You Think That Rearranging Furniture at the SBOE Absolves It of Corruption? Dallas Woodhouse Still Works There!

 

NC Voices

 

The cover story Dave Boliek put out in September 2025 about hiring Dallas Woodhouse as some sort of State Board of Elections (SBOE) "liaison," whose role, we would soon discover -- to absolutely no one's surprise -- was actually to lord it over county boards of elections and inhibit college-age and Black voters wherever possible. At the time of Woodhouse's hiring, Boliek announced him to county election officials: "[I hired] him to assist in your efforts to ensure election integrity while encouraging maximum participation in our elections." Hahahahaha

The best reporting I've seen on the Woodhouse "reassignment" at the SBOE, the piece below, is thorough and complete. I don't know who wrote it, but thank you!

And if you're a partisan like me and tempted to celebrate the mere rearrangement of furniture at the SBOE -- window-dressing for a corrupt and exposed operation -- I would advise you not to. Dallas Woodhouse is still there at the SBOE, along with his embedded philosophy of might-makes-right, and trailing all that heavy baggage of cut-throat politics. You think the people who hired Woodhouse and who now obviously depend on him to be there have changed their spots? This isn't a victory, but it exposed their corruption. 

RALEIGH -- By WRAL News  A North Carolina Republican operative who was hired by the state auditor to help shape the state’s election boards and early voting plans has been reassigned, and his election liaison position has been discontinued. 

State and county elections officials are beginning to ramp up preparations for the 2026 midterm elections. Mail-in ballots will go out in September, early voting starts in October and election day is Nov. 3.

State Auditor Dave Boliek reassigned Dallas Woodhouse, a former executive director of the North Carolina Republican Party, NBC News reported Wednesday morning. Woodhouse had served in the role since September.

“Now that we are more than a year past appointments, and board chairs have settled into their roles having worked through a municipal election, primary election, and most of the local boards have passed early voting plans for the general election, the Auditor's Office has discontinued the elections liaison role,” a spokesman for the auditor’s office told WRAL in a statement Wednesday. “The elections liaison was established because the Auditor's Office gained new responsibilities. The position was not meant to be permanent.”

Woodhouse will work on strategic initiatives that relate to constituent services and communications, according to the spokesman.

Republican state lawmakers stripped responsibility for overseeing state and county election boards away from Democratic Gov. Josh Stein in 2024 and gave the power to Boliek, a Republican. Under Boliek and Woodhouse, the state board of elections and all 100 county election boards have switched to GOP majorities, and some have begun enacting longtime Republican priorities such as eliminating early voting options on Sundays — a popular day with Black voters and on college campuses. Black voters and students tend to vote Democratic.

According to reporting from WLOS and NC Local, Woodhouse and Boliek were involved in efforts to ensure the new Jackson County Board of Elections would shut down a polling place on campus at Western Carolina University. In the Triangle, the Wake County Board of Elections also recently voted to eliminate a longtime early voting site at N.C. State’s student union, and to move it to a remote part of campus, WRAL previously reported.

Woodhouse was reassigned on June 2, NBC News reported. Woodhouse earns $110,000, according to a database of state employee salaries.

In September, Boliek wrote to some county election officials that “to assist in your efforts to ensure election integrity while encouraging maximum participation in our elections, I have appointed Dallas Woodhouse as my liaison.”

Woodhouse referred a request for comment Wednesday to the auditor’s office.

 

Dallas Woodhouse Causes Embarrassment, But what Dallas Woodhouse Stood For Still Very Much the Philosophy at the State Board of Elections

Big news this afternoon: Dallas Woodhouse, who has a history of trying to knee-cap college students' voting and Sunday voting for African-Americans, has been "reassigned" in the State Board of Elections. Instead of his $110,000 per annum job of "advising" local county boards of elections -- principally, advising the Republican majorities to eliminate campus polling places where possible and stop Sunday voting in communities with large Black congregations, Woodhouse has been reassigned to a desk in another part of the SBOE.

But it's all window-dressing, and it means nothing. The attitude toward suppressing certain voters still reigns in Auditor's Dave Boliek's MAGA brain. Woodhouse had caused Mr. Boliek some very bad optics after he was revealed telling the chair of the Jackson County Board of Elections, "Don't let them have a vote," them being students at Western Carolina University who had become accumstomed to a student union early voting site. There's also evidence that he told the Pasquotank County Bd of Elections chair to eliminate Sunday voting.  Pasquotank County is 35% Black.

The leopards can white-wash their spots, but they're still going to be blood predators.

 

Josh Stein Still Fighting for Control of SBOE. Bless Him!

 

Dallas Woodhouse

Gov. Josh Stein is suing the GOP-controlled General Assembly over its last-minute seizure of the State Board of Elections, which they gave lock-stock-and-barrel to their new bestie, Dave Boliek, the brand new State Auditor and conservative fan boy. ("There's no fanatic like a new convert.") The General Assembly pulled off the blatant power grab between Josh Stein's landslide victory over Mark Robinson on November 5th, 2024, and the swearing in of Josh Stein as our 76th governor on January 1st, 2025. Now that's hustling for any deliberative body (maybe not so much for one in lockstep like the Berger/Moore congregation was).

