Kevin McCarthy Has Had Enough of Madison Cawthorn

 

Implicating fellow Republican Congesspersons as sex-orgy-attending deviants is the line you apparently don't cross in Washington, and Madison Cawthorn crossed it. So Republican Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy ordered Cawthorn into his office for an official paddling. And Cawthorn showed up. The photo of his leaving McCarthy's office yesterday suggests to some observers that the 26-year-old had been crying.

The backlash [against Cawthorn had been] remarkably swift. There was even talk about kicking Cawthorn out of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. Multiple members suggested publicly that a reprimand and an apology would be insufficient, and that Cawthorn needed to get specific if he was going to tell salacious tales.

“You should have to name names if you are going to go make those kinds of brushstroke accusations and impugn the character of people in this institution or … anybody else in this town,” an anonymous Republican told Politico. (Aaron Blake, reporting in the WashPost)

Sounding like the scourge of God Himself, Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) said, “He’ll need to be careful, because eventually he’ll be judged.”

Womack even alluded to wanting Cawthorn out, as in out of office: “If it’s: ‘Hey, don’t do that, again,’ we’ve been there. Frankly, if western North Carolina is not going to fix the problem, then leadership will have to.”

If western North Carolina is not going to fix the problem ... like, in the upcoming May 17th Republican primary, where Republican state lawmaker and primary challenger Chuck Edwards (only one of many in the primary) has earned himself the endorsement of both Phil Berger and Tim Moore (who are headlining a fundraiser for Edwards), along with Sen. Thom Tillis's endorsement. If Republicans coalesce around a single challenger in the 11th CD, they can indeed "fix the problem" of Madison Cawthorn (an outcome I've never much believed could happen but which is looking more likely).

Thom Tillis Has Had Enough of Madison Cawthorn

 

Congressman Madison Cawthorn said some new things on camera the other day.

He affirmed that Washington, DC, is like the TV series "House of Cards" and said people that he’s looked up to his whole life, who are now in their 60’s or 70’s, have invited him to an orgy at their home and others have done cocaine in front of him.

This led Senator Thom Tillis to unload on Cawthorn to reporter Manu Raju (Twitter thread):

“I thought about the statement, if it’s true, then he’s got a lot of information to reveal. If it’s not true, then he’s guilty of being untruthful.”

Tillis adds: “I thought it was a silly statement and it’s not the first one.” Is Cawthorn a problem? “At the end of the day, people in the district are going to have to vote for him and I would ask them to look at his record and ask what has he done since he’s been here.”

Tillis: “What is his track record of working on tough issues and what’s he done for the western part of the state.” Asked for his assessment whether Cawthorn had accomplished much in his first term, Tillis said, “Not a lot in my opinion.”

 

A Peculiar Democratic Primary in House District 66

 

The newly drawn NC House District 66 is wholly in Wake County and heavily weighted with Democrats. As Dallas Woodhouse said, "Republicans can’t win this seat, no matter how good 2022 is for them."

So perhaps it's no wonder that three Democrats have filed to run in the May primary, as the winner will most likely take the seat in November.

One of those three is a first-time candidate. The second ran unsuccessfully for the Wake County Commission in 2018. And the third is currently an elected member of the NC Senate who is abandoning her senate district to run in this House district, a jump that is both unusual and debilitating to the Democratic goal of keeping Republicans from winning a super-majority in the Senate.

Wesley Knott

Knott is a 26-year-old Democratic Party precinct chair. He trained in accounting and economics (where? he doesn't say) and has worked as an auditor for PwC, a tax and auditing service. He says he "stepped away" from that job to run for this office. His website is thin on specifics and biography (maybe we'd expect that from a 26-year-old running for the first time), but I like this personal statement:

"I’m a mixed-race progressive who grew up in the Deep South. Politics isn’t abstract to me. I didn’t need critical race theory to learn about racism, and I didn’t need a policy analysis to know the importance of Medicaid. So when I talk about policy, it’s from a place of shared experience. I know what’s on the line. That’s why I’m running."

