Natasha Marcus Lets Fly on the Republican Incumbent

 

Natasha Marcus

The State Employees Association of North Carolina (SEANC), a venerable and actually pretty powerful state workers org (46,000 state employees and retirees), endorsed the incumbent Republican Mike Causey for Secretary of Insurance. (SEANC endorsed in all 2024 Council of State races, leaning decidedly Democratic in all contests except Insurance and Agriculture. Some can't imagine life without Steve Troxler. Most can't imagine life with Mark Robinson.)

I would have thought that Causey endorsement appropriate, given his Boy Scout reputation as the public official who wore a wire for the FBI to catch the CEO of an insurance empire in a case of bribery (bagged the Chair of the NCGOP at the time too, Robin Hayes). That move branded Causey something of a class traitor to the Republican hierarchy in the General Assembly. And there were new irritations. In April of 2023, Republican Causey came out publicly against "the corrupt deal that was pushed through the legislature this session to allow Blue Cross to raid its reserves and put the money in a new for-profit entity" (description, accurate enough, out of The Daily Haymaker). Bottomline: Phil Berger and Tim Moore make it possible for Blue Cross to transfer assets into a parent holding company able to move money with little oversight. Other Bottomline: HB 346 passed both chambers and was signed into law by Gov. Cooper. Causey's lone voice warning that permissive restructuring would be a time-bomb for policy-holders meant little. He was ignored, but as far as I'm concerned, he was the stand-up-to-tyranny fellow you want to see in public office, doing the honorable and ethical thing.

But that fellow, it turns out, is not all of that fellow.

Just bare minutes after he was elected in November 2016, he was playing games with Cannon Surety, a shady insurance company that underwrites bail bonds. A month after his election, December 2016, he was allegedly cooperating in a planned high-dollar fundraiser that Nick Ochsner uncovered for WBTV. A fundraiser, Ochsner conclusively demonstrated, that would have been illegal under NC law. After that exposure, said fundraiser dissolved like an Alka-seltzer in spring water, with everyone quickly denying knowledge or participation in any such fundraiser, legal or illegal.

In January of this year, a team of News & Observers reporters exposed a much darker portrait of Causey as an adept at cronyism. Democrat Natasha Marcus, the other candidate for Secretary of Insurance, is now using cronyism as an attack against Causey. I've reported on two of the crony examples below. Here's one. I've not heard before of Mendy Greenwood.

More Primary Results -- NC Council of State

 

Governor

Democrat Josh Stein crushed challenger Mike Morgan with almost 70% of the vote. Stein did considerably less well in Watauga, where almost 30% of voters preferred Morgan.

Republican Mark Robinson easily beat Dale Folwell and super-litigator Bill Graham, taking almost 65%. 

Rachel Hunt

Lieutenant Governor

On the Democratic side, Rachel Hunt (yes, of those Hunts) took 70% statewide (a whopping 86% in Watauga).

On the Republican side, Deanna Ballard was one of over a dozen contenders. She came in last night 3rd, just missing the opportunity to be in the runoff with top vote-getter Hal Weatherman by some 8,000 votes. So Weatherman will face instead former prosecutor Jim O'Neill in the runoff.  O'Neill came close to beating Josh Stein for A.G. in 2020.

Attorney General

Jeff Jackson took almost 55% of the vote statewide against two competitors. He took 77% in Watauga.

Commissioner of Insurance

On the Democratic ballot Natasha Marcus buried David Wheeler.

Republican incumbent Mike Causey, who's been tagged with controversy and scandal, took over 60% of the vote on the Republican ballot and will face Marcus in November. He's a ripe target for a negative campaign, which I think David Wheeler would have delivered with gusto. Marcus, not so much. Gives Causey a distinct advantage in November.

Commissioner of Labor

On the Republican ballot, Luke Farley, endorsed by yesteryear's horror story Cherie Berry, won outright with almost 37% of the vote against NC House honcho Jon Hardister. Hardister has been infamous in these precincts as a twerpy sort of snake in the General Assembly, so .... schadenfreude.

Superintendent of Public Education

On the Democratic side, Maurice (Mo) Green won with almost 66% of the vote.

On the Republican side, right-wing fright Michele Morrow beat incumbent Catherine Truitt by some 36,000 votes. Morrow has been quite an outspoken and outright enemy of public schools, calling them "indoctrination centers" and urging her followers not to send their children there. She's endorsed by Moms for Liberty. Truitt has been a target of the MAGA right for not being bullying enough to root out "diversity" and "inclusion" in all its demonic manifestations.

Treasurer

Democrat Wesley Harris easily beat his rival Gabe Esparza.

