Tim Moore, Surprised

 

News and Observer reporter Brian Murphy got Tim Moore to admit he was taken completely by surprise by Madison Cawthorn's hopping into his drawn-by-design 13th Congressional district: “It did surprise me that someone would move from another area, move into another district that they didn’t live in to try and represent it, but I’ll let the voters of that district decide that."

Not "I'm willing to run and let the voters of that district decide." No. It's "I'll let the voters decide" while I tuck tail and let the little prick tromp all over my plans.

Brian Murphy got this interesting admission out of Sen. Ralph Hise, the main Republican map-drawer, who said the districts may have been slightly different had state lawmakers known Cawthorn was going to run in a different district. The map carves out a small portion of Watauga County where Rep. Virginia Foxx lives so as to avoid putting the two Republicans in the same district. 

“It [Cawthorn's jump] was completely unexpected. I don’t necessarily know, other than maybe three or four days beforehand, anybody who had any inclination that that was a consideration,” Hise said. 

A couple of days ago, Dallas Woodhouse, the mouth of the Republican establishment in North Carolina, put a beating on Cawthorn in the pages of Art Pope's Carolina Journal. How dare that whippersnapper, growled Woodhouse, call Tim Moore "another establishment, go-along-to-get-along Republican," when it's a proven fact that Moore has done more damage to progressivism the poor citizens of the state than several back-to-back Cat 5 hurricanes.

Madison Cawthorn Picks His Own Successor in NC14

 

Twitter buzzing this morning that Michele Woodhouse will step down as chair of the 11th (now the 14th) District GOP to run for the Madison Cawthorn seat.

Judge Bob Orr may have been the first with the news.

Chris Cooper points out that Cawthorn donated $1,000 to the Michele Woodhouse committee back in August. Hmmm.

Woodhouse is from Detroit and was somewhat famous for a Facebook presence, "Vagina Road Warrior."

Vagina Road Warrior has disappeared from Facebook. Is Woodhouse scrubbing her social media? Probably a good idea.

Woodhouse already has a campaign website. She's a gin-you-wine Trumper, you bet.

Yep

 

Republicans in the Primary With Madison Cawthorn

 

My curiosity remains boundless, so how could I resist taking a look at the Republicans -- Republicans -- who have announced they'll be running in the new NC Congressional District 13, where Madison Cawthorn has also pitched his tent carpetbag. Would any of these have a chance of beating Cawthorn in the primary?

Karen Bentley, Huntersville

A former Mecklenburg County commissioner for four terms, who after a career as a health-care executive started her own consulting firm, the Bentley Consulting Group. "My career background is in healthcare sales and operations," she writes on Linked In. Her profile on Executive Women of Lake Norman lists an "impressive track record of sales success with a Fortune 100 [sic] pharmaceutical company, building and leading teams in the complex direct patient care healthcare space, and her exemplary record of serving her community through elected office." 

She has no website (yet). But her Twitter feed fascinates me. Though she gives off a queen bee, country club Republican vibe, she shouts "FREEDOM" and "LIBERTY" like another Majorie Taylor Greene. (I now completely understand those words to mean "no masks, no vaccines" to any Republican candidate.) Without naming him, Bentley applied the term "political opportunist" to Cawthorn. She's apparently polling in the district to test her name recognition with the voters.

Here's a thing: She announced on Twitter on November 11th, just hours before Cawthorn surprised everyone with his jump to the 13th and while Tim Moore was still presumably the heir designate for the seat. So it says something about her willingness to take on power that she was actually in effect challenging the most powerful Republican in the NC House to a duel. But was it because she thinks he's too moderate?

I'm a little puzzled about this candidate's core political identity. There's no mention of Trump or stolen elections but there's also no human warmth anywhere in evidence. She filed her statement of candidacy with the FEC on Nov. 5th.

Tyler Lee, Charlotte

He's a very successful house-flipper "Charlotte real estate investor" and a graduate of Liberty University (degree in business marketing). He's on the far Christian right ("FAITH" and "FREEDOM"), and though he looks almost as young as Cawthorn, he's a bit older, with more real-world experience. Plus he's at least educated, as far as it went. His issues are an Easter basket full of the standard right wing zygotes: It's all "good versus evil" with one big new evil stalking our fragile white children -- Critical Race Theory. "Big Tech" is censoring us. "I'm gwine to Back the Blue!" Mask mandates bad, vaccine mandates bad, and I'll never again allow government to shut down our churches for a plague. Et cetera.

At his well-staged announcement rally, and without ever mentioning DJT by name, Lee deliberately invoked the presence of his other god Trump by declaring "the carnage stops here" (echoing the famous line from Trump's Inaugural) and proclaiming himself a soldier of "stop the steal." In the future we must enforce election integrity with a mandatory voter photo ID (because so many thousands impersonate other people at the polls every year? Is that what you're alleging?). In that same announcement video, he's downright creepy about women's bodies and how he's personally going to put a stop to abortions. "God has been preparing me!" Not only that, but God is according to him a full-on political partisan: We have a secret weapon the other side doesn't have, he declares: God's on our side!