As an observer who believes that the rise of "mixed race" perspectives and personalities could save us from the toxicity of white nationalism, I welcome his candidacy.

Frank Pierce

He says he's a small business owner (landscaping) who decided to make a personal sacrifice when schools began to come out of the pandemic:

When Wake County went back to school full time this year, they where faced with a shortage of staff from teachers to bus drivers and everything in between. While most people stood on the side and yelled to help them, I actually stepped up to help our students and their teachers. I applied and received a temporary license to teach in WCPSS this year and make a difference in a child's life. I did this at a great cost to me and my business. Yet in this life, you should be measured by the deeds you do not the money you make. I would not change anything about my choice. I am now running to be the difference maker in the NC House and bring that “get it done” attitude to public office. Children are our future! It is time we put a leader in the legislature that puts others before himself.

Pierce is 36 years old and has also been active in the Wake Democratic Party. I found more personal info on him from his 2018 run for the Wake Commission.

Sarah Crawford

Crawford right now holds the NC Senate seat in District 18. I wrote a lot about her back in late 2019 (here and here). I was mildly critical of her vanilla presentation and her eschewing of progressive platform positions, even though she was endorsed by Lillian's List. She won that Senate seat easily. When she made it known less than a month ago that she would run for a House seat instead of for reelection to her Senate seat, Republican operative Dallas Woodhouse could not stop himself from chortling derisively about her pursuit of "self-interest" in the switch, implying she would have a much tougher race for reelection to the Senate.

Interestingly, she doesn't say a word about being a state senator on her revamped website. Big guns in the NC Democratic Party are lining up to support her. First Lady Kristin Cooper and Secretary of State Elaine Marshall are co-hosting a fundraiser for her next month.

The Growing Voter Fraud in the Mark Meadows Family

Glenn Kessler, reporting in the WashPost:

Mark and Debra Meadows

On Oct. 26, Mark Meadows’s wife, Debra, appeared at the Macon County community building in Franklin, N.C., and filled out a one-stop voter application to cast an early ballot in the 2020 presidential election. She also dropped off an absentee ballot that she had requested for her husband, then the White House chief of staff, an election board official said.

On her one-stop application, provided this week by the North Carolina Board of Elections to The [WashPost] Fact Checker, Debra Meadows certified that she had resided at a 14-by-62-foot mountaintop mobile home for at least 30 days — even though she did not live there. At the top of the form is a notice that “fraudulently or falsely completing this form” is a Class l felony.

This form is the latest in a string of revelations concerning the former chief of staff — who echoed President Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud in 2020 — and his wife. The New Yorker first reported that Mark and Debra Meadows submitted voter registration forms that listed as their home a mobile home with a rusted metal roof that sold for $105,000 in 2021, even though they had never lived there. North Carolina officials announced last week that Mark Meadows is under investigation for potential voter fraud.

The Fact Checker’s reporting shows that in 2020 Debra Meadows signed three forms — a voter registration form, an absentee ballot request for her husband and the one-stop application — that warned of legal consequences if falsely completed and signed. She also cast a ballot in a 2020 primary runoff using an address that was no longer valid for voting. Mark Meadows appears only to have signed a voter registration form; he did not vote in the primary.

The statement by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation made no mention of Debra Meadows, and officials declined to say whether the probe would also examine her actions.

The Winner of This Democratic Primary Will Take the Seat

 

...because there's no Republican running for the House District 44 in Cumberland County (Fayetteville). It's that safe a seat for Democrats. The district is 43.8% Black, and the primary contest will pit the Black candidate who ran before in 2020, and got a respectable 47.9% of the vote, and a young white lawyer who has worked as an assistant district attorney in Cumberland Co. and is now in private practice.

