D-Del.). Biden was accused of plagiarizing a speech by British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock word for word. Democrat operatives ran an ad showing Biden and Kinnock giving the same speech, side-by-side, in a split-screen. Biden and Kinnock both spoke about working with their dads in the coal mines. The problem? Biden’s dad owned a car dealership. (He rarely even got his hands dirty.)
The driveby media at the time was all in for Massachusetts governor Mike Dukakis. So, the pressies beat the snot out of Biden over this. They accused him of not having the character to be president. Biden soon dropped out of the race.
It’s funny, though. Obama picked Biden to be VP in 2008, twenty years after the big plagiarism brouhaha. I guess the drivebys figured out that Biden somehow got all that “character” back.
Now, you really struggle to find anything on Google — video or print — about the Biden plagiarism scandal. The drivebys are bound to have archives. Will we hear about Kinnockgate in 2020? Don’t hold your breath.
DEMOCRAT TURNOUT. I know that many will easily blame the larger Democrat vote on the more hotly contested Democrat presidential primary. But just take a look at how many more votes the Democrat nominees for governor and US senator received than their Republican counterparts:
Governor
Cooper 1,120,093
Forest 694,929
US Senate
Tillis 606,249
Cunningham 713,249
THE JOHN RITTER PHENOMENON. John’s the epitome of a nice guy. He’s a good ol’ church-going country lawyer with a wife and a baby. He runs a small law practice in the West End community of Moore County specializing in things like real estate, divorce, and traffic tickets.
John filed for lieutenant governor on a whim. For someone who had NEVER run for ANYTHING, that was quite a leap. John traveled the state, participated in some candidate forums and made a few speeches. He put up a few signs in the vicinity of those appearances. Calling his budget shoestring would be an overstatement. It was easy to lose track of him in the field of nine Republicans running for the office.
A few days before the big vote, someone talked him into advertising with our site. He did it, and I said a few nice words about the guy in an election preview story.
When the smoke cleared on Tuesday, John had come in first or second or third in quite a few counties. Statewide, he finished a respectable fourth — just a smidgen behind the incumbent, but retiring, superintendent of public instruction Mark Johnson. (The other two ahead of him were senator Andy Wells and activist Mark Robinson.) Some of the people Ritter beat — rather, walloped — included former congresswoman Renee Ellmers and former state Rep. Scott Stone.
John actually got ALMOST AS MANY votes running for lieutenant governor as Holly Grange did running for governor.
A SURPRISE (KINDA) in NC-11. Polling had predicted a runoff between activist Lynda Bennett and state senator Jim Davis. When the smoke cleared, it appeared we would now be looking at a runoff between Bennett and Madison Cawthorn. Conservatives in Haywood County had accused Bennett of being a RINO who aided and abetted the punishment and banishment of five local activists from the NCGOP. She was accused of being a front for the people who orchestrated the punishment and banishment. Yet, there were many many instances on social media where Denny King — one of the accused banishers — was sharing information promoting the campaign of senator Davis.
Bennett is supported by the House Freedom Caucus, Rep. Jim Jordan, and the man she hopes to replace in DC — Mark Meadows. Bennett has publicly pledged that she will join the House Freedom Caucus if elected.
BOARD OF ED REBELLION ALIVE AND WELL IN MOORE COUNTY. Tuesday’s vote cut one candidate from each of two contests for seats on the school board. The top two vote-getters will run again — against incumbents — in November. Two more seats — each including grassroots conservative candidates — will also be on the ballot in November. If all four are successful in November, there will be a grassroots conservative majority on the school board. And our sobbing superintendent and his big-spending lackeys will finally be held accountable.
GOOD GUYS DO FINISH FIRST. There are likely some puckered orifices around Carthage, Moore County’s seat of government, today. County government’s ruling class worked overtime to kill off district attorney candidate Mike Hardin’s campaign to replace retiring prosecutor Maureen Krueger. Hardin — who had been working as a prosecutor in Cumberland and Hoke counties — was hit with a social media slander offensive of an intensity we have not seen in this county in some time. The Carthage establishment put up a stooge candidate to try and stop Hardin. But the slander didn’t faze Hardin. He stuck to the facts in beating back the establishment onslaught and the stooge candidate. The Carthage “mafia” is going to have to get used to a new, straight-shooting “sheriff” in town: District Attorney Mike Hardin.
