Tag Archives: Thom Tillis

The Power Of The Primary

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North Carolina voters have not been thrilled with their representation in Washington for a while. Thom Tillis never seems to pass up an opportunity to stab his voters in the back. Our representation in the North Carolina legislature also has some serious problems. They don’t seem to understand that eastern North Carolina is part of the state and contributes to the general welfare of the state.

On Thursday, The Daily Haymaker posted an article about the importance of primary elections. If you want to elect Representatives and Congressmen who actually represent you, you have to show up at the primary elections.

The title of the article is, “Tired of being *played* by the GOPe? Get their attention with the power of the primary.” Yes!

The article notes:

We told you earlier about how DOGE has been reduced to something being run out of the Office of Management and Budget.  Now we hear Ed Martin has been bounced out of the Government weaponization office at the Department of Justice. 

A grand total of ONE cut recommended by DOGE has passed the GOP-controlled Congress. We’veactually got elected Republicans reinstating wasteful spending the Trump White House cut via Executive Order.  We’ve got a lot of elected Republicans — including our not very smart junior US Senator — trying to sabotage the illegal alien cleanup efforts being led by ICE and DHS.

…We can’t even get Republicans in Washington to approve voter ID.

…Getting Phil Berger out of elected office would be another great grassroots victory.  According to what I’m hearing out of Rockingham and Guilford counties, that is very possible. (Berger has led the NCGOP’s transformation into an even bigger whoring-for-lobbyist-dollars operation than Basnight or Black could have ever dreamed of.)

…You’ve got a good conservative option out there in the 11th.  A guy with a great free-market name: Adam Smith.  He’s a special forces veteran and a successful small businessman.  He turned out to be one of the real heroes of the Hurricane Helene relief effort.  (You know, the operation Whatley was supposed to be running.)  

…In the US Senate race, DC and Raleigh have been trying to shove Michael Whatley down our throats.  Trump has been hyper-pissed at Thom Tillis.  Yet, his political operation is trying to replace Tillis with Tillis’s protege and preferred successor.  The DC party goons have gone overboard scaring all vendors, consultants, donors, and media away from anyone not named Whatley.  The result of all that?

…Someone slipped up and ran a poll showing Don Brown performing about as well against Cooper as Whatley is.  Brown has not been blessed with fundraising and strategy help from DC and Raleigh like Whatley has.  But he’s hanging right with The Chosen One, St. Michael of Gastonia.

The GOPe has been trying to pretend there is no primary for the Senate seat. A primary might have forced Whatley to have to answer for his sycophant protection of Tillis, and his penchant for screwing MAGA activists at every opportunity.

If you ever want to drain the swamp, you need to vote in the primary election!

The North Carolina Senate Race

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I love President Trump, but I am not convinced he truly understands North Carolina politics. He has thrown his support behind Michael Whatley in the 2026 North Carolina Senate race. I firmly believe that choice does not line up with the wishes of the average Republican in North Carolina. There is another Republican candidate in the race that I believe would better represent the views of the average North Carolinian–Don Brown.

On Monday, The Daily Haymaker reported:

A lot of folks are fast-forwarding this US Senate campaign to November 2026. Many folks are saying: “Hey, Whatley is the man.  Trump has blessed him. Bring on Cooper.”

Lest we forget that there is a Republican primary in March.  Mike Whatley – a native of Watauga County and current resident of Gaston County – will face off against Washington County native and current Union County resident Don Brown. 

Michael Whatley has been groomed and well-taken care of by the Thom Tillis political operation and the rest of the NCGOPe.  He managed to get himself hired as the General Counsel of The Republican National Committee despite having an inactive law license for over six years. 

Meanwhile, Whatley’s opponent in the March primary, Don Brown, has been putting his law license to good use. The UNC-Chapel Hill and Campbell Law grad served as an active-duty member of the Navy’s JAG Corps – made famous by a long-running hit TV show. Brown also served as a special assistant US attorney before moving on to work for Raleigh’s Maupin Taylor Ellis & Adams.  (Firm partner Tom Ellis gained fame as a senior adviser to the late US Senator Jesse Helms.)

Michael Whatley is part of the political machine that gave us Thom Tillis. He is President Trump’s choice, but President Trump will only be in office for three more years. I would rather have a Senator that represents the grass roots than one who is appointed by someone who does not live in the state.

