McConnell Needs To Save This Guy's Ass

 

Indebted once again to Jane Porter and her IndyWeek newsletter:

Mitch McConnell's Senate Leadership Fund is dumping $3.4 million into North Carolina's U.S. Senate race between candidates Cheri Beasley and Ted Budd, so now seems like a good time to remind everyone of why Budd, of all candidates running in 34 contested U.S. Senate races this November, is probably the most corrupt politician vying for a U.S. Senate seat this cycle. 

As a new website from the North Carolina Democratic Party details, Budd has been involved in a number of crooked deals, special interest funded travel, and financial scandals. He's also voted against the best interests of North Carolinians at most every turn. Here's a taste:

Budd has consistently taken money from big banks, and then voted to allow banks to charge customers high fees and stymied efforts to lower costs for regular working people.

Budd and his family screwed farmers out of $50 million in an agriculture scheme that went bankrupt and left more than $1.3 million behind in tax debt. We reported on that last September.

Budd traveled on the special interest dime, taking a series of trips worth $30,000 to destinations like Miami, Palm Beach, and Oslo, Norway and staying in $900-a-night luxury hotels. 

Budd voted against legislation in July that would lower gas prices and protect consumers from price gouging by big oil companies. A day before, he had taken $5,000, the legal maximum campaign contribution, from big oil PAC Continental Resources Inc.

Days before voting against H.R. 3, the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act in 2019, Budd took $2,500 from GlaxoSmithKline's PAC and $1,000 from Pfizer's.

This is all in addition to siding with predatory payday lenders after taking their money, voting against funding for child abuse prevention services, voting against a bill to address the infant formula shortage, and initially voting against a bill to assist veterans.

Not great! Sometimes it's just helpful to keep all the corruption catalogued in one place. 

The GOP Abandoning Oz in Pennsylvania for Budd in North Carolina

 

Ted Budd with his anchor

The National Republican Senatorial Committee announced it's canceling $13.5 million in TV ad spending, because it doesn't have the cash to waste any more on hopeless cases like a natural born loser in Pennsylvania (Dr. Oz). They also canceled TV buys in Arizona (Blake Masters), Wisconsin (Ron Johnson), and Nevada (Adam Laxalt), but whether those cancellations signal abandonment of an unsustainable long-shot I know not. I haven't done that research.

Politico reports that Dr. Oz in Pennsylvania, Ted Budd in North Carolina, and J.D. Vance in Ohio haven't done well with fundraising, which perhaps signals a lack of enthusiasm in Republican ranks, though all three have been as Trumpist as possible. We hear that the NRSC will begin pumping TV money for Budd into North Carolina because Cheri Beasley has been rising in the polls. (You might want to be prepared for some nasty attacks on the Black woman.)

Gotta love this newsflash on the DSCC website:

DOG DAYS OF SUMMER – FLAWED CANDIDATES, FUNDRAISING FLOPS ARE BIG WOOF FOR SENATE GOP. News coverage is highlighting how there is “a growing fear among top Republicans that the party’s nomination of deeply flawed candidates in key Senate races” will be a major issue – all while “Democratic Senate candidates are posting blockbuster hauls” and “are outraising their Republican rivals.”

What Happened in Kansas?

 

Dr. Samuel Johnson

This here quote explains a lot (though man needs to be woman):

Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.

--Samuel Johnson

The women of Kansas thought hard about losing rights and becoming meat of the state and went out and said no, despite the state legislature's best effort to complicate the ballot and obfuscate what "yes" even meant.

That mini-wave on abortion rights apparently woke up some Republican senators (according to Sen. Lindsey Graham). Even our own Thom Tillis: “Kansas, which is a pretty red state ― it’s hard to find the words. I think people should look at it.” What he meant by "people should look at it," other than probably something like "Holy shit! Did you just see what happened in Kansas?" or "What can we do to free ourselves from Right To Life?" -- that's open to interpretation.

I feel the pincers that grip the GOP right now, because I'm squeezing as hard as I can. Biden's not the issue this November. The Republican Party is, as it's been transformed by Trump and his flying monkeys of Cruelty and Fraud. 

So I've already seen one TV attack ad on Ted Budd's willingness to ban abortion. The ad was produced and paid for by an unnamed Democratic super PAC, which makes me ask out loud, why isn't Cheri Beasley speaking up too? Budd needs to be pinned. In an interview on the KC O'dea Show, he applauded the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Org decision as "a great thing." Then, later, when he had time to think about it, he decided it was just tough shit for women forced to give birth, because -- you know -- the tragedy of murdering a kid (that's how they talk). Budd told NexStar Media Group, "Let’s not add more tragedy to a very tough situation.” He has no idea. No idea, earthly. 

