Will Tim Moffitt Throw Himself on the Live Grenade that Chuck Edwards Left in the 11th CD?

 

With Chuck Edwards out of the race for his own US House seat, there's a scramble going on among 11th District Republicans to pick a name to put on the November ballot. Tom Fiedler wrote a really thorough article about it in the Asheville Watchdog. Fiedler, who is a Pulitzer Prize-winning political reporter in a past life, does a weekly "Democracy Watch" column which I try never to miss.

Tim Moffitt

 

There's some knowledgeable money riding on the bet that it'll be current state Senator Tim Moffitt (SD 48 -- Henderson, Polk, and Rutherford). He's expressed an interest. He was first elected in the frothy political year of 2010 -- the Tea Party insurgency -- to the state House from an Asheville district (HD 116) before suffering defeat in 2014 to Brian Turner after trying to take Asheville's water system and give it to a regional authority. He spent the next four years moving to a Henderson County address and building a business as a "management consultant" (ahem), but jumped back into politics in 2020 to run for retiring Chuck McGrady's seat in HD 117. Moffitt stayed there until 2022 when he ran for and won overlapping SD 48, which is a very safe seat for him. Would he give it up just that quickly?

I cannot for the life of me see why anyone -- especially as slick an operator as Tim Moffitt is -- would actively seek to replace a self-destructing Chuck Edwards on the ballot when every poll is pointing at a loss to a very strong Democratic candidate. Three months for a substitute lamb to mount a campaign, pretty much from the ground up, "hire staff, hire a campaign manager, make ads and print signs, and traverse a district of more than 6,000 square miles.” Whatever a member of the NC General Assembly is used to in a general election campaign, add several hundred percent more headache and frustration. Think of the money! and the need to raise it immediately. Is the National GOP likely to go all in with financial support? No. Maybe a token amount for the bravery of someone willing to enter the race now. Jamie Ager has a shit-ton of money and a great big ole head start. Michele Woodhouse, the former chair of the NC 11 committee, told Fiedler that Party leaders were "trying to clear the field" for Moffitt, which I take to mean that he actually wants it.

I would kind of pity Tim Moffitt if he went for it. He'd have to give up his safe Senate seat (and there'll be a scramble for that suddenly open slot). My understanding from Tom Fiedler is that anyone wanting to be considered for the appointment as Chuck Edwards's replacement will have to show up in front of the 61-member Republican Executive Comm for the 11th CD and make a presentation about why they're right for the job. Moffitt, who's a slick businessman, can easily pull that off. His greatest rival may be Adam Smith, a former Green Beret and a local hero all around Swannanoa and throughout Buncombe County for his tireless work and organizing skills following Hurricane Helene (profiled lavishly on WatWatch). Smith actually ran against Chuck Edwards in the March primary, which gives him kind of a claim to the harness.

I've jeered at Tim Moffitt plenty over at least 15 years on this blog. He courts controversy. His introduction of a bill to seize Asheville's water system and give it to a regional authority was only a sample. He signed up to be an ALEC member and proselytizer (the American Legislative Exchange Council is a front for billionaires). One of the first things he wanted to do after becoming a state senator was ban "participation trophies" from school sports -- burning issue, that. Dirty tricks department: He famously bought up domain names for all 170 NC House and Senate districts and doled them out to office-holders and office-seekers "at a pretty penny." Someone dubbed him "Jerkwater von Jerkington" after that. And he's been a dutiful election denier. He knows better, but he also fears the MAGA base (like they all do).

Michele Woodhouse, who blabbed a lot to Fiedler about internal Republican Party politics in the 11th District, pointed out another reason for any office-holder to think twice: Woodhouse admitted that Michael Whatley is an "albatross" at the top of the ballot. Yikes.