Republican-Dominated Review Panel Disqualifies Phil Berger's Democratic Opponent

No really.

Jen Mangrum at Thursday's residency hearing.
Photo Joe Dexter/RockinghamNow

An elections panel composed of three Republicans and two Democrats voted 3-2 to disqualify Democrat Jen Mangrum from running against NC Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger this fall. Mangrum teaches in Greensboro, leased a house in Reidsville expressly to run against Berger while keeping her house in Greensboro. A Rockingham Republican complained, and on Thursday the Republican majority on the hearing panel agreed.

Mangrum will appeal to the State Board of Elections (SBOE).

Bob Rucho of Charlotte did the same thing -- rented an apartment in Mooresville expressly to run in a different senate district. A similar elections panel in the Rucho case let him stay on the ballot. He lost, badly.

Challenging Mangrum's residency is meant to knee-cap her with the homeys. People often don't like "carpet-baggers" coming into their districts to cause trouble, and apparently Jen Mangrum was becoming trouble for Berger. She has attracted strong support and was "bringing it" to Berger. With the atmosphere in North Carolina turning so acidic toward the current Republican dictatorship in the NC General Assembly, Berger needed to remind everyone that Mangrum is a trouble-making outsider.

If Bob Rucho passed muster, then Jen Mangrum will be certified to run by the SBOE.

Has this hurt her? Yes, without a doubt. And that was the sole motivation.

A Bob Rucho Slap-Down in NC Senate District 34?

I mentioned pugilist Republican Bob Rucho in the last post down-column. Rucho had been a gerrymandering and hot-tempered dynamo in the NC Senate (District 39) after 2010. He dropped out of running in 2016, apparently spent the next two years saving up rent money, because one day before filing to run in Senate District 34 (Statesville-Mooresville area), Rucho rented an apartment and declared residency. It was an open seat, see, because safe incumbent Republican Andrew Brock quit last July to take a seat on a board of review that decides unemployment claims.

Dan Barrett, the Republican appointed to Brock's seat, is not running for it this year. Four other Republicans are, including Rucho.

Republican Primary Contender Vicki Sawyer --

Member of the Iredell County Planning Board and treasurer of the Iredell County Republican Party. Sawyer and her husband own Sawyer Insurance & Financial Services in Mooresville. She seems civic -- served on the Iredell County School Facilities Task Force, co-chaired the successful 2014 school bond referendum committee, and has been president of Lakeshore Elementary and Middle School Parent Teacher Organizations. She is a Methodist.

From her press release: “I want to couple fiscally-conservative principles with a collaborative approach that ensures economic and educational prosperity for Iredell and Yadkin counties, as well as communities across North Carolina,” Sawyer said. “I want to work with my fellow senators to strengthen our education system, enhance our attractiveness to new businesses and find new ways to make sure those who work in our areas of public safety have the resources they need to meet today’s challenges.”

No cultural war stuff there. She's not obsessed with power. She likes public education.

Republican Insurgent Bob Rucho --

The combustible carpet-bagger from Charlotte ... Rucho, as chair of the Senate Finance Committee, had a hissy-fit disagreement over the budget with Senate President Phil Berger in 2013 and abruptly resigned his chairmanship. Berger never accepted the resignation, so eventually, after a few months, Rucho slinked back and took his chairman's gavel again. He gets hot fast.

Rucho sees Vicki Sawyer -- "the woman" -- as his chief stumbling block in slinking back to the NC Senate, and he's already caused a public fuss by denigrating Sawyer's gender. At a candidate forum in Statesville, Rucho looked at Sawyer and told the crowd, "This shouldn't be a beauty contest," and the sarcasm was lot lost on the voters. John Deem listened to the forum tape and reported, "Audience members can be heard reacting immediately, with some groaning, some laughing and others just saying, 'Wow.' There’s little doubt that those folks thought Rucho was referring to Sawyer."

So Rucho's a dick, and Republican primary voters have proven fond of dicks in recent years. But if this is "the year of the woman" for Democrats, maybe the same dynamic will work for sane, middle-of-the-road Republican women candidates too.

[Grateful to Jonathan Kappler for pointing out that the race between Sawyer and Rucho bears watching]

Two Other Republicans in This Senate Primary

A.J. Daoud, funeral business owner -- 

Daoud describes himself as "an activist," and indeed he is and has been. Active with Habitat for Humanity and United Way, served as the chair of the Pilot Mountain Planning and Zoning Board, worked on the Mayor's Downtown Task Force, been a loyal booster of the NC GOP as chair of the 6th Congressional District Republican Committee. He ran for Secretary of State in 2012 and didn't make it out of the primary. He tried again in 2016 for Secty of State, and again didn't make it out of the primary. In 2013, Republican Governor Pat McCrory recognized Daoud's service and appointed him to the NC Lottery Commission, his highest office so far.