The current Democratic incumbent in the seat, attorney William O. Richardson, waited until March 1st to announce his retirement. He had served a term in the mid-1990s and was appointed to finish out liberal lion Rick Glazier's term when Glazier stepped down in 2015. Richardson made a name for himself as a strong advocate for public education and alienated others because of his willingness to work with the Republicans. He was one of the very few Democrats given a committee chairmanship. Richardson said in a news release the reasons for his decision “are several and mostly private” but largely focus on the sacrifices his family and work colleagues have made for him to serve.

Terry L. Johnson Sr.

During that 2020 primary race against incumbent William Richardson (which Johnson came close to winning) he made allegations practically on the eve of the election that he had been offered a $12,500 bribe to drop out of the race by a person connected to Richardson. Johnson alleged in a complaint to the State Board of Elections (SBOE) that the offer of money came from a political contractor who worked for Richardson. Johnson and the contractor talked during a 90-minute dinner meeting at a local restaurant. Both the contractor and Richardson proclaimed the accusation absurd, and the investigator for the SBOE concluded, “Based on the facts presented, we do not see a violation of election or campaign finance laws.”

He appears to be the owner of Terry Johnson Funeral Services in Fayetteville, though that business isn't mentioned on his website nor on his Facebook page.

Charles Smith

Smith, a native of Fayetteville, attended Emory and Henry College near Abington, Va., on a basketball scholarship. After graduation there, he received his law degree from UNC and became an assistant prosecutor in the Cumberland County district attorney's office. After several years in the DA's office, he entered private practice with the Charleston Group, a Fayetteville firm. "While working for The Charleston Group, I have gained experience representing a variety of government entities, as well as experience in administrative law, corporate law, and general civil litigation. As an attorney that has handled criminal and civil cases, I have relevant experience interpreting, applying, and arguing statutes that our legislators enact and approve" (charlessmithfornc.com).

In 2020, Smith was one of five lawyers recommended to Gov. Cooper for filling a vacant district court seat.

 

The Republican Primary in HD63: Which GOPer Will Challenge Ricky Hurtado?

2020 was a difficult year for Democrats in North Carolina. Some of the 2018 Democratic gains in the General Assembly got chiseled away, and some of the gains we expected in Trump's downfall just didn't materialize. Heart-breakers all over the map. Except in NC House District 63, where Ricky Hurtado, the son of working class immigrants from El Salvador, beat the Republican incumbent, Stephen Ross, a Wells-Fargo executive. I believe the 63rd was the only House seat in 2020 to flip to blue.

Hurtado was sworn in as the sole LatinX rep in the House, at least the first and only for the Democrats. I've seen lots of photos of him -- that toothy broad smile -- and a couple of videos -- his origin story on the homepage of his website stands out. His personal history and the way he talks about what he sees as the reality for rural working-class families -- he obviously has a clear, no nonsense mind looking to investigate what America is and how one might go about improving that. 

The Democratic minority in the NC House has little power ... except for sustaining the governor's veto, which is no small thing. But the legislation any Democrat writes gets shit-canned in the Rules Committee, which is exactly what happened to two bills that Hurtado sponsored -- setting a minimum wage of $15/hr for "noncertified school employees" and the bill to adopt the ERA. If the Democrats ever get back into the majority -- and even if not -- Hurtado can be a thought leader there if the voters of Alamance County can get him reelected.

HD63 takes up a large chunk of northeastern Alamance County. It was "lean Republican" before the last maps got approved. Now it's "lean Democrat." Dave's Redistricting scores it at 51.2% Democratic to 46.8% Republican. Hurtado took it by a hair in 2020 before redistricting, by 477 votes. When Erica McAdoo ran against the incumbent Republican in 2018, she came within 300 votes of beating him. 

That "incumbent Republican," Stephen Ross, may be matched again against Hurtado, depending on who comes out of this primary. But, surely it'll be Ross.

The Republican Primary

Stephen Ross, formerly known as "The Republican Incumbent"

His pitch is all about fighting the radical binge of the Democrats -- "stop the shut-downs and mandates" (the Trumpy gospel of "the pandemic is made up" so no need for these precautions) and "fight for parents’ rights in their children’s education" (mainly the right to censor what kids read, especially if it raises uncomfortable questions about American history, so let's just never talk about slavery and racial justice evah).