But you watch Budd and all them bros now run for cover, get tongue-tied, deny past positions. They'll say, "We would appreciate it very much if you'd stop talking about all the laws we want to pass."

WRAL demanded what every Democratic candidate should demand of their Republican opponents, even red-district outgunned Democrats in supposedly unwinnable districts -- Demand that those Republicans explain where they stand on banning abortion. Lean in.

North Carolina voters must know, before they cast ballots this fall, in specific detail where every legislative candidate stands. Do they stand with extremes like the Republican legislators who want the State Constitution to say life starts at fertilization and anyone who willfully tries or destroys a life is accountable for attempted murder?

--WRAL editorial, Aug. 4, 2022

Rep. Ray Pickett

Smart Republicans like Berger Moore can tell toxicity before they step in it, so they'll go around the question and go to ground on the abortion issue -- double-talk it. Say as little as possible. But the far dumber Republican local candidates are unprepared or under-prepared for the shit-storm that can come when they answer carelessly. Take, say, Rep. Ray Pickett of the 93rd HD, a piece of Republican furniture not destined to rise in leadership but a dutiful foot soldier for the party's brand. Does he understand what banning abortion means? And does he support it?

How Much Lying About Cheri Beasley Does It Take To Get a TV Ad for Ted Budd Taken Off the Air?

 

Blatant lying.

CBS News reporting:

Ted Budd likes to pose with big guns 

 

TV stations in North Carolina pulled an ad by the campaign arm for Senate Republicans [NRSC] after they were informed it had a false statement and language about North Carolina Democratic candidate Cheri Beasley and her record as a former state Supreme Court chief justice.

The ad, titled "Failed Our Children," ties Beasley to three child predators who were released or had their indictments tossed. They say in one case, which involved a man convicted on 12 counts of child pornography, that Beasley had voted to set him free.

Beasley and the court heard a case on whether police could search a USB drive belonging to the man charged in the case, James Howard Terrell Jr., without a warrant. She and a majority of the court upheld a lower court's assessment that the search had not been permissible under the "private-search doctrine" and sent the matter back to the lower court, but did not directly vote to set Terrell Jr. free....

"The defendant was not set free by the ruling as the ad claims. CMG [Cox Media Group] will not run the ad when it contains a false statement on material issue. This ad has been removed from airing," wrote a representative for WSOC-TV and WAXN-TV in Charlotte, N.C., in a letter first obtained by CBS News....

Another ad by the NRSC attacks Beasley over other cases of violent crime and portrays her as failing to protect them. That ad has been fact checked by CBS17, which similarly found the ads lacked context — that the state Supreme Court had voted unanimously to vacate a death sentence. This ad remains on the air.

Wherein I Avert My Gaze From NC and Look North To PA

Caution may be the wrong message for the Democratic base today.

Looking at you, Cheri Beasley. You're the presumptive Democratic nominee to run for the US Senate this year. Probably against gun dealer Ted Budd. We'll know for sure next Tuesday night about both.

But is Cheri Beasley a fighter? (Because Ted Budd most assuredly will roll in the mud.) I ask for a friend, who's alarmed at the whole Trump ethos that thinks it's necessary to bully -- especially the most vulnerable -- gay and transgender, Black ballot access (and barriers for 20-somethings), and now women's basic equality under the law. Those people are also clearly willing to "just find more votes" when it's necessary to hold power (and wait 'til election authorities in various states are Trump operatives). 

Cheri Beasley's public messaging suggests more a walking-on-eggs tentativeness than a willingness to take that on. I worry.

✹✹✹

Conor Lamb

Compare what's about to happen in the Democratic Senate primary in Pennsylvania, which will also be next Tuesday. I'm forced to know about it because I've been on candidate John Fetterman's email list for months. (Every vaguely progressive candidate in the universe gets my email address from Central Fingering.) The Pa. Senate primary is primarily between Fetterman, the sitting lieutenant governor, and Congressman Conor Lamb, who won his House seat in a special replacement election in a Republican-leaning district early in 2018 (first ripple of the blue wave) and won reelection in 2020. I was enthusiastic about him on this blog even though I knew he was not a progressive (cautious to a fault, prosecutor-cautious). But having him in Congress would be on the whole better than not having him.