Very shortly after Stein whupped Robinson, GOP lawmakers introduced Senate Bill 382, cleverly attaching Hurricane Helene relief to their plan to sneak in provisions stripping the governor's control of the State Board of Elections, among other things. (They also took powers from Attorney General Jeff Jackson and other members of the Council of State.) Gov. Cooper, still in office, vetoed S 382. Republicans overrode. Immediately, the new czar of elections, Dave Boliek, hires extreme partisan Republican hit-man Dallas Woodhouse to "teach" local county boards of election how best to suppress the vote. The very recent elimination of three university polling sites testifies to Woodhouse's malign presence. 

Of course Stein took it to court, and he won at the trial court level. A panel of three superior court judges agreed that the section of S 382 taking powers from the executive was unconstitutional. The Court of Appeals -- dominated 12-3 by Republicans -- quickly stepped in and blocked that ruling, allowing the law to take effect on May 1st.

Stein is right now back in court asking a new panel of Appeals Court judges to overturn previous court orders that allowed Boliek to take over elections board appointments last spring.

Kyle Ingram was there in court February 10th -- yesterday -- to hear the arguments, and he captured the essential gist:

Attorneys for Stein argued that the power shift — which transferred appointments to Republican State Auditor Dave Boliek — sets a dangerous precedent for separation of powers, wherein the legislature can consistently reassign responsibilities to whichever executive office holder agrees with their policy preferences.

“The legislative position is that there are no limits on their power to assign executive duties on the Council of State,” Eric Fletcher, a lawyer for Stein, said. “They say that they can assign, tomorrow, election administration to the Commissioner of Agriculture. That they can send agricultural policy to the Commissioner of Insurance. And they can assign road-building to the Superintendent of Public Instruction.” 

Attorneys for legislative leaders argued that it was within the General Assembly’s duty to reassign executive powers as they please, so long as the powers in question are not explicitly assigned in the constitution.

The three judges hearing the arguments: John Arrowood (D), Valerie Zachary (R), and April Wood (R). Wanna guess how invested in partisanship those two Republican judges are?

Wormwood*

 

We get why Dallas Woodhouse has been installed as the czar of "election integrity," and you should understand it too, because it means nothing good for the opposition to the Raleigh junta. Woodhouse's projected role is spelled out in this chilling sentence contained in the 3rd paragraph of Auditor Dave Boliek's memo to members of county boards of election:

As we have many new chairs, Mr. Woodhouse will soon coordinate a series of training events to assist you in your new role.

(The full text of Boliek's memo has not been readily available. Parts of it have been widely quoted, though not that sentence, and I couldn't find the full memo anywhere on the state Auditor's website. Anderson Alerts published the full text, which I'm indebted to here.)

What will a Dallas Woodhouse "training" of new BOE chairs look like? Keep in mind that those newly appointed and highly partisan Republican chairs are new because Phil Berger and his pals in the General Assembly were desperate to take over the administration of voting in this state, which they did by completely changing the law to take appointment power away from the governor, giving it instead to the newly elected state Auditor Dave Boliek.

I can forecast the not-so-subtle marching orders in those Woodhouse trainings: "You're Republicans, and you've been put in charge of early voting and everything else related to ballot access for a reason. We expect you to be loyal Republicans. We expect you to do what you can to limit the access of people who'll likely vote against us. Do you understand me?" 

Woodhouse must be salivating at the opportunity.

If the current State Board of Elections with its 3-2 Republican majority allows these Woodhouse trainings to go forward, then they are as craven cowards as the US Congress. No one should be in charge of that training other than the board members and their legal counsel. I'm looking squarely at you, Four Eggers. Do something!

Those Woodhouse trainings had better by GAWD be advertised and open to the public, not to mention the press.

*In the Bible, wormwood refers to the bitter Artemisia plant, symbolizing extreme bitterness, poison, sorrow, and suffering. It is used to depict God's judgment and warnings of divine wrath against sin and injustice, as seen in the Old Testament prophecies of Jeremiah and Amos, and in the New Testament Book of Revelations. In Revelations, a star called Wormwood falls, turning waters bitter and poisonous, illustrating widespread calamity and death.

Apparently, Dallas Woodhouse Gives Stacy "Four" Eggers the Heebie-Jeebies

 

Woodhouse

I asked the question recently: How does State Board of Elections (SBOE) member Four Eggers feel about the appointment of Dallas Woodhouse as the "election integrity czar," seemingly above and over the heads of the duly designated SBOE board.

I believe we got at least a partial answer in the heated yelling match that broke out during a discussion of Woodhouse's appointment at a SBOE meeting last Tuesday. (I tried to tune in via WebEx, but problems with over-talking and the sound system made listening not only a challenge but a sheer pain. So I have to go with what's reported by Lynn Bonner on NCNewsline.)

