Moffitt Out of the Running; Balkcom, In?

 

Jennifer Balkcom

 

Tim Moffitt has announced that he's no longer a candidate to replace Chuck Edwards on the November ballot for the 11th District congressional seat. Andrew Dunn sez on his Longleaf Politics substack that now, with Moffitt out of it, Rep. Jennifer Balkcom (HD 117) is probably the frontrunner. The 61-member Republican executive committee for the 11th CD will meet tonight and vote on Edwards's replacement.

Balkcom is a culture warrior, particularly hot on the topic of transgender and abortion and restrictions on ballot access. She has strong roots in Henderson County. She's been a banker for much of her adult life and currently earns her living as a mortgage loan officer.

With Moffitt out of contention, probably the strongest politician to replace him would be Ralph Hise, one of the most powerful Republicans in the state senate who happens to represent Watauga and several other Western counties in the most recent gerrymandering of the maps. Hise pretty much drew those maps. And wouldn't it be wonderful to lose him as Watauga's senator! He'd do us far less damage in Mugstomp-on-the-Potomac, but he'd be a fool to give up his seniority in the NC Senate to become a back-bencher in the US House.

Maybe Balkcom will do it. She has the look of a true believer and may think the appointment is a compliment. 

Will Tim Moffitt Throw Himself on the Live Grenade that Chuck Edwards Left in the 11th CD?

 

With Chuck Edwards out of the race for his own US House seat, there's a scramble going on among 11th District Republicans to pick a name to put on the November ballot. Tom Fiedler wrote a really thorough article about it in the Asheville Watchdog. Fiedler, who is a Pulitzer Prize-winning political reporter in a past life, does a weekly "Democracy Watch" column which I try never to miss.

Tim Moffitt

 

There's some knowledgeable money riding on the bet that it'll be current state Senator Tim Moffitt (SD 48 -- Henderson, Polk, and Rutherford). He's expressed an interest. He was first elected in the frothy political year of 2010 -- the Tea Party insurgency -- to the state House from an Asheville district (HD 116) before suffering defeat in 2014 to Brian Turner after trying to take Asheville's water system and give it to a regional authority. He spent the next four years moving to a Henderson County address and building a business as a "management consultant" (ahem), but jumped back into politics in 2020 to run for retiring Chuck McGrady's seat in HD 117. Moffitt stayed there until 2022 when he ran for and won overlapping SD 48, which is a very safe seat for him. Would he give it up just that quickly?

I cannot for the life of me see why anyone -- especially as slick an operator as Tim Moffitt is -- would actively seek to replace a self-destructing Chuck Edwards on the ballot when every poll is pointing at a loss to a very strong Democratic candidate. Three months for a substitute lamb to mount a campaign, pretty much from the ground up, "hire staff, hire a campaign manager, make ads and print signs, and traverse a district of more than 6,000 square miles.” Whatever a member of the NC General Assembly is used to in a general election campaign, add several hundred percent more headache and frustration. Think of the money! and the need to raise it immediately. Is the National GOP likely to go all in with financial support? No. Maybe a token amount for the bravery of someone willing to enter the race now. Jamie Ager has a shit-ton of money and a great big ole head start. Michele Woodhouse, the former chair of the NC 11 committee, told Fiedler that Party leaders were "trying to clear the field" for Moffitt, which I take to mean that he actually wants it.

I would kind of pity Tim Moffitt if he went for it. He'd have to give up his safe Senate seat (and there'll be a scramble for that suddenly open slot). My understanding from Tom Fiedler is that anyone wanting to be considered for the appointment as Chuck Edwards's replacement will have to show up in front of the 61-member Republican Executive Comm for the 11th CD and make a presentation about why they're right for the job. Moffitt, who's a slick businessman, can easily pull that off. His greatest rival may be Adam Smith, a former Green Beret and a local hero all around Swannanoa and throughout Buncombe County for his tireless work and organizing skills following Hurricane Helene (profiled lavishly on WatWatch). Smith actually ran against Chuck Edwards in the March primary, which gives him kind of a claim to the harness.

I've jeered at Tim Moffitt plenty over at least 15 years on this blog. He courts controversy. His introduction of a bill to seize Asheville's water system and give it to a regional authority was only a sample. He signed up to be an ALEC member and proselytizer (the American Legislative Exchange Council is a front for billionaires). One of the first things he wanted to do after becoming a state senator was ban "participation trophies" from school sports -- burning issue, that. Dirty tricks department: He famously bought up domain names for all 170 NC House and Senate districts and doled them out to office-holders and office-seekers "at a pretty penny." Someone dubbed him "Jerkwater von Jerkington" after that. And he's been a dutiful election denier. He knows better, but he also fears the MAGA base (like they all do).

Michele Woodhouse, who blabbed a lot to Fiedler about internal Republican Party politics in the 11th District, pointed out another reason for any office-holder to think twice: Woodhouse admitted that Michael Whatley is an "albatross" at the top of the ballot. Yikes. 