A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing

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The 2026 North Carolina Senate race is going to be expensive, dirty, full of lies, and contentious. Other than that, it will be great. Among other things, the North Carolina Republican Party wants to make sure that former Governor Roy Cooper runs on his record. That record is questionable at best–he is not the moderate he claims to be.

On Sunday, The Gateway Pundit reported:

A video from the North Carolina Republican Party is shedding light on the troubling tenure of outgoing Governor Roy Cooper, who recently announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate, exposing a record of radical policies and governance failures that have left the state grappling with economic and social issues.

Titled “Radical Roy Cooper’s Real Record,” the ad, posted on YouTube, highlights Cooper’s eight years in office, revealing him to be a far-left nutjob whose decisions have undermined North Carolina’s prosperity and safety.

Cooper is running for the Senate seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, who has announced that he will not seek reelection.

The video outlines several key criticisms of Cooper’s administration.

“He says he’s a moderate, but Roy Cooper’s record tells a radically different story,” the narrator begins.

The article concludes:

Additionally, the video addresses Cooper’s opposition to law enforcement, citing his resistance to supporting Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which some attribute to a spike in crime rates across the state.

President Donald Trump has already endorsed Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley in the race, though he has not officially announced his candidacy.

I believe that Michael Whatley has announced. Attorney Don Brown has also announced that he is running for Thom Tillis’ Senate Seat as a Republican.

A View From The Lair

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HALLELUJAH!

My birthday was yesterday, but that’s fine I’ll take a belated gift any day. I never thought that I would say “thank you” to Thom Tillis (RINO-NC) But today he gave me and the rest of the NC Republicans a gift.

HE’S QUITING!

Rather than split the party by running again, getting primaried and possibly (probably) losing either in the primary or to Roy Cooper in the general, he’s not going to run.

Regardless how despicable a candidate is, before the primary the NC GOP cannot endorse a candidate until they win the primary election. There is a lot of tradition and loyalty in the GOP. When at the NC GOP State convention two years ago, a proposal to censure Tillis was brought from the floor. The major debate was not that he deserved the censure, but that it would show disloyalty to the party. Thom was our senator, like him or not, and to censure him, regardless of whether he deserved it or not, was to disrespect and be unsupportive to our state senator. It was a close vote. I stood with the majority. After all, if you allow bad behavior to continue and flourish then you will continue to get more bad behavior.

I noticed a bit of a more conciliatory attitude from our senator for a while. At least in his e-mails. But he still continued to act like a RINO. Which is to say, like a demonrat. He is very supportive of “bipartisanship.” Unfortunately, his idea of “bipartisanship” is exactly like the Marxist’s version – give them what they want and shut up. Even Jeff Flake, the demonrat stooge, exalted Thom for standing on his “principles.” Not that Flake has any nor can even define the term, but he is at least supportive of Tillis. Which shows you how badly the Marxists will miss Tillis.

(While writing this I received a text urging me to contact Thom and encourage him to change his vote. Give me a break!)

When I first read about this my first reaction was “what’s the catch?” Is he going to not run at all? Or perhaps not run as a republican but instead challenge Cooper for the demonrat ticket?

But it certainly saves us a lot of headaches. There will be no angst over whether to support Thom at the expense of losing the general to Cooper, nor who to support in the plethora of candidates eager to primary him. It would resemble the primary in NYC. And we saw how well that worked out.

The second question is how much damage can he do before next year? He has nothing to lose to go full dummycrat. He doesn’t have to change parties. He just has to remain the same, with no incentive to actually act like a conservative.

Because that’s all he can do, is act.

And he’s a bad actor.

Bubbles Up!

The Snark

The View From The Lair

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Replacing RINOS

What is wrong about Thom Tillis (R_INO-NC)? Yes, that is a rhetorical question. I have neither the column inches nor bandwidth to answer that question. Likely not the years left, either. What is right about Thom Tillis (R-INONC)? Actually…nothing. What is Left about Thom Tillis (R-INONC)? Pretty much everything. Remember when he was in the NC Legislature and he left to run for the US Senate? A lot of us thought that perhaps by shuffling him off to D.C. that his lousy efforts would be diluted by real conservatives. WTF were we smoking?

That’s like the people in Georgia promoting Jimmy “Peanut” Carter to be president to get him out of the state. I was there at that time. See how that worked out?

Thom (R-INO-NC) is a product of the NCGOP Good Ol’ Boys network. Remember Robin Hayes? I happened to be in Greensboro when the NC GOP convention censured Tillis for supporting the immigration bill. Voting to impeach PDJT wasn’t a welcome move, either.