After Democratic member Siobhan Millen began the discussion of Woodhouse's appointment -- “It’s difficult to imagine a person who would be less suited to bringing election integrity…” -- SBOE Chair Francis DeLuca "began to shout over Millen as she criticized Woodhouse’s hiring."

Once the shouting died down, Eggers spoke and appeared to side with the two Democrats, though gingerly, like a cowboy trying to gentle a wild horse: “Our county board members should take direction from this board,” Eggers said. "It’s clear that the board retains legal, technical, and supervisory oversight over elections."

But maybe, Eggers added, "Woodhouse might be helpful in securing funding from the legislature."

Hahahahaha

Oh, Woodhouse is going to be useful all right, but not for more funding.

Dallas Woodhouse Now in Charge of Election Integrity in North Carolina

 

Woodhouse

News came last week that the state Auditor Dave Boliek, the newly established Republican overlord of voting in North Carolina, appointed Dallas Woodhouse to a special role enforcing "election integrity" (the code word) via "election policy and proper oversight." What exactly that "oversight" means, especially considering Woodhouse's history and the clear undertow of Republican ambitions to limit voting ahead of the midterms rather than encouraging it, has many progressives and independents alike very concerned.

Who the Hell Is Dallas Woodhouse?

Woodhouse is famous as a hard-charging Republican operative with a history of chair-flinging partisanship. Ahead of the 2014 senatorial contest between Thom Tillis and Kay Hagan, Woodhouse created a 501(c)(4), Carolina Rising, ostensibly under IRS rules as a tax exempt "social welfare" org, but most of the $4.9 million he raised went to a single political media firm in Virginia for ads mentioning Thom Tillis favorably. Carolina Rising listed a single anonymous donor for all that money. The donor later turned out to be Karl Rove's super-PAC, Crossroads GPS. Complaints were filed with the IRS that Carolina Rising was clearly a partisan operation. I don't know if anything substantive came of those complaints. Probably not. (On the night of Tillis's election in 2014, Woodhouse appeared before cameras famously and slurringly quite inebriated, bragging that he had spent well over $4 million to get Tillis elected. That video may still be on YouTube.)

In October of 2015 Woodhouse was hired as executive director of the NCGOP. In that role, in August of 2016 Woodhouse famously sent an email to all Republican members of county boards of election reminding them that with Pat McCrory as governor, they had the power to manipulate early voting plans for "Party-line" outcomes. Both McCrory and Donald Trump would be on the ballot that fall, and Woodhouse was doing his due diligence to manufacture wins for those guys by helping to suppress Democratic votes where possible, particularly Sunday voting favored by many Black churches, and student voting, facilitated by polling places on college campuses. McCrory lost but Trump won that year, so partial success for Woodhouse's team.

After Woodhouse stepped down from executive director of the NCGOP in 2019 -- damaged flotsam from the bribery scandal involving party Chair Robin Hayes (Woodhouse was never implicated) -- he joined both the John Locke Foundation and the Civitas Institute as a paid consultant/staffer. Those two influential North Carolina purveyors of big-money conservative orthodoxy kept Woodhouse in the inner-circle of the Republican establishment. The old Tea Party types, best represented by the opinion stylings of Brant Clifton at the Daily Haymaker, don't like him, don't trust him, especially after Woodhouse managed to oust Hasan Harnett from the GOP chairmanship less than a year into his term).

(Use the search engine, top left, for many more instances and details recorded on this blog during the last decade for assuming that Woodhouse's appointment as overseer/enforcer of voting rights statewide will mean an open field day for suppressing the Democratic vote everywhere possible, all the time, forever.)

How Do the Republican Members of the State's BOE Feel About Woodhouse's Appointment?

Dunno. But I can speculate. 

There are three Republican members of the SBOE, all appointed by the aforementioned Dave Boliek in his new role as Elections Czar: 

Stacy "Four" Eggers IV from Watauga; 

Ex-Senator and Yankee transplant Robert Rucho, who can justifiably wear the label of "wacky right-wing hothead." DeLuca had a huge hand in fashioning the "Monster Voting Law" in 2013, which was soon defeated in court for suppressing the vote of Black citizens; 

Francis X. DeLuca, a one-time congressional candidate and former boss of Art Pope's right-wing Civitas Institute -- the org which, according to NCNewsline, "has long and passionately championed dozens of extreme (and sometimes downright strange) causes," including suppressing access to voting in the interests of "election intrigrity."

I've been listening to SBOE meetings via Webex. Most recently I heard Chair DeLuca suggest that Federal elections law (the HAVA Act) is probably "insane." He had just been told, in fact reassured by SBOE legal counsel, that the procedures by which the SBOE is repairing the missing data from several thousand voter registrations is entirely by the book and according to the law). Robert Rucho had complained that the law wasn't strict enough and implied that all sorts of fraud is going on all the time.