Plus Conor Lamb had the looks. Because I'm a shallow person, why wouldn't I be drawn to the photogenic, since all politics are theater? Conor Lamb looks the part, and he's not afraid to call himself a Democrat. And an ex-Marine.

Quite the contrast is Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who looks like a lumberjack auditioning for the lead in a stage production of Shrek. Unconventional, working-class to the bone, with populist instincts, pugilistic, and rough as a cob. The last numbers I saw, Fetterman was leading Lamb in the primary by 30 points (with candidate Malcolm Kenyatta projected as a distant third).

Lt. Gov. John Fetterman

Bald head, goatee, prominent tattoos, often dressed in hoodie and shorts, like he's going to the Saturday morning farmer's market instead of like a supplicant for public approval or like an already prominent member of the elected class. He's a Bernie Sanders economic thinker, totally pragmatic about who and what the enemy is for the laboring class. There's a lot being written about him right now. I found this particularly thorough.

The central dilemma in voting for Fetterman -- and he's predicted to win the primary easily -- is the same question about Cheri Beasley. Can he/she win in November? In Beasley's case, will Ted Budd and the Trumpists roll right over her? In Fetterman's case, is he too out there to get the independents?

Who will Fetterman face in November? Possibly not the Trump-endorsed Mehmet Oz but rather a Black woman, Kathy Barnette, who's coming from nowhere to run dead-even with Oz -- enough so that Trump himself issued a statement denouncing her and reiterating his support for Oz. Trump hilariously said, “She has many things in her past which have not been properly explained or vetted." (These Trumpists are always so comically un-selfaware!) Barnette -- a failed congressional candidate in 2020 and a personality who appears to make her living saying things in public, and who's really every bit as MAGA as Oz or anyone else -- certainly has the looks.

Kathy Barnett

 

Primaries To Be Delayed Again, To June 7th

 

Republican leaders in the North Carolina General Assembly obviously believe their gerrymandered maps are about to be declared unconstitutional by the State Supremes. The "gerrymandering trial" appeal goes before the Court on Feb. 2nd. Plaintiffs are looking to overturn the 3-judge panel's ruling last week that there's really nothing the judicial system can do about partisan power grabs via gerrymandering. The NC Supreme Court has set arguments on the appeal for Feb. 2nd. They have (by my count) exactly 7 working days from then, to February 18th (Friday of the week of February 14), which according to the State Board of Elections is their drop-dead week for having new districts defined so that they can accommodate candidate filing for a (court-ordered) May 17th primary. 

The Republican bosses in the General Assembly are taking the correct steps right now to delay the primaries another three weeks to June 7th. That's a gift to the Court. More time, more deliberateness, more care in who the Court orders to draw new maps. Ahem.

That delay in the primaries is just an acknowledgement of reality by the Republican bosses, not necessarily IMO a nefarious first step toward impeaching any Justice who rules their gerrymandering unconstitutional. Dallas Woodhouse, writing for the Pope Carolina Journal, has reported that some Republicans are sure 'nuff talking impeachment (Billy Corriher's reporting), but delaying the primaries in this new instance is perhaps merely dealing with it.

I'm okay with the Court ordering the General Assembly to draw new maps (rather than an independent commission). Yes, I realize Berger Moore will slip in what bad faith they can in new maps, but don't they have to be better than what we have right now? Weren't the 2020 court-ordered maps that the Republicans were forced to re-draw better than what they replaced? You bet they were, for at least those new maps prevented veto-proof majorities for the Republicans in NC House and Senate and led to the election of 2 new Democrats in the US Congress. Odds are, new maps would eliminate at least some if not all malicious mischief, like the splitting up of Watauga County between two different Congressional districts and two different NC House districts.

Dallas Woodhouse thinks the delay is particularly bad for the Republican senatorial primary between Pat McCrory, Mark Walker, and the Trump-tetched Ted Budd. It's bad if Mark Walker sticks to his guns and stays in the race rather than take the tainted Trump bait of running for the US House instead. Walker stays in and divides the conservative vote with Ted Budd, and McCrory waltzes. Woodhouse would applaud that.

Probably so would Cheri Beasley.

Jeff Jackson Is Getting Out of the Senate Race

 

Jeff Jackson, who's been running hard (and we thought, effectively) for the US Senate seat, is reportedly bowing out and endorsing Cheri Beasley -- probably today. WRAL appears to have been the first with the news yesterday after 5 p.m. that Jackson "was expected to announce his plan to drop out as soon as Thursday morning." No explanation. No rationale.

