Woodhouse: It was a mistake to spend even ONE DIME on Justice Robert Edmunds in 2016.
So says, until recently, Supreme Court Justice Barbara Jackson :
“Dallas stated that the party had spent $350K on Justice Edmunds race and his only regret was spending anything at all.” Hmmmm. *Nice.*
What’s the point of even having a party if you’re not going to fight the opposition or defend your incumbents? (Just curious. Was it considered a wise investment to throw all that money at the Useless Twins, Bill Brawley and Nelson Dollar?)
Also — HOW did the party have the resources for Paul Newby AND Mark Martin, but not Edmunds nor Jackson?
Her honor was not finished:
Wait. I thought Hasan Harnett was tossed out because he couldn’t keep the party competitive financially. (It looks like Grandpa Hip-Replacement can’t either.) I thought Grandpa’s alleged fundraising prowess was what got him past Jim Womack two years ago? (It’s funny how reality so often doesn’t match campaign rhetoric.)
Wait. There was even MORE:
Boom! Exxxxxxxxactly. This is one smart lady. It’s too bad she was done so wrong.
Democrats understand how important the judicial races are. Republicans can’t be bothered.
What the party could and should have done in Bob Edmunds race is push the GOP legislative leadership for a partisan election, which would have saved the seat. For Jackson, pushing the legislators to hold primaries would have held the seat. While it was the legislative leadership that really screwed the pooch on both of these races, the party sat idle instead of pushing for normal partisan elections with primaries in both. Woodhouse blaming the victim is outrageous.
Boom!
Justice Barbara Jackson’s race was lost by a foolish legislative decision to do away with primaries for all judicial races in 2018. This allowed the duplicitous Democrats to simply get a Democrat to switch to Republican and file for the seat so that two Republican would split the votes of Republicans and the one Democrat would get all of the Democrat votes. The provision never passed either House in a stand alone vote. It was placed in an unrelated conference report.
1. The legislature is to blame. They tried to get “cute” and it backfired.
2. Previous judicial races saw an influx of money through the justice for all super pac bankrolled by the RSLC. This didn’t happen this cycle.
3. Jackson spent money on high priced consultants and she wasn’t able to raise money. Why is it up to the NCGOP to bail out a poorly run campaign?
Because funding statewide candidates is the purpose of a state political party?
If not, what IS the purpose of a state party?
Another purpose of the state political party is to vigorously advance the Party’s interests with the Hosue and Senate GOP caucuses. Woodhouse/Hayes haven’t just failed miserably in that regard….they don’t even pretend to advocate for the Party’s best interests. Case in point….the Ledgies consulted with business leaders BEFORE the HB2 repeal vote and only bothered to brief local Party leaders via the State Party after the repeal. And the Party is being badly served by the continued existence of HB 373, which essentially puts the Legislative leaders in charge of the Party rather than the other way around as it should be.
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HB2? Who needs the Christian conservatives? Kick them in the teeth on a high profile issue like this, and the fools will still keep voting for us. Well, maybe they didn’t so much in the last election, but they will forget it. We need to pander to the special interests so that we can get money. Who cares about those stupid rednecks in our base? And we meed to ,make nice with the homosexuals, too, like I did by holding that homosexual conference at party headquarters and recruiting homosexuals to run for the legislature as Republicans. Why should I be bothered to recruit a ringer to run for Supreme Court when it was much more important to recruit those homosexual legislative candidates?
Dallas, why do you recruit candidates that have no previous intentions of running and tell them you will help them with their campaign, then never contact them even when they ask for help? You tell them you will call and you never do.
I agree. Dallas Woodhouse is not who North Carolina needs run our Republican Party. Woodhouse was consumed with making sure NC got the National Convention in Charlotte for 2020, rather than helping the Republicans win in mid-term. Look at how many Republicans lost in Wake County alone.
The state party did spend money on the Jackson race…statewide slate mail in addition to GOTV efforts. The Jackson race was not the only one on the ballot. NCGOP had to protect legislative majorities and the congressional delegation. North Carolina was lucky to maintain majorities when much of the country saw a flip.
Take a look at Jackson’s finance report…$43k spent on ABNO group responsible for “fundraising”….that worked out really well. Shumaker was the “consultant” taking $$ off the media buys….
The NCGOP mail on the Jackson race was extremely early, when voters were not yet focused on the race. It was a waste of money to do it at that time. The “Dangerous Anita Earls” website they put up was the right idea, but it was focused only on crime not on Earls far left ideology, and thus less effective, and nothing was done to drive voters to that site once the campaign heated up. What money the NCGOP did spend was spent incompetently, and they pulled the plug when they should not have. Woodhouse is running the show and he clearly is in way over his head. I wonder if the Central Committee was ever consulted about pulling out of the Jackson race. I highly doubt it. We do not need a party run by an out of control ED but that is what we have.
News flash: every judicial campaign pays fundraisers and consultants. It’s an absolute necessity, and I invite to look back at the 2026 and 2014 campaign cycle reports to compare burn rates. There are always ways to improve the running of a campaign and I plan to pay my experience forward with our current judicial candidates.
One factor to keep in mind that poses a unique challenge for a judicial campaign, especially at the state level, is the eight year term. It’s a net positive in terms of gaining expertise in a complex multidisciplinary field, but you lose out on the relationship continuity and current contact info that other candidates maintain with shorter cycles.