How does Four Eggers feel about the appointment of Dallas Woodhouse, and how is Eggers parsing who gets to demand what? Boliek's memo appointing Woodhouse implied but didn't spell out that Woodhouse has some sort of fiat over not only the county boards but the SBOE itself. Is Eggers going to bend the knee to an "election intrigrity compliance dictator" who's been put in above him and the SBOE? What are the legal ramifications when Woodhouse goes mucking about with 2024 early voting plans that include polling sites on college campuses?

 

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.

The NCGOP Elected a New Chair Yesterday

He's called "businessman Michael Whatley." He's from Gaston County. Here's how he describes himself: "Since volunteering for Jesse Helms in his 1984 race against Jim Hunt as a sophomore at Watauga High School, Michael has knocked on doors, worked on phone banks, put out yard signs and raised money for Republicans in Local, Legislative, Congressional, Senatorial and Presidential races from one end of North Carolina to the other." Republican conservative activist Brant Clifton rebuts that: "Thirty days ago, NO ONE had heard of Michael Whatley. He has no record of recruiting candidates, promoting the party platform, running campaigns, or raising money for party organizations."

The Tea Party conservatives were backing Jim Womack, currently the chair of the Lee County Republican Party and a harder edged conservative. Womack actually won the raw vote at the convention yesterday, but then something magical -- called "weighted voting" -- intervened, and presto-chango, Michael Whatley came out on top.

So the conservatives are pissed. The establishment (Dallas Woodhouse) is still in control, and a Republican primary against Senator Thom Tillis, the establishment's boy, is looming next March.

Good times!

The Headline in What the NCGOP Submitted to the FEC

As I spend most of my time these sun-lit days distinguishing Stellaria media from Baptisia australis, and not (mos def) reading finance reports submitted by the North Carolina Republican Party to the Federal Elections Commission (FEC), I'm perfectly and always happy for someone else to read them and then let me know what's what.

The NCGOP was left with just over 4 thousand dollars (no freaking way!) by the time Chair Robin Hayes' got himself arrested for attempted bribery and Executive Director Dallas Woodhouse got shown the door following him. At the end of the First Quarter of 2019 (April filing deadline), Woodhouse and Co. boasted a "balance (receipts – expenditures) of $4,137.09 at the end of the quarter."

Holy Implosion, Batman!

And with two special elections for Congress happening right now too, in the 3rd and the 9th districts. Some strong Democrats running in both. Meanwhile, the eventual Republican winners in the primaries will be dangling out there without strong party support.

What Sound Does a Hollow Log Make?

The Central Committee of the North Carolina Republican Party reportedly met for seven solid hours on Sunday, arguing over what to do about their top leadership. The state party chair, Robin Hayes, was recently arrested for attempted bribery of the state's insurance commissioner and is now under five federal criminal indictments. Hayes has been allowed to step aside from his duties, appoint an interim leader (Aubrey Woodard, who chairs the 11th Congressional District Committee), but also retain the title of "chairman" until the state party's convention in June.

Executive Director of the NCGOP, Dallas Woodhouse, is also being allowed to resign at the conclusion of the June state convention. Woodhouse has been the pugnacious and rambunctious executive director since 2015 and has left plenty of roadkill in his wake. “I am under contract through the convention. When my contract expires I am moving on, which is always what I had in mind,” Woodhouse said.

Woodhouse admits that he testified to the grand jury in the Hayes bribery case but is not mentioned in the indictment. He has also claimed that the party did nothing wrong in laundering a large contribution from Greg Lindberg into the campaign account of the insurance commissioner.

The New Frontrunner for NCGOP Chair

Robin Hayes has been chair of the NCGOP since April 30, 2016, when the Republican executive committee ousted Hasan Harnett from the job. Hayes had been NCGOP chair before, from 2011-2013, and he had served ten years in the US House, from 1999-2009. Hayes was "Republican establishment" all the way, while Hasan Harnett was Tea Party conservative, backed by the rowdier elements and movement conservatives. Most observers thought -- up until yesterday -- that Robin Hayes would run again for the party chairmanship and that he could probably win (with the help of Executive Director Dallas Woodhouse), but Hayes has suddenly dropped out of the running, citing "issues with his mobility" (following hip-replacement surgery and a recent fall at the Cabarrus County GOP Convention).

That suddenly throws the chairmanship of the NCGOP open for a cantankerous and entertaining contest, with Lee County Republican agitator Jim Womack probably emerging as the leading anti-establishment contender. The chairmanship will be decided by the NCGOP state convention in June. Womack ran against Robin Hayes in 2017, was defeated by double digits, but has never stopped his campaign to remake the state party and put it on a "war-footing": "We will campaign on all fronts– in the media, in government circles, and especially in the trenches –where we will encounter the most ardent socialists and anarchists. We will prevail!" ("We Are at War," by James Womack, April 4, 2017)

Those armored columns of "ardent socialists and anarchists" are figments of imagination that have apparently taken on some ample flesh in Mr. Womack's head: He also alleges that "the democrats [sic] have hired agitators who roam from venue to venue seeking to disrupt conservative groups and political events." If you can talk yourself into that fantasy, you'll also believe that millions of "illegals" are always voting against The Right.