Mike Causey Has a Mighty Expensive Chauffeur

 

Commish Mike Causey, left, with
Roger Blackwell
Photo Gene Galin, Chatham Journal

In the spring of 2020, after Commissioner of Insurance Mike Causey wore a wire for the FBI and exposed the bribery attempt by billionaire Greg Lindberg, which sent both Lindberg and NCGOP Chair Robin Hayes to jail, I considered Causey a civic hero for his incorruptibility. Now naive was I?

Perhaps it happens to every politician who begins to feel invulnerable, though why Causey might feel entitled by invincibility seems a stretch, since he won the office of Insurance Commissioner by a very thin margin in 2016 and held on for reelection in 2020 by only very slightly better numbers, and he himself has a primary this year. His current scandal caused me to recall that he actually ran for this office some four times before he eventually won it. So why he would choose to become a poster child for corruption now seems passing strange.

The article by Dan Kane and Kyle Ingram appeared yesterday in the News and Observer with the headline, "Insurance Commissioner pays friend & donor a high wage to drive him on state business." That friend and donor, Roger Blackwell, 77, who's donated at least $10,000 to Causey's campaigns since 1995, drives Causey to and from his home to his office in Raleigh and around the state to various municipal fire departments to hand out checks, and on very long trips, like to Santa Fe, which took three days on the road (one way!) and for which the chauffeur was also paid $44 an hour for 8-hour do-nothing days while Causey attended a two-day conference. Blackwell is making up to $84,000 per annum, about $30,000 over the average wage for most state employees.

It gets worse from there.

David Wheeler

Especially worse, as the News&Observer reporters allege a "pattern" of Causey's cronyism. Blackwell is not the first to be paid over-well for what in some cases has been "make work" (according to another of those hires).

Democratic Insurance Commissioner candidate David Wheeler, an "American muckraker" of Expose Madison Cawthorn fame, is on the attack about Causey's pattern of behavior, demanding that the state auditor, state treasurer, and state budget director, all and severally, conduct a full investigation into Causey's abuse of state vehicle privileges. 

There are two Democratic candidates for Insurance Commish. Evidently slow on the uptake, Sen. Natasha Marcus, Wheeler's primary rival, has so far had nothing to say about Causey's corruption. Why not? If Morgan Jackson is running Josh Stein's campaign for governor, and if Josh Stein recruited Marcus to run for Causey's job (even after Wheeler had declared his intention of doing that very thing), then maybe someone would have the juice to recommend she speak out.

The Wheeler-Marcus Primary for Secretary of Insurance

 

Wheeler

I first knew David Wheeler in 2018 as a candidate for Ralph Hise's Senate seat in SD 47. From the beginning, Wheeler wasn't afraid of being obnoxious. He famously invaded the premises of the Word of Faith Church in Rutherford County, asking questions with a camera rolling about allegations of cult-like control inside the church. He got ushered out. It was a political stunt that in hindsight probably didn't yield a bunch of votes but it made him visible for a time. I noticed him.

Wheeler lost to Hise in 2018 by 26 points, ran again against Hise in 2020 and lost by 37 points.

Wheeler's most famous obnoxiousness came in his year's long crusade that helped bring down Madison Cawthorn. With former Congressional candidate Moe Davis, the Democrat that Cawthorn beat in his initial race, Wheeler founded the American Muckrakers PAC specifically to go after Madison Cawthorn. And they did, releasing all sorts of damaging evidence of Cawthorn's juvenilia including a controversial video of Cawthorn cavorting naked with his cousin in bed. 

After Wheeler nailed Cawthorn's pelt to his barndoor, he turned his PAC on Lauren Boebert (timeline here) and is still in a Colorado court suing her for defamation.

Natasha Marcus

Wheeler announced months ago that he was a candidate for NC Commissioner of Insurance. A couple of days ago, Wheeler revealed on Twitter that Josh Stein had recruited ex-Senator Natasha Marcus to run for that office, and because of that, Wheeler would be removing himself from the ballot. An act of chivalry or a recognition that with establishment support Marcus would likely defeat him. 

With that news that he would drop out and clear the field for Marcus, many Democrats breathed a sigh, maybe of relief, to avoid a race that might get destructively mean. (The Republican incumbent, Mike Causey, has been my favorite Republican on the Council of State because he turned in those who offered him a bribe to favor one particularly shady insurance provider, Greg Lindberg. Causey wore a wire which sent Robin Hayes to jail.)

Just yesterday, and via Anderson Alerts, we learn that Wheeler has done a 180 and has decided that he'll stay in the race after all. In the explanation that Anderson prints, Wheeler is not shy is playing rough with Marcus. In a statement released by Wheeler, he lives up to his reputation as a pusher-and-shover:

“Marcus's self entitlement to this nomination is astounding,” Wheeler said. “One day she's running for the Senate, the next day it's DOI [Department of Insurance]. She clearly saw how I am going to beat Mike Causey and thought she'd be the ‘savior’ of the race. Not happening. I'm going to beat her and Causey to a pulp at the polls.”