This Twitter account of his is moribund. Nothing's been posted since June of 2021. But clearly he's a main street, Chamber of Commerce, country clubbing establishment Republican in a year he'd best not admit it -- not with the Trumpists looking to take more scalps. So Ross strikes a strident pose, supposedly ready to do fierce battle against the socialists.

He opposes the expansion of Medicaid insurance for 600,000 uninsured North Carolinians. In saying so, he exposed the dead heart of the well-to-do conservative Republican. He actually explained, to Bill O'Neil of WXII, why, if it would be too late to help some people, why do anything at all?

"I think that what most people don't understand, even if you were to expand Medicaid right now, the actual benefits wouldn't reach North Carolina until well after the pandemic is [over]," Ross said "We need to be real clear about that."

I think we're clear., 

Ed Priola, the Wild-Eyed Novice

If you're looking for a loud, bare-knuckled crusader against "socialist tyranny" and "Marxist" conspiracies galore, you've found him in Ed Priola. As the public affairs director of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, "he reminded Americans about the crimes of socialism and the deceit of socialist propaganda." He actually says -- not making this up -- that he's a true believer in American exceptionalism and only wants fellow true believers to hold office. Just unpack that for a minute.

This seems like Priola's basest credo, in a letter to the editor: "Many people reasonably believe that 'equity' means 'equality' .... [but] equity is short-hand for Marxist 'social equity,' whose goal is 'equality of outcome' " (The Times-News). Therefore, we do nothing about equity, and you better not even say the word. 

The dive-bombing American eagle logo on his website -- eagle clutching an American flag -- looks straight out of 1933 Germany, save for the animal mascot and that particular flag -- the representation of belligerent nationalism. Curiously, he seems to have started in politics as a Ronald Reagan fiscal conservative, but he's veered hard right. He hasn't posted anything to his Twitter feed since December 8th. He says he's a college professor on his website but doesn't say where. That kind of intentional vagueness always pricks my curiosity. In Priola's case, I can't confirm a lot of what he claims. He says he has a doctorate in management. Another site sez he was active up north in conservative advocacy groups, as national field director for the National Taxpayers Union and field director for U.S. Term Limits. He also says he "trained hundreds of Republican candidates running for office across North Carolina." There is evidence on his FB page that he participated in three training sessions for Wake County Republican candidates, but I don't see hundreds. What sort of campaign craft is he expert in?

He ran for state office twice before, two different seats in the Maryland House of Delegates, unsuccessfully, in 1994 and again in 2010. One Maryland blogger characterizes Priola as a "professional activist" for conservative causes, but none of that actual political history is mentioned on Priola's current website. 

He's photographed with Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, and he obviously shares Robinson's crackpot ideas about indoctrination. Priola was one of the Robinson supporters who stormed the Alamance School Board meeting at the end of last June, and he certainly likes to sound scholarly: “Critical race theory is not science – it’s garbage propaganda,” he said to the board in the public comment period. “It’s based in the Frankfurt School – a Marxist think tank in the 1930s,” he said, referring to a school of social theory and philosophy which had been associated with the Institute of Goethe University in Germany prior to World War II and centered on criticism of capitalism (and other economic systems) and finding alternatives to create an ideal society, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. “They were forced out by the Nazis,” and came to the U.S., where they infiltrated academia, Priola said, urging school board members to investigate what’s being taught in ABSS classrooms.

My Gawd. There's no arguing with a conspiracy theorist who can quote the Frankfurt School.

Mark Meadows Under Investigation for Voter Fraud

 

Macon Co. D.A. Ashley Welch,
passing the buck

Late yesterday Nazneen Ahmed, spokeswoman for Attorney General Josh Stein’s office, confirmed the investigation by the State Bureau of Investigation into former President Donald Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows after the New Yorker first reported that the former congressman, who represented North Carolina’s westernmost district, registered to vote in September 2020 using an address he had never visited. (NandO)

The request for the investigation came from Macon County District Attorney Ashley Welch, who wants the Department of Justice’s Special Prosecutions Section to take over what would normally be the D.A.'s role in this matter. Ashley Welch is a registered Republican.

