Where’s Mr. Robinson?
That’s a question being asked all over North Carolina lately. A pattern is emerging with our lieutenant governor and his staff. A grassroots group will invite Mark Robinson to speak or to simply appear at their event. The staff will commit Robinson, and the groups advertise that he will be there. The staff will send regrets hours or even minutes before said event starts. Sometimes, the lieutenant governor will simply go AWOL. Pull a no-show. I’ve heard about nearly three dozen instances like this in recent months. The latest occurred at a political fundraiser here in Moore County last week for rookie legislative candidate Neal Jackson.
Jackson’s team is spinning it like they knew all along he wasn’t coming. Yet, why did a visit by Robinson get promoted? People I know who were in attendance said there was a general feeling in the room of surprise at Robinson’s absence.
You see Robinson speaking at all of these out-of-state events. You see him doing national publicity for his forthcoming memoirs. (Still waiting on my review copy, by the way.) He’s not missing any of that stuff.
Repeatedly blowing off grassroots events practically invites Dale Folwell, possibly Mark Walker, and — yes — Thom Tillis to jump into that 2024 GOP gubernatorial primary. Grassroots folks — who tend to vote in GOP primaries — like to feel like they matter.
It’s embarrassing to boast that you’ve got a big-dog special guest coming to your event, and then he just doesn’t show.
Stand back folks, I’m about to offer a compliment. Speaking of that fundraiser for Jackson here last week, I hear that Tubby Little Timmy was in the house and delivered a great speech.
He just needs to tighten up his staff but do it quickly.
I’m sure it couldn’t be folks trying to fundraise by advertising Mark Robinson to get butts in the seats with no confirmation of his attendance . Let’s not pretend that every rino in the state doesn’t use our Lt Governor & his platform of truth & righteousness, to make a buck. The similarities with him & Trump are striking.., ride the coattails right up until they stab him in the back. We are all far from perfect, but let’s do a little more digging before pointing accusatory fingers.
With the state’s over abundance of uni-party rinos passing God awful legislation like communist healthcare, let’s focus o.n what’s actually important. Maybe these unpopular candidates should take notes on the Lt Gov’s courage & conviction, making him the people’s candidate
If Timmy was there, that’s probably why Mark wasn’t.
Mark is a good conservative and a good candidate, but he is relatively new to politics. That can be refreshing in one sense, but unless he has a politically savvy staff around him to avoid mistakes like this, it can also be a problem. Mark’s initial staff left much to be desired. It improved somewhat with changes, but it is still not yet where it needs to be.
It is not just attending events. He needs to be careful in endorsements in primaries. For example, a top drawer conservative candidate was gearing up to challenge establishment Sen. Jim Perry (RINO-Kinston), one of the biggest political prostitutes for the special interests in the General Assembly, but Perry asked Mark Robinson for an endorsement, apparently not telling him that he faced likely primary opposition, and Robinson gave it to him without asking about the lay of the land in the district. That had the same impact as the Trump endorsement of Tillis in 2020 of causing a top drawer conservative opponent to not pull the trigger on running. Robinson saved Perry’s worthless ass, but tarnished his own reputation with many local conservatives in doing it. It will be much easier for Folwell to make inroads in two of the three counties of that district as a result of this Robinson blunder.
All of these things make some thinking conservatives question whether he is ready for prime time as a gubenatorial candidate. Mark needs to work on improving his staff situation ASAP. A competent staffer who had Mark’s trust should be there to be sure only commitments that can be honored in attending events are made and stupid endorsements like that of RINO Perry are not.
While the Lt. Governor is very popular and a fantastic speaker he has done nothing to show his ability to run the State while Dale Folwell, also a very engaging speaker, continues to demonstrate his ability to take on his assigned jobs with a competence level rarely seem in state government. I see Mark Robinson continuing in his role and Dale Folwell beating Josh Stein handily in 2024 to become our Governor.
There is a state energy policy group that the Lt. Governor is chairman of, by statute. RINO legislative leaders Tim Moore and Phil Berger bypassed this group with their climate crazy Green New Deal HB951. Fighting for reliable and reasonably priced electricity for NC consumers is one place where Mark Robinson could shine for conservatives and North Carolinians if he had a mind to do so. Championing the little guy electric customers, residential as well as business, against the wind and solar mafia (Civitas correctly called them the “energy crooks”) and ESG-enamored woke energy monopoly Duke Energy could give wind a real tail wind politically. I wonder if his staff even comprehends the opportunity for him there.
Your writings make no sense.
How is the Jackson campaign falsely promoting Mark’s attendance at an event they (Jackson’s campaign) knew he wasn’t going to attend Mark’s fault?
It sounds like either a gaff or fraud on the part of the campaign. Either way, not a Mark Robinson issue.
That was a commenter, not the Haymaker.