Did we say "agitator"? Womack and about a dozen other "grassroots activists" put paper sacks on their heads "in peaceful protest" at the 2016 GOP state convention "each time the convention chairman or central committee staff were perceived to be manipulating the proceedings to disadvantage grass roots candidates running for office, or when resolutions and platform changes were being suppressed" ("Wearing a Paper Bag at Convention").

Womack was elected to the Lee County Board of County Commissioners in the Tea Party wave of 2010 and served four colorful years (he called his critics "libtards," which gives you a sense of his level of discourse). He was a frequent target for criticism on the blog "The Rant: News Out of Sanford, North Carolina."

As the appointed chair of the state's Oil and Gas Commission, Womack has been a vociferous advocate for fracking, and when the Lee County Commission -- on which Womack no longer served -- passed a moratorium on fracking, Womack went jihad in defense of five Lee County landowners who claimed their rights were being infringed by the moratorium. The five, turns out, had written (or had ghostwritten for them) identical letters, all addressed to Womack, and all five, turns out, were Womack's buddies. Lisa Sorg attended that meeting of the Oil and Gas Commission:

...Jim Womack, the agency’s controversial chairman, seemed agitated, frantic even, to attend to what he deemed as Very Important Business: to hear from disgruntled people who want the commission to overturn Lee County’s fracking moratorium.

“I’m a little bit motivated,” said Womack, a long-time fracking proponent, as he pressed the commission’s attorney for more legal leeway on hearing the complaints.

There's plenty more to this guy's history.

Robin Hayes

He's gonna make a fine chair for the NCGOP!

But side benefit: If he makes it, Dallas Woodhouse will be gone as executive director!

UPDATE
This previously sealed indictment became public this afternoon, after the above was posted: Robin Hayes, along with three others, federally indicted for bribery, or more specifically, "of directing illegal political donations to North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey in an effort to bribe him." Here's more news about it.

So "mobility" did turn out to be a disqualifier for Hayes to run again for NCGOP chair, since he surrendered himself to federal authorities today.

Wow.

Look Who Else Filed Yesterday in the Republican Primary for NC-9 Special Election

Chris Anglin, "Republican constitutional conservative," filed yesterday afternoon in the NC-9 Republican primary for the seat won lost by preacherman Mark Harris (who is now under investigation for possible election law violations). You should remember Anglin's claim to celebrity. Last year he had to fight in the courts for the right to run for a seat on the NC Supreme Court. Democrat Anita Earls eventually won that seat, possibly because Anglin divided (weakened) the Republican vote.

Yesterday, the NCGOP immediately went ballistic over Anglin. "Chris Anglin ain't a Republican," fumed Executive Director and wielder of big cigars, Dallas Woodhouse. Chris Anglin was a Democrat who changed parties to run as a Republican in that Supreme Court race last year. True. He had every right to do so. The Republicans had passed new law to cancel judicial primaries, which facilitated two competing Republicans on the ballot. Too bad for them. Too clever for Anglin!

Dallas Woodhouse probably didn't like Anglin's statement yesterday about how he interprets his "constitutional" values: He said Republican President Donald Trump “constantly lies to the people, shows fealty to dictators, insults our allies, fills the swamp with corruption, explodes the deficit and relentlessly assaults the rule of law.”

Chris Anglin doesn't live in the 9th Congressional District. Federal law requires only residence within the state, not in the specific CD. These other Republican candidates also live outside the 9th:

Leigh Thomas Brown, real estate broker
Albert Lee Wiley Jr., a perennial candidate
Stevie Rivenbark Hull, Fayetteville
Kathie C. Day, Cornelius

A total of ten Republicans will battle it out in the primary on May 14. A run-off in September seems inevitable, with the general election consequently pushed into November.

Bon Appetit! NC GOP Serves Itself Two New Turd Sandwiches

While You Were Ogling DeeCee...
Something else happened yesterday while you were possibly transfixed by the pre-dawn arrest of Roger Stone followed by the complete capitulation of DJT ("wall" has shrunk to "wah"). And didn't Nancy Pelosi show every man in Washington how to wear your balls out? Why did I ever doubt her?

Meanwhile, in North Carolina...

Dallas Woodhouse

1. Load, Aim, Shoot Your Eye Out

We had not even noticed that in their newest Board of Elections law, the Republicans in the General Assembly explicitly prohibited anyone serving on the board who had worked at "electioneering" in the past 48 months. Seriously. Dictionary definition of "electioneering": "the activity of trying to persuade people to vote for a particular political party."