NC Senator: "Your Untalented Children Get Squat!"

 

Tim Moffitt

NC Senator Tim Moffitt has the solution for keeping our school children safe: Ban participation trophies. Not making this up. Yesterday, Moffitt filed S430, "Eliminate Participation Trophies," which would actually prohibit local governments from petting their un-athletic kids ... because the NCGOP is all about small government.

Not an April Fool's joke.

Samantha Campbell tweeted:

@TimMoffitt The world is a literal dumpster fire, gun shot wounds are the NUMBER 1 KILLER of children and teens, and YOU are worried about PARTICIPATION TROPHIES?? You have no clue. Are you tone deaf on purpose or simply THAT moronic?

Tim Moffitt represents Henderson, Polk, and Rutherford counties in the Senate. Moffitt had been a member of the NC House representing a Buncombe County district. He was defeated by Brian Turner in 2014 and subsequently moved his center of operations to Henderson, and after Chuck McGrady retired, Moffitt got appointed to fill out his unexpired term. In 2022 he jumped to the Senate seat he now occupies.

Moffitt's remembered on this blog for attempting in 2012 to seize Asheville's water supply and give it to a regional authority which would be more favorable to developers. It was probably that issue which contributed heavily to his defeat for reelection in 2014.

The Elections of March: Army Infantryman v. Smarmy Self-Promoter in NCHouse 117

NC House District 117 -- Henderson County

This was Republican Chuck McGrady's safe district since the elections of 2010. McGrady was often described as a "moderate," though I rarely saw any practical application of his supposed moderation on a House Republican Caucus. He usually voted with his tribe.

MoffittS
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When McGrady announced that he would not be running for another term, former House member (District 116) Tim Moffitt fairly leapt at the chance to get back into politics. Moffitt represented District 116 starting in 2010 and was an ambitious little tick who was always into something underhanded. He thought he might be Thom Tillis's natural born replacement as Speaker of the House after Tillis left for Washington. He also thought he could steal Asheville's water supply to privatize it. That scheme didn't go so well, and Moffitt lost his seat in 2014 to Democrat Brian Turner by a thousand votes.

Moffitt has his own primary contest against Dennis Justice, a perennial candidate in Henderson County who's run for Henderson County Commissioner twice, Board of Education three times, Mayor of Fletcher once, and once for the NC Senate in a primary against Tom Apodaca. Moffitt will probably win on March 3 and will then face Democrat Josh Remillard in November in what is considered a "Likely Republican" district.

Democrat Josh Remillard

Remillard also technically has a primary on March 3. I say "technically" because his primary opponent, Danae Aicher, withdrew her candidacy on January 15 -- though not in time to get her name off the ballot. (Aicher had a campaign up and running and looks to have been a very appealing candidate herself.) So though the outcome of the primary is more or less guaranteed in his favor, Remillard still has to go through the motions.

He's going through the motions just like the veteran infantryman he was during two tours in Iraq. He's participated in the LeadNC candidate training and he appears to be all over the place in joint appearances with other local and district-wide candidates from Buncombe and Henderson. Remillard's mountain man persona is going to present a decided contrast to Tim Moffitt's junior-exec-on-the-make vibe.

Does Buncombe Have More Drama Than Watauga?

You be the judge.

This could supply a full season's scenario for "The House of Cards."

You've got a dewy-eyed and reportedly naive Democratic challenger and a shiv-wielding Republican incumbent by the name of Tim Moffitt, who's angling to replace Thom Tillis as Speaker of the NC House.

You've got the back room of an Italian eatery.

You've got a third-party witness who's also a Republican office-holder and hardly to be credited as an unbiased commentator.

Every bad thing that happened legislatively to Asheville in 2013 can be traced straight back to Tim Moffitt.

Smart-ALECs in the NC General Assembly

Last week, the NC House voted to slash eligibility for NC Pre-K, the state's premier public pre-kindergarten program. Among the many impious and backward things this Radical Republican-dominated General Assembly has done, this is one of the most impious and most backward. The Honorables want to restrict the program to the poorest children in our state, leaving thousands of low-income working families, who are currently eligible for NC Pre-K, unable to afford pre-kindergarten for their children.

While this idiotic legislation was advancing in the NC House, three House members were missing: House Speaker Thom Tillis, Rep. Tim Moffitt, R-Buncombe, and Rep. Jason Saine, R-Lincoln, all left early last Thursday to attend the ALEC Spring conference in Oklahoma City instead. (ALEC stands for "American Legislative Exchange Council" but is really an anagram for "Koch Brothers.")

ALEC is a front group for corporate and far right interests. It links lobbyists -- who write "model" state laws -- with state lawmakers willing to front those laws and file them in state legislatures as their own. It's a way for corporate and far right interests to get around their inability to pass their legislation nationally, and it helps them profit or dictate the social agenda in as many states as possible.