People will ask, naturally, "Did something happen?" As in something bad.

If this move helps Cheri Beasley win that Senate seat, Jackson's announcement may may end up looking very cool, a self-sacrifice for the good of the Republic, let alone the state of North Carolina.

ADDENDUM

Just posted in the NewsObserver:

Many rumors circulated in North Carolina’s political circles Wednesday night about what is next for Jackson’s political future. [Political scientist Chris] Cooper said it could be that his campaign had information indicating that he couldn’t win. 

“I think it’s equally as likely to be him trying to set himself up for a future run,” Cooper said. 

He added that Jackson is not known to run negative campaigns and that may have been his only option. He also pointed out that Jackson may have realized he’s a white male running against a Black female for a nomination by a party that is trying to be inclusive and diverse. 

“He’s a Democrat and when the Democratic Party establishment runs counter to your interests, it makes sense to try to figure out how to make friends rather than make deeper enemies,” Cooper said, saying this could be a smart long-term strategy for Jackson’s career.

Cheri Beasley's New Campaign Manager

 

Travis Brimm

Since August 9th (when Senate candidate Cheri Beasley's top campaign and money managers quit), we've been wondering "Whither, Judge Beasley," and as of Friday, we have a better idea, because on August 27th, veteran political operative Travis Brimm announced on Twitter that he was coming "back home" to manage the Beasley campaign.

Trimm's work for Democratic candidates goes back almost ten years, and he's had his share of soul-testing defeats (Dan McCready, 2018; Richard "Otter" Bew, 2019, written about on this blog). The "advisory" role he had with McCready (according to Linkedin) raises my interest, since Brimm's political instincts might slide toward the militantly middle-of-the-road, which can become a worry for generating voter excitement. 

(Commenters have already noticed how Beasley intends to play it -- bland, non-threatening, moderate.)

More recently, Brimm was Joe Biden's state director for his 2020 Democratic primary win, and Brimm went on immediately from that to manage Democrat Ben Ray Luhan's successful 2020 US Senate win in New Mexico.

In other words, Brimm is successful enough to know exactly who he's going to be working for in 2022: Mississippi Governor Ned Lamont has already chosen Brimm to manage his reelection campaign. (Brimm's a native of Mississippi.)

We'll hide and watch what happens now.

What's Going On in the Cheri Beasley Campaign?

 

I troll the InnerTubes constantly, and I have to say that I totally missed the following headline four days ago: "Cheri Beasley’s campaign manager, finance director quit" (AP). And I've seen no chatter about it whatsoever among political types. But didn't I think, "Uh-oh. Trouble"? 

Beasley's been invisible while Jeff Jackson has been drawing big crowds at his 100-county speaking tour, but Beasley's fundraising has been strong (so that's where she's been: on the phone). She raised $1.28 million through the end of June.

But it's not a good look to have two such senior staffers abandoning the campaign in such close proximity to one another.

Cheri Beasley Officially Launched Her Senate Campaign Today

 

The other shoe finally dropped.

Former NC Chief Justice Cheri Beasley officially launched her campaign for Richard Burr's Senate seat this morning, joining what Brian Murphy called "a robust field" of other candidates, some of whom have been campaigning for months.

Beasley is the fifth Democrat in the race, joining former state Sen. Erica Smith, state Sen. Jeff Jackson, virologist Richard Watkins, and Beaufort Mayor Rett Newton. Smith and Watkins are also Black. Realistically, the ultimate showdown will probably be between Jeff Jackson and Cheri Beasley.

Brian Murphy's reporting:

Beasley was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2012, then won her seat in 2014. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper elevated her to chief justice in 2019.

She has not run for partisan office before, and her launch offered few details about her positions on any hot-button or current issues before Congress. Instead, she called for opening doors.

“Whether it’s health care, education, or the ability to find work that supports a family and retire with dignity, too often Washington only responds to the well-connected. As we come out of this pandemic, now more than ever, that needs to end,” Beasley said.

Beasley's launch video is worth watching:

Is Cheri Beasley Now the Frontrunner?

 

Probably.

Photo Julia Wall, News and Observer

News broke while I was traveling on Thursday that former NC Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley is expected to announce her candidacy for the US Senate, sometime before the daffodils wither.

