Rachel Hunt Promises To Clean Out Mark Robinson's Office with Hydrogen Peroxide

 

Hunt vs. Weatherman: Opening Shot

 

Around 3 p.m. yesterday, Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor Rachel Hunt posted a thread on Twitter announcing an amendment to the North Carolina constitution "to protect women's health care and abortion rights." And indeed, there it is, Senate Bill 909, "An Act to Amend the Constitution of North Carolina To Protect Women's Health." The bill calls for a public referendum on the November 2024 ballot.

Bold move, lady. And the right one. It's never gonna pass, natch! But it puts the Republicans in the corner, which is the tight intersection of walls that they themselves constructed. "Let the voting public of North Carolina have their say this November," ha!

She can't get this constitutional amendment on the ballot, but she sure as hell can raise the profile of Republican anti-abortion activities, and beyond present activities (like passing more restrictive laws) to the wishlist of both Mark Robinson (R candidate for governor) and Hal Weatherman (R candidate lt. gov.):

Both Robinson and Weatherman say they want to see a “heartbeat” bill pass the legislature, which would ban abortion after cardiac activity is detected, which is around five or six weeks into pregnancy. [Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan]

Part of her statement published on Twitter yesterday:

Decisions around pregnancy, including abortion, birth control, and miscarriage care, are personal and should be left up to women and their families .... The people of North Carolina deserve a chance to vote for themselves on whether we will protect women’s healthcare or continue down the path of states like AL and TX.

I want to ensure that we are putting families – not politicians like Hal Weatherman or Mark Robinson – in charge of our personal medical decisions.By choosing Weatherman as their nominee, the MAGA Republicans decided they want abortion to be front and center in this election. Weatherman has repeatedly said he wants to completely ban abortion access. He makes a great ally and partner for Robinson, who is leading the anti-abortion charge here in NC. 

...I don’t want my daughter, or any of our daughters, to live in a state where they could be forced to travel hundreds of miles for care or where doctors and nurses could be criminalized for basic access to health care that their patients require....

The Republican facing Rachel Hunt -- Hal Weatherman -- began his career with Rep. Sue Myrick, but he proved himself an accomplished political operative as both Dan Forest's campaign manager and then Forest's chief of staff. The Dan Forest bubble broke in the elections of 2020 when Roy Cooper beat him, and according to his LinkedIn, Weatherman went to work briefly for the Madison Cawthorn campaign from January '21 to June '22, when he apparently had had enough of that particular shitshow and somehow decided to run for lieutenant governor, which will be for Weatherman -- let's be honest -- a lovely little sinecure with hardly any lifting at all, just a job about sitting on committees and being agreeable and showing up at golf tournaments, and -- of course! -- mouthing whatever conservative bullshit is agreeable to the day.

He's actually running on charm, I think. This is his photo on Twitter, a prepster dressed impeccably and smiling, in a nicely rugged setting:

He brags that he visited every county -- all 100 -- before the primary and that he'll visit them all again before November. Before the March primary he published videos of himself talking about where he's going that day and who he'll be talking to, but always solo, standing at an anonymous spot somewhere, but the picts he's put on Facebook give a clue that he's been most comfortable in living rooms with crystal light fixtures at strictly high-dollar donor events, with cocktails and polite conversation. I don't see a lot of evidence of this guy's appeal for the MAGA crowd, though an attack piece from the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association calls Weatherman's campaign "MAGAPURISM." I don't see any evidence yet that Weatherman has faced a crowd of cultists who always prefer blood. Weatherman looks like a country club Republican. Is he gonna roar with Mark Robinson about abortion? I think it unlikely. I think he'll go to ground on that issue and find something else to excite his crowd.

  

Run-Off Primaries Over, We Now See the Full Awfulness of the Republican Slate

 

State Auditor, Republican Ballot

Dave Boliek, a member of the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees which has been dismantling the outstanding reputation of our flagship university, won the second primary to run on the November ballot for State Auditor. He has grudges to tickle, with a long list of state agencies he wants to punish with threats of audits. He was particularly focused on sniffing out any "illegals" getting state money, the go-to for Republican candidates wishing to seem as cruelly trumpist as possible. He was so outspoken about revenge that his 2nd primary opponent Jack Clark, who actually finished first in this race last March, felt obliged to take a decidedly different, more judicial tack:

“I know most candidates running for auditor would promise you, ‘I’m gonna audit this, I’m gonna audit that,’” Clark told voters at an event in Cary last month. “That’s not what I see the auditor’s role as. The auditor is very much like a judge. You wouldn’t expect a judge to get up here and talk about who exactly they were going to try and what cases they were going to take up. And I don’t think the auditor should be doing that either.” [Anderson Alerts]

Of course Dave Boliek won with 53% of the vote, because North Carolina Republicans will almost always choose the extremist over the reasonable candidate.

 

Lieutenant Governor, Republican Ballot

Hal Weatherman, who was former Lt. Gov. Dan Forest's chief of staff and main political strategist, easily won the 2nd primary against Jim O'Neill, Forsyth County District Attorney who had come close to beating current Attorney General Josh Stein in 2020. Weatherman had been endorsed by current candidate for Governor Mark Robinson. Say no more.

The 2024 Republican Slate for the Council of State (with Democratic Opponents)

For Governor, Mark Robinson vs. Democrat Josh Stein, currently A.G.

For Lt. Gov., Hal Weatherman vs. Rachel Hunt, currently a state senator

For A.G., Dan Bishop vs. Jeff Jackson, currently a U.S. congressman

For State Auditor, Dave Boliek vs. Jessica Holmes, currently State Auditor appointed by Gov. Cooper

For Ag. Commish, Steve Troxler vs. Sarah Taber, an agriculture consultant

For Insurance Commish, Mike Causey (I) vs. Natasha Marcus, formerly a state senator

For Labor Commish, Luke Farley vs. Braxton Winston II, currently mayor pro tem of Charlotte

For Secretary of State, Chad Brown vs. Elaine Marshall (I), currently Sec. of State

For Super of Public Ed., Michele Morrow vs. Mo Green, formerly exec. dir. of Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation 

For Treasurer, Brad Briner vs. Wesley Harris, currently a member of NC House