ALEC-inspired legislation has been rolling out of the Republican majority in Raleigh already since early 2011. ALEC wants the tax code rewritten to take the tax burden off the rich and put it on the middle class. Pat McCrory's Budget Director Art Pope has that project well in hand.

What else is ALEC advancing in North Carolina? The roll-back of environmental regs. The privatization of education (slashing Pre-K is only part of it).  And -- O yes, my Brethren -- voter photo ID laws to discourage those pesky poor people from interfering in the god-given right of rich people to run the show THEIR way.

Thom Tillis, Tim Moffitt, and Jason Saine all went to Oklahoma City to get their pistils pollinated by the rich guys.

Jerkwater Von Jerkington

Rep. Tim Moffitt, the Buncombe County Republican behind the seizure of Asheville's water system and the legislator who wants to criminalize women's nipples, has upped his jerk-quotient: He's bought up domain names for all 170 NC House and Senate districts and is doling these out to office-holders and office-seekers at a pretty penny. So far all his clients are fellow Republicans.

Moffitt also bought the domain for “Stopitmoffitt.com.” "A group critical of Moffitt’s efforts to force the city of Asheville to cede its water assets to the Metropolitan Sewerage District started that group."

“I just bought it to keep them from capitalizing on it,” Moffitt said.

His motivation for much of his political career: Stop someone else from doing something.

Don't Let Them Grab Your Water

The push to "privatize" all government services, from education to mental health, is currently the wet-dream of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), for which most of our Republican lawmakers in Raleigh are complete toadies and willing tools. Republican House Speaker Thom Tillis accepted an award from ALEC, and many others attend their conferences and copy their "model" bills on everything from voter photo ID to removing environmental restrictions on polluting businesses and opening the landscape to "fracking."

Here's news for you: ALEC wants our water, and they're starting with Asheville.

Take a natural resource owned by all the citizens, put it in private hands, and let those private interests control and sell that natural resource back to the citizens. At a profit, not in the spirit of public service. That's the ALEC plan in a nutshell. Opposed to that is municipal ownership where, indeed, water is sold, but it's sold at a minimal rate to pay for the system of delivery, not for profit.

I'm not about to wade into the whole history of Asheville's water supply and its unique legal relationship to the County of Buncombe, because it practically takes an advanced degree in Byzantine historiography to understand it all, but what is quite clear -- crystalline, in fact -- is current Republican lawmaker Tim Moffitt's maneuvering to privatize Asheville's water.

Tim Moffitt (R)

Last May, Rep. Moffitt introduced a bill in the General Assembly to simply seize Asheville's water system and turn it over to another authority more to Moffitt's liking. After months of controversy, Moffitt changed his bill to form a "study committee" in the legislature, which is currently studying the holy hell out of how best to seize Asheville's water and turn it over to a for-profit system, after which study one presumes Mr. Moffitt will introduce some form of his original proposal. "You got lottsa water. Give it, give it now!"

The corporate grab of America's water is already happening. This ain't no false alarm. Water is essential to life. When a private, for-profit corporation gets control of an essential element to life, you'd best watch your back. And what's next...? The corporate ownership of air?

Save Asheville's Water is currently massing resources for understanding what's happening and what's at stake, along with a good deal of that ancient, Byzantine history.

Buncombe County Also Gets Screwed by General Assembly

Mecklenburg and Guildford are not the only counties that the new Republican majority in the NC General Assembly decided to micromanage to their benefit.

Buncombe County Republican representative Tim Moffitt has managed to impose his will on the voters by manipulating a "local bill" through the General Assembly that he thinks will give him a Republican majority on the Buncombe County Commission ... just like in the Mecklenburg and the Guildford County cases.

Gordon Smith at Scrutiny Hooligans has the whole sordid story.

Profiles in Egomania

Reading about one of Buncombe County's reps in the NC House, Mr. Tim Moffitt, might make you feel marginally lucky that we have the local bobble-heads that we have representing us in the General Assembly.

"Moffitt ruling like a king" the headline says. "Drunk on power" might also have served.

One of the things Moffitt seems on the verge of achieving is breaking Buncombe County into voting districts in which Asheville's clout is disabled. All voters in Buncombe, no matter where they live, have been accustomed to voting for all County Commission candidates on the ballot. No more, under Moffitt's scheme. Voters in each district will vote only for representation from that district.

Buncombe's system has been exactly like Watauga's (and a lot of other counties). How long before some Republican operative decides that the citizens of Boone have too much influence and decide to ram through a "districting" local law for Watauga?

So perhaps we're lucky that Jonathan Jordan and Dan Soucek know how to sit in their offices in Raleigh until someone comes and tells them how they'll be voting on any given day. Instead of thinking of ways to screw people on their own.