“She’s putting a team together, is planning to announce and I think we’ll see that in early April,” said Kara Hollingsworth, a Cary-based political consultant who has worked on previous Beasley campaigns and remains close with Beasley. (Brian Murphy)

The thing is: Beasley has run statewide and came within 400 votes of winning against Rumpelstiltskin last November, so she could easily have multiples of the base that Jeff Jackson of Mecklenberg County currently has.

I've been a big fan of Senator Jackson since the first time he stood up in the NC Senate and indicted the Republican bosses for malfeasance and bad faith. (Here's just one YouTube from Jan. 2015 of his communication skills.) Plus I owe him for helping rally support in Watauga during the last off-year, in 2019, when he came to our fall rally. We knew what our collective goals would be in 2020, and Jeff helped us focus and build our reserves.

I had wanted Jackson to run against Tillis in 2020. A lot of people wanted that. But Cal Cunningham got there first. IMO, Cunningham's damage to himself has swollen into a throbbing, abscessed sore spot for all young, photogenic, white men trying to run for high office. Anecdotal evidence: Women, particularly, no longer trust young, photogenic, white men. I keep hearing, "No more Cal Cunninghams!"

I don't think Jeff Jackson is another Cal Cunningham. I'll contribute to his campaign and vote for him. But I'll also watch the rise of Cheri Beasley with actual hope for the possibilities.

Frankly, I think Beasley would make the stronger candidate, especially if we wind up with Lara Trump running a cheerleader's campaign on the other side. Beasley has actually been on the ballot statewide multiple times. The first was her election to the NC Court of Appeals in 2008. Then she ran for and won her first seat on the NC Supreme Court in 2014. Governor Cooper would eventually appoint her Chief Justice, just in 2019, the seat she was defending last fall.

Kara Hollingsworth, the political consultant who made the announcement for Beasley and was quoted above, is partner in Three Point Strategies (TPS), an all-Black woman management firm -- described on LinkedIn as "a radical, Black, millennial-led, DC-based consulting firm." This purpose appears on their website:

We specialize in electing the first’s, the only’s and the truly magical. At Three Point Strategies we not only trust Black women, they are our North Star. We’ve worked with candidates running for US Senate to City Council and in 2017 TPS worked with six Black women mayoral candidates to usher in the #yearoftheblackwomanmayor.

[Not sure which six new mayors TPS worked with, but some 10 Black women won big-city mayorships in 2017, including in Washington, D.C.; Atlanta; New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Charlotte, North Carolina; San Francisco; and Chicago.]

 

The three partners of Three Point Strategies

Another Interesting Senate Candidate I Missed

Don't know where my head was on March 5th that caused me to miss this news (from James Arkin in Politico):

Joan Higginbotham, a former NASA astronaut and the third Black woman to go to space, is seriously considering running for Senate in North Carolina as a Democrat, according to multiple people familiar with her deliberations. [If she runs, she'll also be the third Black woman running for the US Senate from North Carolina.]

Joan Higginbotham

Higginbotham, 56, has never run for political office before and would be entering what is expected to be one of the most expensive and high-profile Senate races in the country next year. North Carolina is an open race and is among Democrats top targets, alongside Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, as they seek to protect their fragile 50-50 majority.

To the pileup of Democrats willing to jump into the 2022 Senate primary you can also add Black virology scientist Richard L. Watkins, profiled here, and former NC Senator Erica Smith.

 

Cheri Beasley, Candidate for US Senate in 2022?

 

Cheri Beasley

Dallas Woodhouse -- yes, that Dallas Woodhouse -- is now director of strategic operations at the Civitas Institute, and he has his name on something of a political scoop about the potential Democratic primary in 2022 for the US Senate seat currently occupied by Richard Burr. Woodhouse reports that former NC Chief Justice Cheri Beasley "has hired a new campaign consultant and is preparing to announce her entry into the Democratic primary," which would give already announced candidate, state Sen. Jeff Jackson, some real competition for the nomination.

I'm a fan of Sen. Jackson. I'm also a fan of Cheri Beasley, who came within 400 votes last November of keeping her seat on the state's Supreme Court. She has a statewide base. Jackson has a Mecklenburg County base, but he has supporters everywhere because of his fundraising for other General Assembly Democrats and his generous personal appearances (including in Watauga County in the fall of 2019).

Woodhouse writes that Jackson "is already being unfavorably compared to [Cal] Cunningham, another white male Democrat [sic] candidate," and I'll concede that Cal hurt the prospects of other young white male candidates in the Democratic Party. But to suggest that Jackson is a carbon copy is wholly unfair and inaccurate. While Cunningham made progressives somewhat nauseous by appearing "soft" or wishy-washy, Jeff Jackson's image is more warrior in the General Assembly than conciliator. He's also been a clear-headed presence on social media, offering pungent commentary on the actions of the Republican majority in the General Assembly.