“We have requested that the SBI investigate alongside the State Board of Elections,” Ahmed said. “At the conclusion of the investigation, we’ll review the findings.”

Allegations of voting misconduct against Meadows came to light after the weekly magazine spoke with the former property owner where Meadows claimed to have lived. She confirmed renting 495 McConnell Rd. in Scaly Mountain to Meadows’ wife, Debbie, for two months, but neighbors told her Mark Meadows never visited the property and his wife only spent a few nights there.

As of yesterday, Meadows’ remained registered to vote at that address.

The Democratic Primary in H43 -- A Rematch with a Wild Card

 

In 2020, Fayetteville State University professor of social work Kimberly Hardy defeated incumbent Democrat Elmer Floyd in the March primary. He was the only Democratic lawmaker two years ago taken out in a primary. Hardy went on to lose to Republican Diane Wheatley by 1,420 votes that November, a heart-breaker.

Those three personalities are all back in the race this year, but Kim Hardy and Elmer Floyd now have another Democrat in their primary, Prince Christian, who may scramble expectations by drawing votes from either of them or from both of them. Who knows?

I'm relying below on what I wrote about Hardy and Floyd in January of 2020.

Kimberly Hardy is a 50-year-old Gen-X-er born in 1972. 

She trained as a social worker -- holds a doctorate in it from Morgan State University in Baltimore -- and currently teaches social work at Fayetteville State University. One of her areas of special interest and research is "the intersection of social work and faith with a particular emphasis on African-Americans and the institution of the Black Church in both a historical and contemporary context." Her current research focuses on breast cancer and breast health awareness models in urban Black Churches. Hardy has written and presented extensively in the area of religion, spirituality, and social work and currently serves as the Board Secretary for the North American Association of Christians in Social Work (NACSW).

She's challenged incumbent Floyd in 2020 as "A New Voice for Cumberland County," and was willing to put leather to pavement in canvassing neighborhoods in the district. Boots-on-the-ground can indicate energy and support from a cadre of activists, which was essential when trying to overcome the advantages of incumbency. It will be even more crucial for her this year.

Hardy has been endorsed by Carolina Forward.

Elmer Floyd is a 79-year-old member of the Silent Generation (born in 1943) who held this NC House seat from 2009 to 2021.  

Until this year's most recent redistricting, the district was considered safe Democratic. Floyd often had no Republican opponent in the General Election and only rarely a Democratic opponent in a primary. The newest version of Dist. 43 leans very slightly Republican.

Floyd, with seven terms in the House, had a vast advantage in the 2020 primary over his newcomer opponent. But after 14 years in the House, was Floyd considered an effective representative? Or "furniture." Or worse, was he considered disloyal to the Democratic caucus and to Democratic values? According to Paul Woolverton in the Fayetteville Observer, "Democrats criticize Floyd because he occasionally votes with Republicans on controversial matters. Floyd says he is voting the will of his constituents in District 43." Floyd voted for the passage of HB2. To counteract an impression that he was opposed to expanding Medicaid coverage in North Carolina, Floyd came out very vocally for expansion in July of 2019.

Floyd, educated at Fayetteville State University in law enforcement and at the Institute of Government in Chapel Hill, spent 28 years in the Human Relations Department for the city of Fayetteville, retiring as director. He bragged on his website about his ability to steer pork into Cumberland County.

Prince Christian is a 26-year-old millennial making his first run for public office. 

Not a ton of information available on him, so I have to rely on what he says about himself on his website. His emphasis on stopping gun violence suggests some biographical brush with the issue, but I haven't found it.

Born and raised in Fayetteville, Prince attended public school in Cumberland County. After Public School, Prince attended Fayetteville State University earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice.

