At his campaign kickoff, Pat McCrory called on his relatives for help.
"To the other members of my extended family, my brothers and sisters, and nieces and nephews, you'd better get ready to help Uncle Pat and Aunt Ann," he said.
As it turns out, one relative has been helping for a while.
McCrory's nephew, Patrick Sebastian, has posted a dozen comments on Under the Dome and The Charlotte Observer's Web site and even wrote a letter to the Greensboro News-Record on his uncle's behalf, as first noted by Tom Jensen on the Public Policy Polling blog.
The comments were made under the screen name packpat1, which is part of an e-mail address used by Sebastian and until recently was listed on his Facebook page.
Sebastian, a sophomore at East Carolina University, called for Republicans to recruit a candidate for governor with "good name ID," defended a poll by McCrory, called McCrory's mayoral rival Beverly Earle "corrupt" and another Republican gubernatorial candidate "a desperate man."
He also called Mike Easley a "do-nothing governor."
"Agree with that," said McCrory advisor Stan Campbell. He said that Sebastian doesn't start work until next week. He said any comments were not done officially for the McCrory campaign.
"He likes politics, and he's probably inclined to help his uncle," he said.
After the jump, Sebastian's comments on Dome.
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Comments made by packpat1 on Under the Dome:
June 16, 2007: On Gov. Mike Easley: "It would be great if the Observer reported on how Easley is a do nothing Governor. Does he ever come out of the Mansion or answer questions in public?"
June 27, 2007: In response to a commenter who said McCrory raised taxes: "Why lie like that? I know for a fact that there has only been one tax increase during his tenure and that is the increase that he was against. Get your facts strait."
June 27, 2007: In response to criticism of McCrory's run for mayor: "That's a little bit of a strange comment considering he's won 6 terms now."
Aug. 6, 2007: On the GOP candidates: "Have you guys ever considered that none of these candidates has a chance? The best thing we can do is recruit a real candidate that has good name ID."
Sept. 17, 2007: On state Rep. Beverly Earle: "How Corrupt is this lady!? Is this really the best that Charlotte can produce for the democrats?"
Dec. 13, 2007: On questions about a poll by McCrory: "The numbers were included."
Dec. 26, 2007: On a commenter calling McCrory a "diehard evangelical": "Can we have mandatory drug tests before people are allowed to post?"
Dec. 26, 2007: On a post about the pros and cons of McCrory's campaign: "Apparently the people of North Carolina disagree with you and are behind McCrory. He leads both Perdue and Moore in a brand new Rasmussenreports.com poll. Isn't it funny that they didn't even waste their time polling the other repubican candidates?"
Jan. 4, 2008: On McCrory's donations to other Republicans: "McCrory and Orr do not have millions to just give all over the place. McCrory will not buy the governor's mansion."
Jan. 16, 2008: On a flap over a spelling mistake in McCrory's announcement: "Is this really the best "news" you can get? We have a Governor that has hid in the mansion for 8 years and refused to talk to the press and ya'll are talking about a spelling error. I did not see a print article on Perdue's spelling mistake like the McCrory article today. You people really need to get over this. It was a mistake."
Jan. 17, 2008: On Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Orr: "This is a desperate man that is in last place. He has gone on the attack and needs to go ahead and just drop out if he doesn't want a run-off."
Jan. 23, 2008: He attacked a poll showing Democratic candidates beating McCrory for having sampled more Democrats than Republicans. He later deleted the comment.




Re: Lending a hand to Uncle Pat
So glad we have a GOP candidate this strong for CHANGE in NC!!!
Unless Barbara Howe runs again, McCrory is the guy to LEAD NC out of the oppressive abyss caused by 4 decades of democrackkk oppression, manipulation and CORRUPTION!!!