Wheeler also took aim at Marcus’ background, referencing her time at Hamilton College in New York and subsequent legal work.

“I'm not a lawyer,” Wheeler said. “Does Raleigh really need another lawyer? I don't have New York roots and New York money. I'm a single dad of three kids of color and grew up in a rural town with farmers and wrestlers. I've worked for myself since I was 22 years old and didn't take a paycheck many times in order to ensure my employees were looked after when cash wasn't flowing. I'm not rich. But I do know the difference between right and wrong. Rate Hike Mike is wrong for North Carolina [and] must go in 2024. My Democratic opponent from Charlotte can't beat him.”

So that's a primary few people would want to celebrate. 

In Outing a Bribery Scheme, Mike Causey Is a Credit to His Office

Read WRAL reporter Travis Fain's wrap-up of the Greg Lindberg bribery case down in Durham. Read it and weep. Because billionaire Greg Lindberg is one of those "masters of the universe" who are single-handedly capable of shoving enough money at politicians to cast an ethical cloud over whole departments of government. For those public officials who accepted great heaps of his cash, they raise suspicions about personal integrity and suggest once again that the love/lure of money is the root of all evil.

Lindberg gave money to both the Republican and the Democratic parties. He gave money to Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer as well as to Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. He gave 6 figures to Tim Moore, for his House Republican Caucus fund. He gave $50,000 to state Senator Wesley Meredith who was introducing an insurance law rewrite in the General Assembly that would have advantaged Lindberg (the law went nowhere). Most striking of all, Lindberg gave over $2 million to support Dan Forest for governor, a "strategic" expenditure in case Forest should become governor.

Lindberg isn't the first nor will he be the last, to grow his tendrils everywhere, from Raleigh power-centers to Mugstomp-on-the-Potomac. We've always had these guys who respect no bounds to get what they want. And elected officials with their hands out.

Except for NC Commissioner of Insurance Mike Causey. (You can read about what Lindberg wanted out of the Insurance Commissioner on your own. I'm not going to summarize all that here. It's beside the point anyway.) Mike Causey, Republican, cooperated with the FBI to expose a bribery scandal involving both billionaire Lindberg and Robin Hayes, Chair of the NCGOP. Mike Causey resisted the attempted bribery and exposed it all. Mike Causey is a civic hero.

Travis Fain found evidence that the Lindberg gang thought Commissioner Causey was also "dense," a kind of Gomer Pyle lame-brain. That Causey always seemed to agree to their quid pro quos and then dragged his feet and appeared to forget his assigned duties and never delivered what Lindberg thought he'd agreed to. All the time Causey was playing Lindberg, wearing at various times both hidden microphones and videocameras and gathering the evidence that led to Lindberg's conviction last Thursday (March 5). Robin Hayes had already pled guilty for participating and is awaiting sentencing.

Some North Carolina Democrats get tarred with the same Lindberg tar. Nobody's accused them of wrongdoing, but it's not a good look. What's documented is some $750,000 that Lindberg gave to the NC Democratic Party in 2018 while it was chaired by Wayne Goodwin, the previous Insurance Commissioner. In fact, according to Fain, Goodwin was Lindberg's "first." Lindberg had spent "more than $340,000 between Goodwin's campaign [to become Insurance Commissioner] and a separate political action committee that supported his re-election."

That's what Fain documents. What's undocumented is the money Lindberg gave to "dark money" groups, of which there was apparently a generous helping given to both sides. Including an unspecified amount to a 501(c)(4) group supporting Gov. Cooper's 2016 campaign.

What set off the whole bribery scene?

Goodwin had given the Lindberg insurance companies an advantage that appears to have been out of the ordinary. Causey's department after January of 2017 began reversing that policy. Lindberg was putting pressure on Causey to go easy on him.

Under Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin, the department allowed Lindberg's insurance companies to keep investing up to 40% of their assets, cash from policyholder premiums, into other companies that Lindberg owns. When Mike Causey took over as Insurance Commissioner, his team, led in part by Jackie Obusek, a senior deputy commissioner, insisted on "unwinding" what Goodwin had given Lindberg -- lowering that 40% and thus Lindberg's control over the companies' cash.

Lindberg wanted Jackie Obusek fired. That's what he was willing to buy from Mike Causey, along with of course a more generally lenient regulatory regime overseeing his activities.

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.

He Did It For Money. Lots of Money

Congressman Mark Walker,
NC-6

Congressman Mark Walker (NC-6) received at least $233,600 from Greg Lindberg, owner of Eli Global, and dutifully made at least one phone call to praise Lindberg to the NC Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey. Apparently, this didn't break the law. But it sure as hell rings the corruption bell.