After earning his degree, Prince began his career in Finance with PNC Bank before moving to the health care industry where he currently works as a health advocate for the largest health insurance provider in the State of North Carolina. Prince has assisted thousands of North Carolinians in obtaining affordable health insurance, reducing prescription costs, and protecting North Carolinians from excessive medical billing costs. Prince will carry his extensive knowledge of health care to the General Assembly in effort to deliver affordable health care to all North Carolinians.

Prince has been fighting for quality health for all North Carolinian's including efforts to combat Fayetteville's deadly gun violence epidemic. Prince has developed a plan and spent the last years ensuring North Carolinians are able to live a life of purpose in a state that is affordable, educated, healthier, and free of gun violence.

 

The Democratic Primary in HD56 -- Battle of the Millennials

 

Let's call NC House Dist. 56 "the Chapel Hill seat," because that southeast corner of Orange County is dominated by that university town. The district has an 84% Democratic lean. Progressive legend Verla Insko has held it for ages, but she's retiring, and two newcomers want to replace her. No Republican filed.

Allen Buansi, civil rights lawyer and Chapel Hill town councilman completing his first term on the town board.

Buansi grew up in Chapel Hill. “My mom encouraged me to think about what I want to do with my life and what my calling was. I gravitated towards this idea of public service, advocating for folks who are in need,” Buansi says. “These folks [his personal heroes Shirley Chisholm, Thurgood Marshall, Charles Houston] were operating at a time when things were really bleak, especially for Black people, especially for women. And yet they saw fit to do whatever they could to move the ball forward. I wanted to fight for people. I want to do what I can to make life equitable.”

As an adult, Buansi has taken an active role in advocating for racial equity in Chapel Hill. From 2015 to 2017, Buansi served on the Executive Board of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro branch of the NAACP, and he has also worked as an attorney-fellow with the UNC Center for Civil Rights.

During his time on the Town Council, Buansi — alongside council member Karen Stegman and Mayor Pro Tempore Michael Parker — worked to implement Chapel Hill’s Criminal Justice Debt Program, an initiative that helps low-income individuals struggling to pay court costs.

“We have a crisis when it comes to excessive court fees and costs, and it has the effect of saddling a lot of low-income and working-class people with debts that they can't pay,” Buansi said. “That’s just not fair, that’s just not right.”

Buansi also worked with the Town Council to adopt a resolution to improve racial equity and public safety. The resolution implemented a ban on chokeholds in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and ended regulatory traffic stops by the Chapel Hill Police Department.

Jonah Garson, an attorney and former chair of the Orange County Democratic Party. Garson is also a Chapel Hill native. He got his undergraduate degree from UNC-Chapel Hill and his law degree from Columbia. He was profiled by Hannah Olson in IndyWeek.com:

Given his background, it was almost inevitable that Jonah Garson would someday run for office.

The 34-year-old Chapel Hill native grew up encouraging UNC-Chapel Hill students to vote when he was still in high school and spent his formative years becoming politically involved, protesting the Iraq War.

He interned in college for two different state legislators, absorbing governmental know-how, and spent the 2018 midterms driving his Honda across the state working in different races as a field coordinator.

In 2019, Garson served as the voter protection director for the N.C. Democratic Party during the 9th Congressional redo election.

Raising teacher pay, bringing back incentives for teachers to earn master’s degrees and working to close the ever-prevalent equity gap, are at the top of his list of concerns.

“We need public schools that serve all students equitably. Our public schools have been purposefully, systematically starved of resources,” he says. “Our teachers have been disrespected.”

“Democracy truly is under attack, and that's not hyperbole, that's very, very real,” he says. “We can't stand another 10 years of not being able to win on the progressive policy votes. Any expectation that we're going to get these core democracy reforms without a fight is wrong.” Garson also emphasizes the need to “free [the public university system] from terribly harmful political interference.”

“Rarely does a candidate come along who is as well prepared to serve in the North Carolina House of Representatives as Jonah Garson. I support him without reservation,” said former Rep. Joe Hackney of N.C. House District 54 in a recent endorsement.