The other name that will complicate Cheri Beasley's future plans -- assuming that Woodhouse's insider info is correct -- is Erica Smith, another Black woman who also wants to be US Senator and who has a pretty loyal progressive base across the state. At least it was loyal. Cheri Beasley's entry might change that.

Woodhouse's other news is that ex-guv and "toe-stepper" Pat McCrory might run too on the Republican side, but my money would still be on former Republican Rep. Mark Walker, who's already announced his candidacy.

Cheri Beasley Is Now Winning the Chief Justice Race

 

Sitting Chief Justice Cheri Beasley is now leading Rumpelstiltskin-in-a-former-life Paul Newby for the privilege of running the court. The vote is currently 2,685,809 (Beasley) v. 2,684,691 (Newby), a lead of 1,118 votes.

The deadline for Absentee-by-Mail ballots was yesterday, and the counting of those votes into last night, along with several thousand provisionals across the state, account for Beasley's sudden reversal of fortune. She was trailing on election night, and some of us thought that she had sure nuf lost, an eventuality that hurt as much as the Cal Cunningham trainwreck.

Newby, currently an associate justice on the NC Supreme Court, is known for extreme partisan views mixed with dominionist religiosity (and possibly the ability to spin gold out of straw).

If that thousand-vote lead holds, Beasley will be presiding over a 5-2 Democratic majority on the state's high court. Phil Berger Jr., whose main talent appears to be upward mobility, beat Lucy Inman for Newby's open seat by 69,417 votes (1.3%), and Republican Tamara Barringer beat Democrat incumbent Mark Davis by almost 128,000 (2.4%). All the Democratic candidates for the Court of Appeals lost to Republicans, but all those races were close. The Republicans generally won with a 2.5% edge. But the Court of Appeals is going to be a tough venue for certain kinds of justice for the foreseeable future.

We Have Our Own Roy Moore in North Carolina

Judge Paul Newby,
a partisan Republican

Some Supreme Court justices in some Southern states swing high and swing wide. Roy Moore as chief justice of the Alabama Supremes decided he was God's gift, defied a federal court's order to remove a monument to the Ten Commandments in the state's judiciary building that he placed there because God told him to and then defied the US Supreme Court over same-sex marriage. Because when you have the One True Truth, you don't have to follow the law.

He was legally removed from the Supreme Court of Alabama. He's been in a political snit ever since, running (unsuccessfully) in a US Senate special election last year. He says he'll run again in 2020. He'll run until God Almighty puts him where he knows he deserves to be, in the marble halls of the US Senate.

North Carolina Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Paul Newby is also in a snit ever since Governor Roy Cooper did not appoint him Chief Justice, appointing a black woman in Cheri Beasley instead. Now, through the hilariously inept machinations of Phil Berger and the Republican majority in the General Assembly, Newby is the last remaining Republican on the seven-member state Supreme Court, and boy, is he ever pissed.

He made a campaign speech last Saturday in which he dissed all six of his fellow justices, comparing them to the current Democratic demon-du-jour, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), especially Anita Earls who was elected to the court in last fall's campaign. "Imagine seven 'AOCs' on the state Supreme Court," Newby told the Republican crowd. "Well, folks, we got six," he said to laughs. "It's six to one."

So Newby is running against Chief Justice Cheri Beasley in next year's election. He has the One True Truth behind him, and all those brown women are not going to stop him from bringing Republican partisanship to the high court.

Gov. Cooper Makes History with Supreme Court Appointee

Justice Beasley with Gov. Cooper
this afternoon at the Governor's mansion

Governor Roy Cooper this afternoon appointed Associate Justice Cheri Beasley as the first black woman to head the state's Supreme Court, replacing Republican Mark Martin who is stepping down.

Beasley has been a judge for the last 20 years and an associate justice on the Supreme Court since 2012.

Beasley's associate justice seat on the court will now be open, and Gov. Cooper will also be able to appoint a replacement for her. The only Republican left on the high court, Justice Paul Newby, was miffed that Cooper did not elevate him to the chief justice position because he has the greatest seniority. Newby had already announced weeks ago that he would be on the ballot in 2020 for the chief justice seat. He'll likely be opposed by Cheri Beasley, who will have to run in her own right for the seat next year.