To misquote the late, great Henny Youngman, when talking about RINO’s, “Take Thom Tillis. PLEASE!” (If you are too young to remember Henny Youngman, go to YouTube.com. While you’re there, look up “Who’s on first.” I’ll wait. When you catch your breath from laughing, come back.)

So, what is Thom up to now? He is blocking the approval of Ed Martin for DC District prosecutor. Martin is reputed to be the best pick for that position in our lifetime. The reason for his objection? Martin supported the defendants in the Jan.6 prosecutions. Remember them? When FBI informants helped to herd people into the Capitol while the Capitol Police waved them in?

Tillis was happy when grandmothers stepped into the building, gabbed a quick selfie them stepped out, and then were sentenced to prison. Without habeas corpus. In solitary confinement. When people were prosecuted for their cell phone was identified as being in the vicinity were arrested.

Trespassing in a Federal Building? 10 years to life ought to be sufficient.

So now what can we do? Well, guess who’s coming up for re-election next year? Yep, Good Ole’ Thom. He’s already sending out emails trying to demonstrate how conservative he is. Right.

Here’s the rub. Most Republicans don’t pay attention to the primaries. And that’s what kicks our butts. I didn’t have anything against Mark Robinson, other than I didn’t think he could win the general election. And he couldn’t. Primaries are the MOST important part of the election process. THAT’s how AOC was elected (besides the fact she was in NYC.) We need to pay attention, support a conservative candidate that can win the general election then work like HELL to see that he/she wins. It’s OUR country. We need to act like we care. We have a President who does care, who fights for us and need all the support he can get. That’s OUR job. The next election started last November 6th.

Remember, you can’t accomplish anything sitting on your butt.

ciao,

The Snark

A Wonderful Idea That Will Go Nowhere

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I have no idea how to drain the swamp in Washington. My first thought would be to fire all lobbyists, but somehow lobbying would still happen. Million dollar businesses always seem to find a way to survive. However, every now and then someone in Washington comes up with a good idea. That good idea does not always survive, but occasionally it does.

Just the News reported yesterday that four Republican senators are introducing legislation that seeks to eliminate government waste by establishing a bipartisan commission tasked with reviewing federal agencies and furnishing cost-cutting recommendations.

The article reports:

The Agency Accountability Act proposed by Florida Sen. Rick Scott, Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo, Indiana Sen. Mike Braun and North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis calls for the creation of a bipartisan Federal Agency Sunset Commission. 

The 13-person commission would be comprised of people appointed by House and Senate majority and minority leaders and one person appointed by the president. Of the three appointees made by each of the majority and minority leaders, two must be appointed from members of the respective chamber of Congress and one must be appointed from outside.

At a minimum the group would need to evaluate all federal agencies and advisory commissions one time each six years and then provide a recommendation about whether those entities should be reorganized, nixed or remain the same.

If the commission suggests changing or dispensing with a government entity, it is supposed to provide Congress with proposed legislative language to carry out the suggested changes. If the commission recommends no change it is supposed to explain its evaluation to Congress in a report.

This is a fantastic idea that will be fought tooth and nail by bureaucrats who support big government.

In North Carolina, People Voted

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Yesterday Paul Mirengoff at Power Line posted an article about the mid-term voting in North Carolina. Some of the pundits on the American left have blamed the Republican victory on the “disfranchisement” of likely Democratic voters.” The actual numbers tell a different story.

The article reports:

Francis Barry of Bloomberg, having looked more closely than Weiser at the numbers, concludes that North Carolina’s voting law changes did not determine the outcome of the Senate race. He notes that even with seven fewer early voting days, early voting in North Carolina increased this year by 35 percent compared with the 2010 midterm.

Moreover, statewide turnout as a whole increased from the previous midterm election, from 43.7 percent to 44.1 percent. And the share of the Black vote as a percentage of the total increased from its 2010 level.

We will be hearing more about discrimination against black voters as 2016 approaches and the left tries to undo voter identification laws. However, the numbers prove that making changes to improve the cost, integrity, and efficiency of elections does not lower voter turnout. I would also like to note that almost half of the people in North Carolina voted in a midterm election. They wanted to make their voices heard. That is a good thing.