Beyond the restoration of the 3-2 governor's-party architecture of the old old SBOE, I had no idea what else was buried in that law. Evidently, Dallas Woodhouse didn't know either. He's NC GOP Executive Director, and in contravention of his party's law, he presented two (of four) nominees for the SBOE who violate the explicit language of the statute, Francis Deluca and Buck Newton. Governor Roy Cooper actually knows what's in the law, and he demanded two more names, eligible people rather than partisan knights.

Though Cooper gave Woodhouse until Monday to produce two new nominees, Woodhouse coughed them up immediately and under the signature of Republican Party Figurehead Chair Robin Hayes. We'll follow up presently on those two new names in a separate post.

Woodhouse is ruthless but sloppy. Like Twitterman. I like that in an adversary.

Footnote
Four Eggers remains as a nominee, along with Dallas Woodhouse's cousin Eddie, who has served on the Wake County BOE.


2. "Is it me, or has it gotten hot in here?"

NC Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Martin announced he would be leaving the bench in February to become dean of the law school at Regent University, Pat Robertson's Christian mill in Virginia. Governor Cooper gets to replace him on the court (and that someone will have to run in his/her own right in 2020).

After the November election of Justice Anita Earls, the Court was 5-2 Democratic majority. With Cooper's ability to appoint Martin's replacement, it may now go to 6-1.

Relatively speaking, that's pretty huge. The NC GOP goes from trying hard the last two years to jury-rig the judicial system in North Carolina, to this:

Dead Man Walking?

Rev. Mark Harris, who putatively won the 9th Congressional District race on November 6th, is fast becoming an untouchable in North Carolina Republican circles, except maybe with the Christian right (already inured to unethical behavior by "the Lord's anointed"). It's not that unusual in the South for congregations to rally protectively around their pastors accused of hinkiness, but political parties can be brutally realistic.

Harris has been a virtual stone wall, or at least a stone statue, since the absentee ballot fraud scandal erupted in Bladen (and now in adjoining counties too). The first Harris campaign defense appeared to be "it was Red Dome Group that hired Dowless, not us." And "we had no idea what was going on." The Reverend Harris's Twitter feed went dead after December 1. A week later, with more and more reporting on the wrongdoing in Bladen County and on McCrae Dowless and his curious history, Harris finally posted a denial video on his Twitter account on December 7th. It's not on his website, and it hasn't gotten a lot of play.

He sez, "alleged irregularities." Word choice is always such an interesting thing. "Irregularities," not crimes. "Alleged" -- also mighty important as a concept, and "alleged irregularities" leads directly to "if" ... as in, "If there's sufficient evidence of enough irregularities that they could have conceivably changed the election outcome, well then, we'll agree to a re-do." (That hedge -- "enough irregularities" -- won't stop shit, Pastor. Another special election in the 9th now seems inevitable. Even Dallas Woodhouse agrees.)

And by the way, "I was absolutely unaware of any wrong doing." That's a direct quote.

Two things:

A. According to new reporting in the WashPost, Harris was absolutely and actively aware:

North Carolina congressional candidate Mark Harris (R) directed the hiring of a campaign aide now at the center of an election-fraud investigation, according to three individuals familiar with the campaign, despite warnings that the operative may have used questionable tactics to deliver votes. 

Harris sought out the operative, Leslie McCrae Dowless, after losing a 2016 election in which Dowless had helped one of Harris’s opponents win an overwhelming share of the mail-in vote in a key county.

B. Harris's "election" has become such a scandal, the NCGOP is trying to dump his ass. The elections law overhaul that passed through the General Assembly yesterday contains a special provision: If a new election is ordered in the CD-9, then there must also be a primary -- the full shebang, brethren and sistern! And what clearer message could the NCGOP send to Mark Harris? "We're gonna defenestrate you from the priory."

There's already talk about who will run in a Republican primary for the special election that's coming. Robert Pittenger, the incumbent Mark Harris defeated in the May 2018 primary (now also tainted by the scandal), is not saying "no." Pat McCrory's name has come up, but we thought he wanted to be governor again. According to Politico, "Matthew Ridenhour, considered a rising star in the local GOP, is weighing a challenge. The ex-Marine recently served as a Mecklenburg County commissioner but lost reelection last month." Some of the Republican members of the General Assembly who lost their seats in November might have been contenders, and might be anyway.

On the Democratic side, Dan McCready is getting ready for the re-mix. I like his chances.

Rounding Out the Cast for the Movie "Absence of Ballots; Or, Bladen Runner"

Completely forgot about three other key roles in our movie version of election fraud in the NC 9th Congressional District (see the rest of the cast in the last post down-column):

NC Republican Party Executive Director Dallas Woodhouse needs an especially accomplished thespian to capture the arrogance underlaid by mounting panic. There's only one actor for it (though he's a little old) ... Al Pacino. He can suck all the oxygen out of any room, he can weld iron with his voice, and he can veer from snarling aggression to self-flagellating consternation in the same short scene. (The press conference Woodhouse gave immediately after the scandal broke was an amazing show of grating aggression aimed at both the State Board of Elections and the NC DemsParty, yet two days later he was admitting that he had to throw up he was so upset by what was becoming public about the activities of McCrae Dowless (Steve Buscemi).) Pacino can play a bully, including one who gets tapped in the forehead and falls to vomiting. First draft of the movie features Woodhouse infrequently -- a side character -- but the finished plot may take a third-act twist that will fully engage the talents of Mr. Pacino.

