The New Chair of the NC GOP

Former Congressman Robin Hayes easily won the election yesterday to become the new Republican state party chair ... on the first ballot, and overwhelmingly.

The Tea Party insurgency for Tim Johnson fizzled badly.

For more inside baseball coverage of the meeting, you can wade through Katy's Conservative Corner. Katy mentions the tingly pleasures of sitting next to Jonathan Jordan at the meeting.

The Enduring Hard-On of Tim D'Annunzio

Machine-gun Tim D'Annunzio, the man publicly repudiated by the Republican state party chair back during the 2010 primary in the NC-8, has launched a tea party insurgency against the selection of Robin Hayes as the presumptive heir to the chairmanship of the NC Republican Party.

D'Annunzio favors Tim Johnson, about which there is perhaps slightly less trailing baggage than there is for D'Annunzio himself, but still plenty of baggage.

D'Annunzio does NOT favor Robin Hayes, the plush teddy bear evidently favored by Dick Burr and other country-club Republicans. "Stop the RINO establishment from controlling the NC GOP," reads a banner ad that D'Annunzio paid for on the Drudge Report. (Can't seem to catch the ad. Drudge's banners rotate, but if D'Annunzio's dyspepsia is still evident, we haven't been able to see it.)

FOOTNOTE
AP's Gary D. Robertson posted an extensive profile of the chairman's race.

Some Choice!

A young conservative turk in the NC Republican Party considers the three men who've declared their candidacies for chair of the state party, to replace Tom Fetzer in January, and assesses them thusly:

Robin Hayes ... the former congressman defeated in 2008 by Larry Kissell, who appears to have the backing of both Fetzer and other big wigs in the party: "No. A front for the establishment and some nebulous puppet masters no one is certain of."

Tim Johnson ... former Buncombe County party chair and a bit of a fictionalist, but he also happens to be one of a handful of active conservative black Republicans in the state. Sez our young turk: "...Maybe too driven. I like Johnson. They say he has been beating the pavement for the last two years as vice chair. I tell you what concerns me. He seems wayward. He was Buncombe chair and then moved to Durham when he became state vice chair. We Tar Heels pride ourselves on our homes and our heritage. At least we use to. I know more and more people like calling North Carolina home, but I am left to wonder why Johnson left Buncombe for Durham of all places if not solely for to further a political career."

Marcus Kindley ... a flame thrower and chair of the Guilford County party: "If I had a vote and was asked to cast it right now I would vote for Kindley. I would do so with many concerns because I have seen Kindley play the role of bull in a china shop."

Vice Chair of NC GOP Caught in Lie

Eventually, this sort of wholesale fabrication catches up with you.

News From the Matrix

Timothy F. Johnson (left), chair of the Buncombe County GOP, is running for vice chair of the NC GOP and sees himself as an insurgent. He's speaking out against vague "tactics" used to keep folks like him from sitting at the proverbial table. The "Old Guards," he calls them, and they're evidently as shadowy and mysteriously powerful as the Illuminati.

Nasty, too.

Writes Johnson, "One of the criticism of our party has been the perceived nastiness and underhanded tactics employed by some." That nastiness, Johnson says, has been used against him in his efforts to win the vice chair role in his own party. He alleges that his personal and professional life have been investigated, and false or not-entirely-true allegations have been spread around, sub-rosa.

So, in defense, Johnson has an endorsement from his ex-wife.