Out Of The Woodwork They Come

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WRAL.com reported yesterday that North Carolina NAACP President Rev. William Barber has stated that Republican state House Speaker Thom Tillis was elected to the U.S. Senate on Tuesday not because North Carolinians support his policies but because of changes to state voting laws that affected who cast ballots.

Well, not so fast.  WAVY.com reported on November 5:

Unofficial results from the State Board of Elections on Wednesday show more than 2.9 million people cast ballots through early and absentee voting and on Election Day. The number exceeds the 2.7 million who voted in the last midterm in 2010.

This year’s total represents 44 percent turnout when compared with the registered population of 6.6 million people. That’s the same percentage as 2010. It falls short of the recent record of 62 percent in 1990.

This year’s ballot tally should increase slightly as absentee and provisional ballots are inspected.

Reverend Barber, just because you say it does not make it true.

The article at WRAL also reports:

Barber said there were widespread reports of voting problems – the State Board of Elections said the election ran rather smoothly – and the shortened early-voting period and the elimination of same-day registration affected thousands of North Carolina voters.

 Again, Reverend Barber, please get your facts right. Just for the record, the early-voting period was shortened, but the number of hours for early voting did not change.

According to Poor Richard’s News:

Comparing May 4, 2010 North Carolina primary election data with the May 14, 2014 primary data, the study found that voter turnout increased across the board, but particularly among black voters, where it increased by 29.5 percent, compared to an increase of white voter turnout of 13.7 percent. The findings were based on Census Bureau data and public names who signed the voter rolls.

The problem with same-day registration is that it gives the city or town involved no opportunity to confirm the address and information of the voter and thus opens the door for voter fraud. If the Reverend Barber is in favor of voter fraud, then he should support same-day registration. If he is in favor of honest elections, he should not.

It’s A Little Late To Discover This

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The Sun Journal in New Bern, North Carolina,(no link–current article available only to subscribers) posted an article today about a state audit of voters in North Carolina that indicates that hundreds of people on North Carolina voter rolls aren’t U.S. citizens — and are ineligible to vote.

The article states:

The State Board of Elections said in a news release late Friday that it found 1,425 registered voters who are likely non-citizens in an analysis of data from the state Division of Motor Vehicles and the federal Department of Homeland Security.   

The announcement comes less than two weeks before an Election Day that features the close race between Democratic U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan and her Republican challenger Thom Tillis. The contest will help determine which party controls the Senate.   

“We are working to ensure that no ballot cast by a noncitizen will count in this or any future election,” Kim Westbrook, the board’s executive director, said in a statement.   

The board is preparing instructions for local elections officials to challenge ballots under a process that would give the voters a chance to prove their citizenship. The board says it’s a crime for a noncitizen to register or vote.

The article further reported:

On Friday, a coalition of voting rights groups expressed concern about the audit in a letter to state elections officials. It cited laws regarding maintenance of voting rolls and urged caution when comparing voter rolls to data from the DMV and federal immigration officials.

 The letter was signed by Project Vote, Demos, Fair Elections Legal Network, American Civil Liberties Union, NALEO Educational Fund, Southern Coalition for Social Justice, and Action NC.

 “Our organizations are deeply concerned about maintaining access to the polls for all of North Carolina’s voters in keeping with the requirements of the NVRA,” the letter said, referring to the National Voter Registration Act.

There are requirements in the NVRA that voter lists be periodically audited and purged of people who have died, moved out of an area, or for some reason are ineligible to vote. Unfortunately, the Department of Justice under Eric Holder chose not to enforce these laws.

Judicial Watch is an organization that has worked tirelessly in recent years to ensure the integrity of the vote in America. Their latest victory has been in Indiana, where 700,000 voters were moved to “inactive status” as a result of a May 2014 statewide mailing to all registered voters. This mailing was the result of efforts by Judicial Watch and True the Vote. They had been advocating in court for two years to get this mailing to take place. Statistically, nearly 1 in 5 Indiana voter registrations are for people who have moved and no longer live at the address associated with that voter’s outdated registration. That is a scary statistic.

The Legislature Got It Right–The Court Got It Wrong

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Two of the key provisions in North Carolina’s new voting law have been overturned by a a 2-1 ruling of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Yahoo News posted an article yesterday explaining the details.

