2nd Primary

Cal Cunningham lost to Elaine Marshall. No surprise.

Machine Gun Tim D'Annunzio lost to Harold Johnson. No surprise.

But Bernie Reeves lost to Bill Randall in the NC-13 Republican run-off, which was something of a surprise to those of us who read Carter Wrenn. Wrenn, who was a major synapse in Jesse Helms's brain trust, had been railing against Randall as a fake, a man who plagiarized and fluffed his resume. We knew Randall as the dude who suggested that the Deepwater Horizon disaster was planned by Barack Obama and BP. Randall was the darling of religious conservatives and tea partiers.

If Carter Wrenn represents in any way the old Republican establishment in NC, then the Tea Party defeated the Republican establishment yesterday in giving Bill Randall the nod to go up against incumbent Congressman Brad Miller in November.

D'Annunzio Going Down, Flailing

Republican Congressional candidate Tim D'Annunzio in the NC-8 has sued. Not Tom Fetzer, chair of the NC GOP, who said recently that Tim was unfit for any office at any level. No, D'Annunzio sued his rival in the June 22 run-off, Harold Johnson.

For defamation.

Defaming a defamer. Now there's a trick.

Tim D'Annunzio: "Unfit for Public Office at Any Level"

They're ganging up on poor Tim "Machine Gun" D'Annunzio, who is locked in a primary run-off for the privilege of being the Republican nominee who will take on NC-8 Dem Larry Kissell in November.

D'Annunzio is mainly just a blunter version of Rand Paul, but he's so alarmed the state Republican establishment that NC GOP Chair Tom Fetzer came out on Friday and said, "By my personal observation of his behavior, and by acquaintance with his record and background, I consider Mr. D'Annunzio unfit for public office at any level. What he could do to the party as our nominee is secondary in my view to what he could do to the country if he got elected. If he got elected, for crying out loud, that would be a disaster."

We confess to a certain fondness for any major party spokesman who uses the phrase "for crying out loud" in 2010! It's more than just quaint. It's positively endearing.

But poor Tom Fetzer! To have to say such things about the man who took more votes (some 36.85% of the total) than the five other Republicans in the first primary on May 4th!

Fetzer loses either way, whether he succeeds in destroying D'Annunzio's candidacy or not, because he's earned himself and his state Republican Party several thousand potential enemies among the Tea Party and libertopian elements on the right.

The country club Republicans, of which Tom Fetzer is a shining avatar (for crying out loud), want blow-dried Harold Johnson to win the run-off, but Fetzer just knee-capped that campaign too by insuring that many of the D'Annunzio voters will stay home on November 2nd.

Winner ... Larry Kissell!

"Political Puppet," Empty Suit, and Not That Bright

Those are the characterizations of Republican Congressional candidate Harold Johnson, former sportscaster at WBTV and the man the Republican establishment hopes will save them from the hair-brained (and similarly triggered) Tim "Machine Gun" D'Annunzio, who actually led the voting in the 8th District Republican primary but failed to get 40% and must now face Johnson in the run-off election on June 22nd.

The person who used those descriptors of Johnson was D'Annunzio. He was reacting to the news that the former holder of that Congressional seat, Robin Hayes, had just endorsed Johnson, who does not scare the country club Republicans at all, something that evidently can't be said about D'Annunzio, who scares lots of people with more or less stable emotions.

If elected, Johnson will do as he's told by brighter men. D'Annunzio won't, 'cause nobody nowhere is brighter than he. Which sets up the basic conflict in this run-off between the tell-me-what-to-think mainline Republican Party and the up-yours-and-the-horse-you-rode-in-on insurgent tea partiers.

Meanwhile, the man who stands to gain the most from this herculean struggle, incumbent Democrat Larry Kissell, is understandably mum. First rule in politics: don't interfere while your enemy is destroying himself.

Where Elevators Don't Go to the Top Floor

The unfortunate second primary between Elaine Marshall and Cal Cunningham will not be the most entertaining. That dubious honor will go to the second primary run-off between Republicans Machine Gun Tim D'Annunzio and Blown-Dry Harold Johnson down in the NC-8, for the privilege of running against Larry Kissell this fall.

D'Annunzio has put a million dollars of his own money into convincing the Republican base that he's the most extreme candidate that anyone could possibly imagine. He's apocalyptic in his theocracy. The only other Republican who has come close to his toxicity is Vernon Robinson of Winston-Salem.

His run-off opponent is nice-guy Harold Johnson, a former Charlotte sports newsman for WBTV, and the old-guard Republican establishment, terrified of D'Annunzio, is lining up behind Johnson.

In other words, this is a tea-partyer's wet dream, a contest between the establishment devil and the born-again saint of anti-government millenarianism.

May the crazier man prevail!

Making Tea From Briars

Republican Congressional candidate, Machine Gun Tim D'Annunzio in the NC-8 (remember him?), appears to be deeply connected to a Tea Party effort to smear his chief rival, former Charlotte sportscaster Harold Johnson, as a convicted federal "tax cheat."

Turns out that such charges are actually fairly easy to disprove.

We're still rooting for D'Annunzio to win that primary, though there's a possibility, we suppose, that 50% + 1 of Republicans in that district have not drunk this particular pot of tea.

Republicans Have Them a Celeb To Run Against Kissell

Well known and now retired Charlotte sportscaster Harold Johnson sez he's just the empty suit to take on Larry Kissell in the NC-8.

Johnson's got the time. Johnson's got the hair. Johnson's got the smile. He's THE PERFECT Republican, all hat and no cattle.

Now, Kissell's got his own problems these days with his base, but he's also got time to make some repairs to those bridges.

And Johnson, a teleprompter-reading celebrity in the rah-rah sports arena, might be our choice for an opponent, if we were running the Kissell reelection campaign. Anyone remember famous race-car driver Richard Petty's run against Elaine Marshall in 1996? It actually takes a little more than (totally unqualified) TV notoriety to get into office.

Oops
Inadvertently lost the link to the Jim Morrill story in today's Charlotte Observer.