More on the candidate at votetylerlee.com.

That "announcement rally" actually occurred last May, when so much subsequent drama had not yet happened. The 13th CD was at that time occupied by Ted Budd, who had announced that he'd be giving up the seat to run for the US Senate. The location of the new 13th wasn't known then, along with so much else. So Tyler Lee was planning to make a splash as "the future of the Republican Party" -- same label they pinned on Cawthorn -- but maybe have an open field to run in. Now Tyler Lee is going to look like a kind of copy-cat Madison Cawthorn -- same age, same political philosophy, same instinct to bully and take no prisoners. Good luck with that!

Richard Speer, Charlotte

A security specialist who's worked evaluating physical site security in the nuclear industry and for Duke Energy for six years and currently has his own consulting business, Shield Group Initiatives. In 2012, Speer challenged unsuccessfully fellow Republican Renee Ellmers in the 2nd CD Republican primary. He got 29% of the vote to her 55%.

I can't find a website nor a Twitter account. He hasn't filed an intent to run yet with the FEC but the NewsAndObserver listed him as a candidate.

Several more Republicans have expressed an interest in running -- including another Cawthorn-lite, Bo Hines, who's been district-shopping for months. He 1st announced his intention of challenging Virginia Foxx in the 5th way back last January, then decided by May that with Ted Budd stepping down in the 13th to run for the Senate, maybe it would be a better Republican move to run for an open seat. Now his website says he's running in the 7th. Ballotpedia still lists him as once or future candidate in the 13th, along with a bunch of other Republican names. We'll see presently what shakes out.

The Democrat Who Threatens Madison Cawthorn

 

A warning from the managers: JWW gets excited about stuff like this. It's a fatal flaw. We know it, and JWW knows it. Because disappointment is inevitable. We put up with his many excitements, especially approaching a General Election, because we sympathize. People eat up with politics need excitement. The excitement of possibilities generates the raw energy necessary for long marches. Plus JWW is into watching candidate videos.

Just take two minutes to know the Democrat who's announced he's running for Congress in the 13th CD, the same district that Congressman Madison Cawthorn carpetbagged himself into last week, to wreck Tim Moore's lemonade stand:

Josh Remillard. That's the Democrat willing to take it to Madison Cawthorn in his new little supposedly safe fiefdom. Remillard -- if he can raise some money -- could inspire excitement in the new 13th, which is supposed to be one of the most Republican districts among all the new districts, a "safe Republican seat." Josh Remillard could at least complicate that smug expectation. A real soldier, with character, integrity, loyalty, kindness -- vs. a toy-boy (who likes to cartoonishly flaunt his supposedly "monster" masculinity). This could be the Iron John political cage-match of 2022.

And good move on Remillard's part. He had already -- since last March -- been running in a crowded Democratic field for the new 14th CD. But what was getting lost about him in that scrum of other Democratic candidates suddenly shines like a beacon in the 13th. (Remillard also ran for Chuck McGrady's old NC House seat in 2020. The Republican Tim Moffitt beat him with 60% of the vote. In other words, Remillard is battle hardened but still charging. WatWatch was enthusiastic about Remillard in January 2020.)

Pacifistic (genteel) Democrats who condemn the Republicans for their violent battle memes and who don't want the Democrats to take a similar gun to a gunfight, may not like that Remillard is actually in a very real sense acting the Army Ranger, an aggressive soldier-guardian doggedly stalking a threat to democracy. That target is already spooked. He just ran away from a different fight in his own district, afraid he might lose his reelection. Never mind. Remillard tracks him. Our Army combat veteran has a quarry, and he ain't giving up the hunt. Meanwhile, the over-exposed 26-year-old "traitor, fraud, and coward" can mull his own human possibilities.

Remillard's website is here, where you can donate to his campaign.

Twitter.

Facebook.

The New 87th NC House District

 

Who's the Biggest Wuss in the Universe?

 

Madison Cawthorn had announced just hours earlier that he was going to talk over with his wife this weekend the plan to steal a custom-drawn congressional district from the man it was drawn for, and he'd have an announcement on Monday. But Cawthorn didn't wait. He announced last night that he was abandoning his 14th CD to run in the 13th CD, the territory carved out to satisfy the ambitions of NC House Speaker Tim Moore.

Cawthorn did not mention Moore by name, but he said he was worried about an “establishment” Republican prevailing in the 13th district if he did not run. “Knowing the political realities of the 13th district, I am afraid that another establishment, go-along to get-along Republican would prevail there. I will not let that happen.”

Brave guy! Throwing himself on that live grenade to save North Carolina from the Republican establishment.

Or make that "Republican lawn chair," because seconds later following Cawthorn's announcement, Tim Moore folded. And slunk away. Said running the NC House was plenty good enough for him.

 

But Who's the 2nd Biggest Wuss?