Daoud is a bit of a carpet-bagger himself. Last November, Daoud moved from where he lived in Pilot Mountain and established himself inside the funeral home he owns in East Bend, to qualify as a resident of Senate District 34.

He's affable. 

Bill Howell, Iredell-Statesville School Board -- 

A retired NC public school teacher, coach, and athletic director. A veteran of the US army, and he says he worked for Homeland Security. He gets specific about the bad public education policies that have come out of Raleigh:

"The legislature has been given poor information about our schools and teachers of NC. I feel the decisions being made have hurt and continues to hurt our schools. It is time that someone in Raleigh stands up for our children and those who serve them. NC schools are receiving less than 30% of state lottery funds. We were told if we approved the lottery funds would go to the schools. Interstate 77 is a disgrace; why do we get a toll road and Greensboro gets 12 lanes?"

He has a Facebook page, but that's all she wrote!

The Arrogance of Their Power

L to R: Speaker of the NC House Tim Moore, Sen. Tom Apodaca,
Sen. Bob Rucho, Sen. Phil Berger

Thomas Mills on the arrogance of these boys: 

"They want taxpayers to pick up the tab for going to a conference of their choosing, even though ALEC is little more than a political organization that pushes right-wing policy ideas. They should pay a political price for such abuse, but with heavily gerrymandered districts, they don’t think they’ll be held accountable.

"Legislative Republicans have gotten very comfortable with power. Their veto proof majorities allow them to pass legislation at will and their gerrymandered district protect them from being held accountable for bad behavior–like wasting taxpayer money. With few restraints, they’ve quickly become arrogant. Corruption is surely not far behind."

Jabba the Putz

Dwane Powell, N&O, 22 May 2015

To appreciate fully this Dwane Powell cartoon, you must understand that Sen. Bob Rucho chairs the NC Senate Finance Committee and

...that last Wednesday Sen. Rucho abruptly cut off debate on whether North Carolina should continue encouraging solar energy projects through a provision in law that makes large energy corporations (Duke Energy, we're looking at you) buy a certain (tiny) percentage of their electricity from renewable sources and

...that the bill under debate in Rucho's Finance Committee would freeze North Carolina’s “Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard” (or “REPS”) – a law that requires a growing percentage of the state’s electricity load to be provided by renewable sources. Current law places the REPS requirement at 6%, but it is scheduled to grow to 10% in 2018 and 12.5% in 2021. And

...that the Republican senators on Rucho's committee are far from unified in wanting to scuttle renewable energy initiatives. In fact, observers say the majority in that committee last Wednesday wanted to vote negatively on that particular bill. And

...that Rucho, after cutting off debate, called for a voice vote on the bill and then declared it had passed even though it sounded like it had failed loudly, and

...that Sen. Josh Stein, a Democrat from Raleigh who is on the Finance Committee, told Under the Dome on Thursday he doesn’t mind losing, but if he wins and still loses, that’s not fair.

Every Comparison Is Holy!

"Obamacare's worse!"

--Sen. Bob Rucho, Matthews, NC

What's Ahead for North Carolina

Republicans in the General Assembly evidently have a grand plan for "reforming" taxes in this state: eliminate -- eee-limb-a-nate -- all personal and corporate income taxes and shift the tax burden onto the poor and middle class through higher sales taxes, while imposing new taxes on services, like getting your hair cut.

Cool plan. Art Pope's minions thought it up and posted it a month ago on the Civitas website. Now Art Pope is Gov. McCrory's budget director, so he'll get 'er done.

Reuters is reporting on it. Some 65% of NC's annual budget comes from income and corporate taxes. Shifting that burden to the working class will mean that the state's sale tax will have to rise a couple of percentage points, putting the burden for government exactly where the rich have always known it needed to be: on the backs of the poor.

Sen. Bob Rucho is the chief stooge in the General Assembly tasked with getting this done, and guess who he's been getting help from:  Arthur Laffer, a former adviser to Republican President Ronald Reagan and one of the fathers of "trickle-down" economics.

Yep. The 1% are in control of North Carolina now, and they intend to make themselves very comfortable indeed.

Raleigh GOP Intends to Force Off-Shore Drilling

Way to observe the anniversary of the worst off-shore oil disaster in history!

Yesterday NC Senate Republicans unveiled their scheme to force Gov. Perdue into a three-state "compact" with those other towering edifices of backward thinking, Virginia and South Carolina, to drill for fossil energy off the coast of North Carolina.

Too late, apparently, did the Honorables realize that the date also happened to be the first anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion, which led to some really lame rationalization and this piece of stunning logic. Said one of the bill's chief sponsors, Sen. Bob Rucho of Mecklenburg County, “But what we did learn from this disaster is we learned from our mistakes.”

"What we learned is ... we learned."

Well okay then. Proceed with your proceeding!

You shouldn't pass Freshman English with such reasoning, let alone get control of the reins of government.