Tag search result

Republican Greg Dority is abandoning his bid for secretary of state, instead jumping into the state auditor's race.

In his announcement Sunday, Dority, the Beaufort County GOP chairman, said he received encouragement from N.C. Republican Party Chairman Robin Hayes and other party leaders to make the switch. 

But the conversations with party leaders apparently came on the same day Republican Debra Goldman announced her bid for state auditor. The timing prompts a question: Did the state Republican Party recruit a candidate (Dority) to challenge a fellow Republican (Goldman)?

Republican Pat McCrory is generating some attention today but most of the national party eyes are focused on Florida where the GOP presidential primary contest meets its latest vote.

To get some local perspective on the race, we called Scott Laster, the executive director of the N.C. Republican Party. Laster worked for five years running legislative campaigns in the Sarasota area before working for Florida lawmakers and state agencies. Here's an edited version of our conservation earlier today:

Q: Florida enjoys the political spotlight. How are politics different in the Sunshine State compared to North Carolina? A: "The GOP in Florida took control of the legislature in the mid 90s and they've been solidifying their position since then, whereas in North Carolina its new to have Republican leadership. ... It's a purple state and i consider our state reddish-purple. Florida is more of a swing state."

South Carolina is king of the political world at the moment -- and, well, it makes us Old North Staters a bit jealous. Watching Fox News or following @PeterHambyCNN's Twitter page didn't cut it for Wayne King, the vice chairman of the N.C. Republican Party. He lives just seven miles from the state line and spent a few days last week in South Carolina. 

He plans to return Friday for a Rick Santorum event in Spartanburg and stay for the primary contest this weekend. King says he knows Santorum after he came to North Carolina for a party fundraiser in January 2010. He also has attended events for Mitt Romney and Ron Paul, even getting his picture (above, left) in the Myrtle Beach newspaper.

We called King to get his take on GOP politics in the Palmetto State and the campaign implications for North Carolina. An edited interview is below.

Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue has named a panel to help screen judicial candidates, but Republicans immediately criticized it as being too laden with partisan Democrats. 

The governor named an 18-member commission, including two people who have served as her lawyers, to advise her on whom to appoint to the bench. The commission will forward three names for the governor to choose from for each vacancy on the N.C. Supreme Court, the N.C. Court of Appeals and Superior Court. (At least nine of the 18 members are ardent Democrats.)

In announcing the creation of the commission last April, Perdue said the Judicial Nominating Commission was an effort to provide well-qualified and fair judges. "There is no place for politics when it comes to choosing the state's most honored and influential legal servants," Perdue said at the time.

But Republicans said the makeup of the panel belies Perdue's words.

"Perdue has chosen to stack the commission with political cronies, Democratic operatives and liberal partisan politicians," said Scott Laster, executive director of the state GOP. "This type of 'bipartisan, for-the-people facade' would make a tyrant blush." Read more here.

More than two years ago, state officials began probing unreported flights provided by wealthy donors to Gov. Bev Perdue.

And despite the recent conviction of Perdue's chief fundraiser - and pending charges against three campaign associates - many questions remain unanswered, including why no Perdue campaign staffers face prosecution.

"After two years of wrangling over this, we are no closer to the truth than where we started," said Joe Sinsheimer, a former Democratic operative turned government watchdog.

Robin Hayes, the chairman of the state Republican Party, said the board should reopen the investigation."They should have done their job, they didn't and they have even admitted it openly," Hayes said in a recent interview. "That, to me, is one of those things that causes the public to think the system doesn't work."

Read the full story here.

UPDATED: Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue sent a letter Monday to the state Republican Party asking for a new set of nominees to fill a vacancy on the State Board of Elections.

Perdue's general counsel Mark Davis wrote to Party Chairman Robin Hayes that two of the three nominees didn't want the appointment, so the nomination letter didn't meet the criterion of state law. It asks for a new list.

Per state law, the party gets to nominate a replacement after the departure of a Republican board member. Hayes sent three names to the governor in an Oct. 11 letter.

Perdue picked David Robinson of Raleigh, the third name listed, but he declined. The second name listed, Janet Pueschel, also did not want to serve.

The governor office didn't address the first name of the list, Joshua Howard of Raleigh. The letter makes the technical point that Hayes didn't meet the law's requirements. Without three people willing to take the job, "a party chairman would, for all practical purposes, be making the appointment himself," the letter states.

GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich emerged as the favorite among party faithful, according to a straw poll at Saturday's fundraising dinner.

Gingrich bested Herman Cain, Mitt Romney and Rick Perry -- other top Republican candidates for the White House -- with 55 percent of the vote, a party official reported. About 200 votes were cast.

The Hall of Fame dinner, an annual GOP fundraiser that was closed to the media, featured Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia's attorney general. None of the candidates appeared at the event.

The straw poll is virtually meaningless -- an unscientific sampling of the state Republican Party -- but reflects the momentum Gingrich is carrying after Cain, the former frontrunner, continued to stumble.

In other straw poll contests, Dan Forest beat Tony Gurley in lieutenant governor balloting.

Citing his "broken-down campaign," the N.C. Republican Party is offering to tow President Barack Obama's bus back to Washington. They plan to meet the president's bus tour in North Carolina next week tow truck. 

"If the President cared about passing a real bill, instead of simply misleading the public by campaigning against Republicans, he would have stayed in DC and gotten a deal done," GOP Chairman Robin Hayes said in a statement.

Full press release below.

White House hopeful Michelle Bachmann will headline a N.C. Republican Party event Sept. 29 in Concord.

The "All-American Barbecue" will take place at 12:30 p.m. at Troutman Barbecue. It costs $35 to attend.

It's Bachmann's second fundraising trip to the Charlotte area -- and probably about as far north Republican presidential candidates will go for now. With a late primary, North Carolina is just an ATM in the Republican contest, a quick hop over the border for candidates courting voters in South Carolina, whose first-in-the-south primary gets all the campaign love.

Given that it's a barbecue event, maybe she'll take a shot at front-runner Rick Perry who apparently doesn't like Eastern North Carolina 'cue.

Gov. Bev Perdue's latest campaign fundraising letter mentions her leadership during the recent hurricane and tornadoes -- a reference that Republicans suggest is "outrageous and sickening."

N.C. GOP spokesman Rob Lockwood suggested Perdue is "playing politics with these disasters for her own financial gain."

Perdue's letter starts like this: "As Governor, I've been focused like a laser on creating jobs and fending off GOP attacks on our schools (although every once in a while I have to turn my attention to making sure we’re prepared for an approaching hurricane or tornadoes.)

"Meanwhile, my opponents are all politics, all the time."

Perdue's handling of the hurricane is credited with helping give her poll numbers a bounce. But the inclusion of the tornadoes is curious given that she took flak for being in Kentucky at the time.