Red Dome Group founder Andy Yates, the man who hired McCrae Dowless and who became hard to get hold of as this scandal unfolded. He appears on his company website as a chuckling hobbit -- here's a photo of the real Mr. Yates. That infectious good humor  may be and probably is a useful mask for a calculating horse-trader. The real Andy Yates has had a paid hand in many campaigns as a Republican consultant/operative, and he appears to be successful. His biggest contract ever was with the Mark Harris (Bruce Greenwood) campaign this year (some $500,00 counting the May primary, which included money to hire the very talented McCrae Dowless (Steve Buscemi). Whattayathink? Kevin James ("Paul Blart, Mall Cop") for this part? He's a professional actor. He might well play both jolly fatboy and sly schemer simultaneously. Should we give him a chance at a serious role with a potentially deep dark side? (The Secretary of State's Office administratively dissolved the Red Dome’s incorporation as of August 2017 for failure to file required annual reports. Yates himself bought $2,000 in "sponsorship advertising" at the Annual Leadership luncheon put on by the nonprofit NC Free Enterprise Foundation (NCFEF). Red Dome Group failed to show up for the luncheon on December 5th, and NCFEF director Jonathan Kappler said he didn't expect he'd ever see the money. Red Dome's world appears to be collapsing. Carolyn Justice, who was listed on the website as Red Dome's "lead consultant," told the Charlotte Observer that she had no idea who McCrae Dowless was "because I did not work on the Harris campaign." Her name and photograph has now disappeared from the Red Dome website. The only thing Yates has said to the press about the whole election fraud scandal: "I had no idea what McCrae Dowless was doing for his money."

NC State Board of Elections Chair Joshua Malcolm. I really can't see anybody in this part but Sir Ben Kingsley. Smart, relentless, calculating in his own right, he's the character that blew up the certification of Mark Harris in the first place and launched the investigation that may yet end with a brand-new election (including primary). He can be tough. He knows the law. He knows the ever-loving history of Bladen County, and he's already acquainted with Mr. Dowless (Steve Buscemi). He's playing chess all the time. He has a low and reassuring voice, but he can cut to the quick like a striking mamba. Beware his formal politeness if you're a character in his cross-hairs. He also likes to deal. This essential character part in our movie will grow, especially in the inevitable climactic hearing by the SBOE either to certify Mark Harris or hold a new election. Think of Sir Ben Kingsley presiding at that hearing.

So ... There Are No Second Acts in American Lives?

So Dan McCready yesterday withdrew his concession to Mark Harris in the NC-9 congressional race, and with NCGOP Exec. Dir. Dallas Woodhouse collapsing like a white dwarf live last night on "All In With Chris Hayes" on MSNBC, a re-do of that election is becoming more and more likely.





Still not a peep out of Rev. Mark Harris -- no denial, no apology, no Trump-like "I hardly know the man" -- just silence that becomes more pregnant by the hour.

And this morning, this headline about the Reverend in the NYTimes: "North Carolina Republican Owes $34,310 for Disputed Absentee Ballot and Turnout Work, Records Show."

Not only hole up in his bunker but owing money too for the very thing he's in trouble for.

Is That Gun Smoking?

Nate Silver is "coming in hot" (as Jesse Presnell just said on Facebook) on the absentee ballot scandal in the NC-9. Silver posted on Twitter this morning: "We're changing our rating on this race to Lean Prison."

Pastor Harris

Nate Silver was referencing new reporting by Joe Bruno that (again) links Rev. Mark Harris directly, personally, to suspected fraudster Leslie McCrae Dowless, reporting that 2017 Charlotte City Council candidate Pete Givens said he was personally introduced to Dowless by his pastor, Mark Harris: "Mark told me about this guy's process ... that he had a process." So Givens apparently hired Dowless to help him out in last year's Charlotte City Council race, paid him $800 in "consulting" fees, but Givens lost. "The Dowless process" maybe depends on a more rural landscape to work properly.

Harris's direct involvement with Dowless was first suggested way back three days ago in the Charlotte Observer -- an article I completely missed even though Billy Ball referred to it and reprinted it at the Progressive Pulse, and I should have noticed.

I believe that when the activity of McCrae Dowless first surfaced in the news, the Harris campaign wanted to imply that they had nothing to do with his hiring, that it was campaign consultants at the Red Dome Group that hired him. Perhaps so, but Harris knew him and recommended him and gave $400,000+ to the Red Dome Group to marshall their troops for the fight. Those troops included Dowlass, and Mark Harris was bound to know.