The two parts of the law that were overturned were same-day registration and out-of-precinct voting. The court claimed that to end these practices would disenfranchise some voters. I beg to differ. The reason the legislature ended same-day registration was that it did not provide ample time to check the address information given by the voter. A friend of mine, a North Carolina resident, checked the voter registration in her town and found that there were five people registered at her address that did not live there. I don’t know whether those five people had voted in recent elections or not, but if they did, they cancelled the vote of legal voters–disenfranchising legal voters. Stopping out-of-precinct voting is a good idea because ballots are different in different precincts–precinct elections include local candidates that vary by precinct. If a person votes in the wrong precinct, he may not get to vote for the officials in his precinct–thus he is disenfranchising himself!

The article reports:

State House Speaker Thom Tillis, the Republican challenging incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, said he and state Senate leader Phil Berger, also a Republican, would appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The article at Yahoo attempts to portray the passage of this law as a political issue related to the Republicans wanting to take the Senate. The question we need to ask is, “Why does ensuring the integrity of our elections give a political advantage to Republicans?”

The new North Carolina voting law is a step toward more honest elections. Why are there politicians who are fighting this?

 

After A While You Wonder If They Mean Anything They Say

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When American forces left Iraq, many military people warned that not leaving significant forces behind would be a mistake. The Obama Administration and many political leaders seemed to overlook the fact that we currently have forces in Germany, Japan, and South Korea, despite that fact that those wars have been over for a long time. Despite the warnings from military leaders, President Obama celebrated the fact that our troops were coming home from Iraq, and many Democrats celebrated with him. So what are these people saying now?

Politico posted an article today with the headline, “Liberal doves run as war hawks.”

The article cites a few examples:

Democrat Kay Hagan didn’t mince words about the Iraq War during her 2008 Senate campaign against Republican Elizabeth Dole.

“We need to get out of Iraq in a responsible way,” Hagan declared in May of that year. “We need to elect leaders who don’t invade countries without planning and stay there without an end.”

Hagan is striking a different chord these days. Locked in a tough reelection battle, the first-term senator boasts that she’s more strongly supportive of airstrikes against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militants than her Republican challenger, Thom Tillis, and says she’s been pressing the Obama administration to arm Syrian rebels since early last year.

…Take Bruce Braley, the Democratic Senate candidate in Iowa. He picked up a Republican-held House seat largely on the strength of his opposition to the war in Iraq. He backed cutting off funding for military operations and spoke out against the surge.

When his opponent warned at a 2006 debate of chaos if the U.S. cut and ran, Braley responded: “Chaos already is ensuing in Iraq.”

Just last August, Braley demanded Obama get congressional authorization before taking any military action in Syria.

Now Braley is running against military veteran Joni Ernst in one of the most contested Senate races in the country.

“ISIS is a threat that must be stopped,” Braley said during a debate Sunday. “Anytime American citizens are attacked by a terrorist group, they need to be brought to justice or to the grave.”

Follow the link to the article to read more wiggly-worm statements.

Admittedly, the situation in Iraq and the Middle East is fluid, but it is very obvious that many of the positions taken regarding the war in Iraq and the withdrawal of troops have been purely political. In this country there are men and women who love America more than they love political power. We need to start electing them.

 

Where Did The Stimulus Money Go?

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Paul Mirengoff at Power Line posted an article yesterday about Kay Hagan, who is running for a second term in the United States Senate. Senator Hagan is the junior Senator from North Carolina. At the present time, she leads her opponent, Republican Thom Tillis, by three to five points. However, it appears that Mrs. Hagan’s husband’s company benefited from the stimulus bill she supported.

The article reports:

But Hagan suffered a blow over the weekend when it was revealed that, by virtue of the 2009 Stimulus Bill for which she voted, her husband’s company received nearly $390,000 in federal grants for energy projects and tax credits.

Hagan’s response to this story is that she did not help her husband win the federal funding. She also disputes any suggestion they have profited from the Stimulus.

As to the first claim, it may be true that Hagan did not intervene directly on her husband’s behalf. But soon after voting for the Stimulus, she told a North Carolina newspaper that “there’s a lot of renewable energy-generating capacity in the stimulus package.” Her husband’s company was in the renewable energy business and Hagan knew that it was a potential direct beneficiary of the Stimulus.

As to the second claim, it’s implausible to believe that the husband’s business did not profit from receiving almost $400,000 in federal grants and tax credits. According to Politico, the Hagans’ income from JDC Manufacturing increased from less than $201 in 2008 to nearly $134,000 in 2013.

Crony capitalism anyone?

We need to elect people who will put the welfare of America ahead of their own personal gains. Obviously, Mrs. Hagan had a vested interest in voting for the stimulus.