SOMETIMES, SLANDER DOES WORK. State Rep. Jamie Boles got himself reelected to a 7th consecutive term — defeating Southern Pines police chief Bob Temme. Despite sitting in Raleigh for 12 years, Boles had little to no record to discuss or defend. Instead, he let lobbyists — like the establishment’s favorite Bible-thumper Tami Fitzgerald — come after Temme. We heard from many a voter disgusted by the Boles (and lobbyist) financed smear tactics against Temme — a professional with an impressive work history.People who were once impressed with Boles’s service as a funeral director were no longer cutting him any slack. But the Raleigh-financed slander onslaught was too much or Temme. Raleigh would rather have a lapdog and a yes-man than someone who actually represents the people back home. Hopefully, Bob Temme learned from this race and will be back to try again.
“Raleigh would rather have a lapdog and a yes-man than someone who actually represents the people back home.” Leadership in the House and Senate are really putting out a lot of money to defeat true conservatives in favor of lapdogs. The Republican swamp is as bad as the Democratic swamp. It looks like the only way to drain the Raleigh swamp is to lose control of the House and Senate to purge the likes of Tim Moore, David Lewis, and John Bell. They have to go.
Zumwalt spoiled the hopes for Temme and Donadio. The man is toxic to a political campaign. Has he pushed and campaigned for anyone that actually went on to win? Let’s see, including himself, Byrd, Temme, Donadio that’s at least 0 for 4.
“Bennett has publicly pledged that she will join the House Freedom Caucus if elected.” That and waive Rep. Meadows’ endorsement is about all she does. Scads of ads featuring Meadows with nary a squeak from the candidate. I’d be pressed to recognize Bennett’s voice, though she did call and talk to me earlier in the campaign. And I got a VM from her campaign alleging bullying by the Cawthorn campaign—something she later “corrected” at a meeting in Brevard. Young Mr. Cawthorn has his work cut out, but I suppose beating Bennett and the Meadows aura (and money?) isn’t the toughest challenge he’s faced.
Believe me…having been in GOP politics for more years than I care to admit, I can assure you the RINO Republican swamp is every bit as bad as the Democrat swamp and probably even worse.
No doubt. They are out of control. If we don’t
I am actually concerned about NC in 2020. We have so many important races, Governor, Senate, President, General Assembly….I think Joe Biden will be competitive here, even though the RNC will be held in Charlotte. THE MOST IMPORTANT thing you can do this election, is VOTE ! Make sure your (conservative) friends and family vote, offer them transportation if they need it. Like you said, the Dems had the only real competitive race, but that turnout still concerns me.
No doubt. They are out of control. It we don’t stop them now, we will pay twice the price later.
I would really like to see the superintendent and his cronies held accountable for something. Hoping the four win so we can find out how much money they have really blown through. The majority of Miller’s supporters have kids in private school (Antil, Blakely) or their kids aren’t having to switch to another school (Kent, Rowan, Senff). I wish their votes didn’t count but I am glad that at least 40% of Moore county sent a message to the incompetent board.
Brent, your observations about Ritter’s performance caused me to take a deeper look, mainly cuz I’m a Pol Sci junkie. I’ve moved around a lot but the current county I live in is far from Ritter’s locale, meaning no name recognition advantage whatsoever but he had a lot of signs along one of the Interstates going through the county and as it turned out, he frequently placed third or fourth in the precincts bordering the interstate and not as well in the precincts further away. Fascinating stuff, especially as I’ve heard many a campaign professional say that signs don’t matter much.
Madison Cawthorn, locked in the NC-11 runoff against Lynda Bennett (PAC-backed and Mark & Debbie Meadows’ pick), was featured on this morning’s Fox & Friends early edition. The young man was dynamic, just like he is in person. For those unfamiliar with Cawthorn, his interview shows why folks are getting behind his campaign.