GOP Lost Wake County in 2014. Their Outrageous Plan To Get It Back

Chad Barefoot

Trudy Wade-ism is now coming to Wake County.

To recap, Guildford County Republican Senator Trudy Wade recently introduced a "local bill" to rewrite local election rules in Greensboro so that Republicans can win elections there (because otherwise they weren't winning elections there).

Now comes Republican Chad Barefoot of Wake County. He introduced S181 to rewrite election rules in Wake County so that Republicans can take back the County Commission, which they lost overwhelmingly in last fall's election.

I don't know why Republicans in the General Assembly don't just save time and declare that Democrats are ineligible for any office anywhere. Could that possibly be any more blatant and transparent than these constant manipulations of ballot access and voter suppression?

Keven Siers, Charlotte Observer

Watauga Board of Elections About To Get Even More Partisan

Heads up, Watauga County! Below are three documents showing steps the Republican majority on the Watauga County Board of Elections have taken to install "their boy" in the Elections Director position that Jane Ann Hodges is resigning from, after two years of harassment meant to drive her away. The third document below is the published "Agenda" for next Thursday's meeting. Please note item # 4, "Director Recommendation."

Their very obvious plan is to suddenly spring on us all a big surprise, and we think that will be a political operative put into a job that has been managed in a fair and open way by Jane Ann Hodges. This is being done with no advertising of a job opening and with no official search for a competent and non-partisan elections director. They had their guy picked out two years ago and intend to install him now.

Bill Aceto and Luke Eggers never stop with the shady moves. Only now, they intend to cast the results in every election going forward under a huge cloud. Who will possibly trust that elections in Watauga County are true and just?

Headline of the Week

Appears today in the Greensboro News&Record:

McCrory: State should stay out of local government

He offered that opinion when asked about Sen. Trudy Wade's "local bill" to completely overhaul the Greensboro City Council so that Republicans can win elections there.

“Let me put it this way," McCrory said. "As governor I constantly have to fight Washington not to interfere. I think the same philosophy applies to Raleigh interfering with local governments.”

Ya think?

There are two many examples to list here, including the Soucek/Jordan "local bill" to take away Boone's extraterritorial control over development. But as with Soucek/Jordan, the Trudy Wade dismantlement of Greensboro City Council is beyond the governor's control anyway, so it's perfectly safe for him to have an opinion that will be totally ignored by his fellow Republicans in the General Assembly. The governor can't approve or veto a "local bill."

Why doesn't the governor get himself a contrary opinion about something he does have some (minimal) control over?

Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous and the Lapsed Ethics of Our Governor

Since taking office, Gov. Pat McCrory has failed to disclose six-figure payouts from a company (Tree.com)  that is regulated by the state, and he similarly failed to disclose thousands of dollars worth of stock holdings from a company (Duke Energy) under federal indictment for polluting our state’s rivers. An ethics complaint against him appears to be advancing as of yesterday morning, according to the N&O.

Today another "failure to disclose" has emerged. The governor took a number of luxury trips to hang out with fellow pooh-bahs in the Republican Governors Association, paid for by the Republican Governors Association. According to state ethics laws, unless the governor paid for those trips himself, he must list those trips as "gifts" under question 17 of the Statement of Economic Interest form. He did not list those trips anywhere. The governor now admits -- once the whistle was blown -- that he should have listed those trips as gifts. Oops. "How clumsy of me!" said the governor who claims that he loves stepping on toes.

Trips? Read on:

In November 2013, the RGA paid for Gov. McCrory’s stay at an Arizona resort featured on “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,” with rooms starting at $400 per night. The five-star resort features marble imported from Italy, ceilings etched in 24-karat gold, 11 rare Steinway pianos, and a “lush tropical landscape” manicured by workers from the island kingdom of Tonga. The Raleigh News & Observer reported that the RGA also paid for McCrory’s stays at luxury hotels in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Charleston, South Carolina, in May and September of 2013. Gov. McCrory also attended an RGA junket in 2014, held at a 356-acre resort in Boca Raton, Florida, with “a spa built to resemble the Alhambra Palace in Spain” and rooms which start at over $300 per night. 

But McCrory never reported these free trips as gifts.

It's so hard keeping up with the pelf.

Has It Sunk in Yet That Your NC Income Taxes Went Up Under This Republican Regime?

His Holiness

Plenty of people are talking about how their NC income taxes have gone up under the management of those rosy-cheeked fake "tax-cutters" down in Raleigh, and now the talk is beginning to get into local newspapers. ProgressNC has begun to compile some of those explosions of anger.

Over at the WataugaConservative, Dickson commented:

"If you're in the middle-class in NC, the GOP have done nothing for you. Well... nothing good anyway, nothing to truly better your life. You've likely noticed that your State taxes went up this year... yours went up, not because of GOP changes to the tax rate, but because they hacked off many, many deductions... including the earned income tax credit."

Did they notice? Have they done their state taxes yet? Not that the masturbatory crowd at Watauga Conservative would ever admit it if they did notice.

Gas Tax Increase Bill Just Passed the NC House Finance Committee

The Committee considering S20 in the House would not record the ayes and nays this morning -- indicating that the Republicans did not want to be on the record on this vote. The voice vote was in the affirmative, according to the Chair of the committee, but people in the room said it sounded very close.

What's S20?

First, it's smoke and mirrors regarding the gas tax ... a small cut that will last a few months, followed by increases that will raise $1 billion in new taxes during the next few years. This has been dubbed a "Trojan Horse" bill.

But what else is in the bill?

Two really bad things ...

(1) A section in S20 would also eliminate the income tax deduction for tuition expenses, which amounts to a tax hike on college students.

(2) The worst provision by far: The bill would count underwater mortgages that are forgiven by lenders as taxable income. Homeowners who had their mortgages "written down" will never see a dime of that “income,” but lawmakers still want them to pay taxes on it.


This comes, naturally, out of overall fiscal mismanagement. Republicans in the General Assembly are now desperate for revenue, having given big tax breaks to the wealthiest citizens and corporations, so they are picking on groups they calculate won't or can't fight back ... college students (and their parents) and underwater mortgage-holders.

NOTE: Another really bad provision in S20, which would have meant the firing of some 500 DOT workers, got removed this morning in the House Finance Committee. But this bill is also headed to the Appropriations Committee in the House this afternoon and finally to the full House later this week, and whatever emerges will have to be reconciled with the Senate's much more savage version.

Pressure on UNC Chancellor To Defy BOG

An editorial in The Daily Tarheel today, titled appropriately "Power concedes nothing without a demand," calls on UNC-CH Chancellor Carol Folt to defy the power-mad Republican Board of Governors and simply refuse to dissolve the Center on Poverty, Work & Opportunity:

...Chancellor, if you take the lead in defending academic liberty and those who dare critique the state’s conservative power structure, your students and colleagues will follow you. Conflicts this fundamental to the University’s mission are not meant to be managed — they are meant to be won.

She won't stand up to the Board of Governors, of course, at least not in the manner that would satisfy a stirred-up student body, but she should at least appreciate the fighting spirit around her, even if she can't find it in her heart.

An Announced Candidate for NC House

Lew Hendricks has a website up saying he's a candidate for NC House.

No indication of party affiliation on this website, and no discussion of any issues.

There is a Lewis Hendricks registered in Watauga County. He's registered Republican.