Laura Leslie lays out the sequence of events:

November 30, 2017 -- Lindberg gives $44,300 to the Walker Freedom Fund PAC 

December 1, 2017 (the next day) -- Lindberg gives $5,400 -- the max allowed -- to Walker's campaign committee. (There's no money max on "satellite" spending, like on PACs formed for single candidates) 

January 16, 2018 -- Lindberg gives $33,900 to Walker Freedom Fund PAC 

February 5, 2018 -- One of Lindberg's indicted associates texts his boss: "to say he had talked to Walker about their problem with Causey." That same day, according to the indictment, Lindberg wrote a $150,000 check to a second Walker fundraising PAC 

February 7, 2018 -- Congressman Walker puts in his bought-and-paid-for call to Insurance Commissioner Causey, praising Lindberg for "doing good things for North Carolina business" 

Good things. Not to even mention the good things Lindberg did for bank accounts of sitting congressmen.

Walker's corrupt and/or eminently corruptible.

He's a preacher, incidentally, sort of like Rev. Mark Harris was a preacher.

Government Employee of the Year

North Carolina's Commissioner of Insurance Mike Causey might just be a candidate for poster child of the year, something titled "Incorruptible Public Official."

As more information comes out about the indictment of big-bucks donor Greg Lindberg and his facilitator, Robin Hayes, Chair of the NCGOP, Causey emerges as a rock-solid honest man. Here's a relevant passage from the reporting by Paul A. Specht et al. published yesterday morning:

Causey said his involvement with Lindberg began in 2017 when the insurance department was conducting a routine financial examination of one of Lindberg’s companies.... 

“There were questions on some of the financials,” Causey said. 

Lindberg, fast on his way to becoming one of the largest campaign donors in the state, donated $10,000 to Causey’s campaign in early 2017. Causey said the donation came “out of the blue,” but he directed his campaign finance director to return the money. 

“It might not look right,” he said.

Later that year, Causey said he was told that Lindberg wanted to host a fundraiser for him. Causey declined. 

“We were still engaged in the ongoing financial examination,” Causey said. “And it just didn’t look right.” 

By then, he said, officials at the department had questions about the practices and financial health of Lindberg’s companies.

“There were loopholes being exploited,” Causey said.

Lindberg was throwing around the money, especially to Republicans (but why not? They were in charge of most everything) but also to prominent Democrats like Wayne Goodwin, who might want about now to be giving that money back.

Did Mike Causey Wear a Wire for the Feds?

Fascinating reading, this unsealed indictment of NCGOP Chair Robin Hayes and three others. Because it seems pretty obvious that NC Commissioner of Insurance Mike Causey not only cooperated with federal law enforcement but also helped make recordings of a crime in progress.

Greg Lindberg, now famous as "NC's biggest political donor" and founder of Eli Global, a multinational corp that "provides information and financial services," had a sit-down meeting in Commissioner Mike Causey's office, asking for some "regulatory favors."

Travis Fain's reporting: "Lindberg allegedly wanted Causey to fire or reassign an unnamed deputy commissioner causing problems for some of the businesses Lindberg owns, and he offered up to $2 million in political donations to get it done."

Congressman Mark Walker (NC-6)
Photo AP / J. Scott Applewhite

Lindberg specifically wanted Causey to hire his man Joe Palermo as his assistant. Palermo not only works for Eli Global; he's chair of the Chatham County Republican Party.

From the indictment, where Causey got Lindberg to speak plainly about bribery:

38. The COMMISSIONER asked to speak to LINDBERG alone, and during that portion of the meeting, the COMMISSIONER asked LINDBERG, “What’s in it for me? What can you do to help that’s not gonna be…under the radar screen?” LINDBERG responded that he would create an independent expenditure committee to support the COMMISSIONER’s re-election and fund it himself with $1 million to $2 million.

Another shoe waiting to drop?
Congressman Mark Walker is implicated as "Public Official A" for receiving $150,000 for help in putting pressure on Causey. He seems to have escaped indictment, but he'll have to give the money back, and he has some 'splaining to do.

Pay-to-Play Already Cranking Up for New Republican Office-Holders

Mike Causey

Nick Ochsner of the WBTV investigative team has revealed a planned lobbyist fundraiser for newly elected Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey, a fundraising reception hosted by a bail-bond-underwriting insurance company which is plainly an opportunity to get its snout into the trough early. North Carolina law governing political contributions prohibits corporations from contributing to or even supporting a political candidate’s campaign.

Once this news was out, newly elected Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey is denying knowledge of the fundraiser, while the organizer says that Causey was in on it from the beginning. The emailed invitation, which went mainly to insurance lobbyists, touted that NC House Speaker Tim Moore would be in attendance (if anyone wanted to kiss an extra ring), and Tim Moore about as instantly said he wouldn't be there, said he didn't know a thing about it.

In fact, Mike Causey now says he won't be there either, because -- oops! -- he just found another important meeting on his calendar.

So it goes in Raleigh.