That would be Madison Cawthorn, whose old CD had become increasingly uncomfortable for him, especially with the addition of Watauga County to his district. He was facing a fierce Republican primary and an even fiercer general election next year. So he bailed and scared the liver out of an even more cowardly politician.

Former Republican House member Charles Jeter saw the obviousness of Cawthorn's opportunism and tweeted, "@RepCawthorn isn’t choosing to run in the 13 because he’s worried about the 'GOP establishment'. He’s running in 13 because it’s easier for him to win the general. This isn’t a noble effort. This is ambitious cowardice at its worst. He’s an embarrassment that we need to defeat."

Let's hear it for establishment Republicans who can still recognize a poltroon.

Republican Dominoes, in Real Time

 

Former Republican state party chair and news reporter for the Carolina Journal, Dallas Woodhouse -- whose sources inside NC conservative circles must be legion -- broke the news that Congressman Madison Cawthorn was thinking of running in the adjacent 13th District rather than in his own 14th. Cawthorn said it would make North Carolina more conservative. He also said that Donald Trump fully supports the idea. He's talking it over with his wife this weekend and will get back to us on Monday. (My own confidence in this rumor is pretty much nil, but it's a welcome diversion on a Thursday.)

If that actually happened, O! O! O! the dominoes would begin falling. The 13th CD -- by all accounts -- was carved out explicitly to enable NC House Speaker Tim Moore to move his mahogany butt from Raleigh to DeeCee and to have a safe seat thereafter for as long as the grass is green or as long as it takes the rainmaker Moore to become sufficiently richer. He's not happy about Cawthorn's prospecting on his stake. And I bet he's on the phone right now.

Side note: Didn't know this. North Carolina needs to be more conservative, and Donald Trump agrees that Tim Moore needs to be eliminated. Interesting. I wouldn't think Trump would have a clue who Tim Moore is.

'Nother side note: If you're into state politics, what would be greater entertainment than Tim Moore's having Madison Cawthorn as a primary opponent? Two grifters -- of greatly differing ages and understanding -- enter. One grifter leaves.

Here's the new map: 

The other dominoes: If Cawthorn left the 14th open, three more Republican wannabes (Ralph Hise, Deanna Ballard, and Chuck Edwards) would also reportedly be making a decision about getting into the Republican primary (which already has three announced candidates -- see below). I first saw those new names on Dallas Woodhouse's Twitter. 

Edwards, like Ballard and Hise, is currently an NC state senator. His senate district 48 includes the heart of the new 14th -- Buncombe and Henderson counties. Edwards was appointed late in 2016 to replace the retiring Tom Apodaca, then won on his own in November 2016, ran for reelection in 2018 and got 56% of the vote, won again last year with almost 59%. He seems like a contender. Maybe stronger than Ralph Hise. Indubitably stronger than Deanna Ballard.

We have to leave for a later episode why Hise, head of the NC Senate redistricting committee, drew himself and Deanna Ballard into the same NC Senate district. Double-bunking of incumbents is usually received as a slap in the face ("someone wants to get rid of me"), is never welcome. Perhaps Hise and/or Ballard already had plans for a change in career, so maybe it's no biggie.

 

The 3 Republicans Already in the Race

Wendy Nevarez, ex-military and a moderate.

Bruce O'Connell, who came out with a boilerplate conservative "Contract" with the voters, making him look old and uninspiring. He runs the Pisgah Inn on the Blue Ridge Parkway

Rod Honeycutt, also as dull as yesterday morning's dishwater, but he has been the most direct in attacking Cawthorn: "I will not watch from the sidelines as inexperienced, self-promoting characters seek to further careers while the hard-working men and women of WNC suffer the consequences" (quoted on WataugaWatch).

Even Senators Burr and Tillis Joined Democrats in Helping North Carolina

 

Taken from Jane Porter's IndyWeek newsletter this morning:

Late Friday night, Congress passed a massive infrastructure and jobs plan that's been in the works almost as long as Joe Biden has been president. Supported by both Sens. Thom Tillis and Richard Burr (and all five North Carolina congressional Democrats, but none of our state's Republicans in the House), the bill will bring $9 billion in federal investment to North Carolina over the next five years.

Here's what North Carolina will get, according to estimates from the White House:

Roads and Bridges

$7.2 billion for highway programs + $457 million for bridge replacements and repairs (North Carolina has 1,460 bridges and more than 3,110 miles of highway in poor condition, per a 2020 Federal Highway Administration report)

Public Transportation and Electric Vehicle Charging

$911 million to improve public transportation options

$109 million to expand the state's electric vehicle charging network plus North Carolina can apply for some $2.5 billion in grants available in the bill for EV charging infrastructure

Broadband Internet

$100 million to provide broadband to more than 400,000 North Carolinians who lack access to broadband coverage. At least 1.1 million households in N.C. lack high speed internet access and most counties in the state have less than 65 percent broadband availability, according to the N&O.

Who Voted Against This Direct Help to North Carolina?

 Both Madison Cawthorn and Virginia Foxx, those sterling representatives of "the people."