The Reverend is staying very quiet about all of this. If he's issued any public statement, I haven't seen it, and can't find it. Though I've searched. His Twitter feed contains nothing in the way of comment, though he did tweet on November 30 that "there is absolutely no public evidence that there are enough ballots in question to affect the outcome of this race," a position he's incidentally very wrong about. He's never mentioned Dowless nor the scandal that has erupted, though he's ever more central to it.

Dallas Woodhouse.
Photo Harry Lynch News and Observer

Subpoenas have begun to fly, one of them issued by the SBOE to the Mark Harris campaign. Also one to the Red Dome Group. The SBOE so far hasn't subpoenaed the NCGOP, but they should because Dallas Woodhouse at the NCGOP also hired Red Dome with "state money" that can't be legally spent on federal campaigns, so shouldn't we know if any of that NCGOP money went to subsidize "the Dowless process"? Especially as Dallas Woodhouse has a history of bragging about laundering money through his party treasurer.

On the Republican Right: Blame Anyone But Don't Blame Trump

It's sometimes instructive to watch how a losing political party rationalizes its losses, especially when said political party cannot or will not acknowledge what is actually wrong.

On the Tea Party right of the North Carolina GOP, some are blaming NC GOP Executive Director Dallas Woodhouse and Party Chair Robin Hayes for the loss of their veto-proof majorities in both the NC House and the NC Senate. Those party leaders are accused mainly of being wusses in the pursuit of hard-right conservative goals. In other words, they're being criticized for being insufficiently Trumpian.

Interesting, since there's plenty of statistical evidence that the NC GOP lost almost every incumbent House and Senate member in Mecklenburg County (for example) because of the souring on Trump of the suburbs. No one on the Republican side admits that. Perhaps that thought is simply impossible to think (which is the definition of how hegemony works).

Fine by us.

Meanwhile, the prime mover of those suburban voters away from the GOP said on Thanksgiving that he personally was thankful "for having made a tremendous difference in this country.” “I’ve made a tremendous difference in the country," he repeated, because he's a single-shot repeating rifle, and I actually couldn't agree more. He's revived the progressive movement, reenergized the Democratic Party, inspired hundreds of first-time candidates, and caused the loss of the NC GOP's veto-proof majority in the NC General Assembly.

The longer their activists are in denial, the better.

Fear as a Campaign Tactic in North Carolina

Take a look at this fear tactic coming from the North Carolina Republican Party to a voter near you:

Dirty pool. The postcard puts on display the recipient's voting history, along with people who have other near-by addresses ... to scare the bejesus out of them that if they don't vote for the Republicans' Photo ID constitutional amendment -- and their "other 5 Constitutional Amendments," please note -- then the poor put-upon voter will be subject to having their dirty little secrets made public -- which this flyer just did, incidentally, at the hands of the NC Republican Party.

Dallas Woodhouse and the termites intend that this low-information voter won't bother to ask the obvious question: What does my voting history have to do with a Photo ID required for voting? Let alone a constitutional amendment about hunting and fishing?

Why, nothing whatsoever.

What Republicans are good at: spooking irrational fear with no grounding in reality.

Dallas Woodhouse, Uber Alles

Just seen on Twitter:

Wow. NCGOP threatens Supreme Court justices if they remove any constitutional amendments. "We'll have a constitutional crisis," Dallas says before reminding people how many votes GOP needs to impeach, remove justices

Dallas Woodhouse is Exec. Director of the NCGOP.

UPDATE:
Dallas Woodhouse posted on Facebook a few minutes ago:

Today I suggested that should the democrats on the NC Supreme Court block citizens from voting on constitutional amendments, a Constitutional crisis would be upon us. 

I suggested that there would be an equal and opposite reaction that occur with voters and their elected representatives, that could include many things: censure, further attempts to clarify the role of the courts through constitutional amendments, changes in what courts can hear what cases, and yes Impeachment. 

I have had no discussions with any legislative members about this issue. I do not believe that is being discussed at this time. 

However should the courts spark a Constitutional crisis, nobody can say definitively where it leads. 

North Carolina will have a Constitutional crisis because for the first time the court take the drastic extraordinary and extreme position that they have a right to block citizens from voting on amendments. 

I believe their will be a very visceral reaction from voters and our activists to having their right to vote on amendments blocked. 

That reaction could be re-amending the Constitution, censure, adding positions to the court and/or impeachment. I did state this morning (a Constitutional fact) 

That it takes 61 in the house to impeach and 33 to remove in the Senate 

Nobody wants that. 

The Constitution clearly says it is the legislature’s Constitutional right to propose amendments AND decide what goes on the ballot. 

The State Supreme Court would be rewriting the constitution and forever changing the amendment process. 

Every single amendment would have the ballot wording challenged in court. 

This is simply a political question left to voters to decide. The Constitution demands it. 

Also the Republican Party’s position is the voters are fully capable to engage in the educational process and cast votes on the amendments as published. 

The democrats position is voters are not smart enough to decide these questions and must be blocked from voting 

The people have a right to decide