That was a strong factor in my reaching out to NCGOP for their help in disseminating information. I think it’s important to address the need to contact millions of potential voters with limited campaign funds in order to ensure future success.
I hope Justice Jackson runs again once this idiotic system is replaced, and the party has new leaders focused on winning.
Exactly!!!
The NCGOP has limited resources and does not have a Governor bankrolling the party like the state democrats do.
From the numbers I saw the NCGOP spent more in 2018 than previous mid term cycles helping candidates including direct mail and door knocking for Jackson and others. It is a huge blow to Republicans that Justice Jackson lost her race…but fingers should be pointed at the legislature for screwing up. If you want a leadership change…look no further.
NCGOP’s political malpractice in the Supreme Court race went far beyond the incompetent way they spent money on that race and their cutting off funds prematurely . They were:
1) The NCGOP’s failure to get involved in the way the legislature organized that election. It was almost designed for us to lose.
2) The NCGOP’s failure to get our own “ringer” to run in the race to counteract the Democrats doing so. Woodhouse promised to do that but then failed to carry through.
The first type of political malpractice also happened in the Edmunds race.
The legislative leadership is badly as fault, but so is the party leadership.
My son never got any help at all in his race from the NCGOP…….after Dallas recruited him and told him they would help. Don’t know which candidates received funding, but I know we never got ANYTHING until the day of early voting and his name was listed on a palm card that was passed out at the voting stations.
I agree. When needed, they pick an choose who to help. I lost all faith in the NC Republican Party after meeting and being lied to by Dallas Woodhouse.
#1 is the only factor. It kept out all the other dollars.
The people behind this should never be allowed to control the GOP agenda ever again. We are at war with dangerous, radical and extreme Socialist neo-Marxists for whom the cause is the only thing. Until we start thinking the same way, they will wear us down and win. North Carolina is Ground Zero for these people.
Right now my biggest concern is our probable gubernatorial nominee and his refusal to engage Roy Cooper or talk about anything relevant to anyone voting in this election. His oversized mailing was an egotistical joke. His kickoff video was worse. He has yet to say what is wrong with Roy Cooper’s agenda and how he would govern differently. And no message at the top of the ticket will guarantee a downballot disaster.
The party needs to get it together fast because there’s no excuse for a state like this one to elect leftists Commies like Cooper and Stein. This is a result of a party more interested in talking to people who don’t vote for us than exciting those who do. It’s time for a major shakeup in the party and a purging of those afraid to confront, expose and destroy the left.
You are spot on that this was a huge snafu by the legislative leadership. But where was the NCGOP to push for a normal election for judges, with primaries? They have been regularly over at the legislature pushing other election matters. Why did they not engage on this one? They were MIA and it cost us.
I agree with you that Dan Forest needs to go hammer and tongs at Roy Cooper. If Roy Cooper is allowed to define himself, it will be a dishonest picture.
Despite what the experts at the NCGOP seem to think, Cooper’s numbers suck. I was in the field in NC-9 in December. He’s barely a net positive.
It is a mistake to spend one dime on Dallas Woodhouse and his liberal cohorts like Thom Tillis and Rene Ellmers.
Finding and funding. Third District GOP paid for radio spots for Justice Jackson. Craven County took out color ads for the four judicial candidates in a conservative paper and had 4’x4′ Justice Jackson signs made for highway placement among other things. Not all county Parties can afford to do that. However, all we heard was Crickets from the State Party. Pretty darn sad.
Nobody said you had to be smart to be in politics. In North Carolina you just have to be in the clique or be willing to serve the needs of the clique.
Anita Earls should have been STOPPED at all costs, yet the hierarchy thinks different. The Party of Tillis and Burr who are awful in DC. The NC gentlemanly club continues to be nice, kind and stiff.
Very discouraging.
Until we start to fight fire with fire, we will never win. It’s time to get our hands dirty.
What we really need to get to the bottom of is how this idiot method of election used for the Supreme Court was foisted upon us. That is what cost us this seat and those responsible ought to held to account. We know that the party failed in its duty to challenge this nutty system, but we need to look at who in the legislature was responsible. (The Haymaker is to be appreciated for calling out this steaming pile of crap for what it was immediately after it was rammed through).
Sources around the GA tell me this bad election plan originated in the Senate, and the one name I have heard associated with it is Brent Woodcox, who is a staffer, not a legislator, but no real details as to his role with this bill. Given the reports on the Haymaker of Woodcox’s anti-Trump social media posts just before the last election and his social media posts saying the GOP should abandon conservatism immediately after the election, one begins to smell a rat. If he had a significant role in designing or pushing this made=for-disaster plan, it raises the question of whether this might have been deliberate sabotage.
There needs to be a very thorough investigation to get to the bottom of how this came about. Anybody on the Central Committee with the gonads to try to do that? This would need to be a party-led investigation.
It would make sense that staffer Brent Woodcox would be involved in something like setting up this disastrous election plan for the courts in 2018. I have it on good authority from a source on Jones St. that when the GOP’s redistricting consultant got sick in the 2018 round of legislative redistricting, Senate President Berger largely turned over the drawing of Senate districts to Woodcox, and the maps were largely his creation. Moreover, progressive Woodcox shared those maps with the leftwing pressure group Common Cause weeks before he showed them to any GOP Senator (except maybe Berger himself) including the actual members of the Senate redistricting committee. Common Cause even made them public before they were shown to GOP Senators.
“I have the hat I have the glasses.”
What else needs to be said about ole Dallas?