Even NC’s other Senator, Richard Burr, who usually avoids speaking publicly, found strong words in opposition to Tillis’s primary challenger Garland Tucker. Politico reported that Burr said Tucker’s election campaign was nothing more than Conservative strategist and the late Sen. Jesse Helms aide Carter Wrenn’s “retirement fund.”
Read More“This is Carter Wrenn’s retirement fund. That’s the only reason he’s got Garland running,” Burr said of the race. (Politico, 11/18/19)
Last week Greg Lindberg asked a federal court to dismiss his indictment on bribery charges. Lindberg claimed that his bribes, funneled through the NCGOP and its former chairman Robin Hayes, did not constitute “official acts.” The request for dismissal could mean the NCGOP and Forest have even more at stake in connection to the Lindberg scandal.
Read MoreDespite co-founding a nonprofit that deducts points from companies for not “respect[ing] and valu[ing] our biblically based worldview” Lt. Gov. Dan Forest supports Donald Trump, a man who certainly would not receive a high score. Forest’s nonprofit, Faith Driven Consumer (FDC), rated companies based on their religious practices on a scale of 0 to 100. Forest’s “Christian” offense at images of women in lingerie feels disingenuous when compared with Trump’s record. A record that Forest has worked hard to align himself closely with.
According to a NC Policy Watch report, Forest’s conservative Christian nonprofit told consumers to stay away from Sears because the store’s catalogue included photos of women wearing lingerie. Forest, however, has worked hard to align his campaign for governor with President Donald Trump despite Trump’s storied history with lingerie and the people who wear it. Trump was accused of sexual assault in the lingerie department of an upscale department store in New York City, where he asked a woman to try on lingerie (in addition to several other women accusing Trump of sexual assault). Trump owned the Miss USA pageant in 2010 when he defended Miss USA sharing photos in lingerie. In 2017 Ivanka Trump submitted a trademark request for a lingerie company.
Recently, Forest bragged about a shout-out from Trump at the Greenville, NC, rally where Trump supporters shouted “send her back” in reference to Rep. Illhan Omar (D-MN). Trump also verbally attacked other Democratic women in Congress.
Read MoreRep. John Bell (R-Wayne), who’s been a bellwether before on changes to House Republican’s electoral plans, may have let more secrets slip from the witness stand on Wednesday.
Bell was questioned during the eighth day of testimony in the Common Cause v Lewisgerrymandering trial and said Rep. David Lewis’s (R-Harnett) traditionally strong Republican district might get more competitive in 2020. When pressed, Bell refused to confirm or deny Lewis’s electoral plans.
Lauren Horsch of the NC Insider tweeted that Lewis had no plans to retire at the moment, but Lewis has been known to "obfuscate."
Read MoreReal Facts NC filed requests with the NC Department of Insurance and the Lieutenant Governor’s office Thursday seeking records of contact with Greg Lindberg and other indicted individuals, and public figures with known relationships to Lindberg and his network in the bribery scandal rocking the NCGOP.
The group is specifically seeking all correspondence between both departments and Robin Hayes, Greg Lindberg, John Gray, and John Palermo, the four men indicted on bribery charges, as well as correspondence between both departments and Rep. Mark Walker, mentioned in the indictment as “Public Official A.” Real Facts is also seeking correspondence between the departments and former Sen. Wes Meredith (R-Cumberland) who took nearly $40,000 from Lindberg and immediately filed a bill backed by Lindberg’s Eli Global.
Read MoreAccording to his admissions on conservative talk radio, Pat McCrory may be getting the opportunity to avenge a rejection he’s carried since high school.
In early February, former Governor Pat McCrory began a fellowship with the UNC Institute of Politics, where he will be hosting a not-for-credit leadership seminar-lecture series. For the record, this series is neither for credit nor a formal academic class hosted in any part of the university’s curriculum, but rather a not-for-credit series hosted by a student group. On his podcast, he announced his not-for-credit series, titled “Hard Lessons of Leadership: An Insider’s Look That You Won’t Read In A Textbook,” and divulged the topics and titles for each module. He then mentioned multiple times that he was very thankful for this position because as a high school graduate, he was rejected from UNC-Chapel Hill and is now very excited to have his “second chance” to attend and teach his not-for-credit seminar.
Read MoreA few days ago, Superintendent of public instruction Mark Johnson sent out the mailer below on school nutrition. School nutrition remains a critical battleground as students and families battle food insecurity amidst stagnating wages and continual budget cuts in North Carolina.
Real Facts previously documented how Johnson used the NC public schools email list as his personal blog. Now, it seems that Johnson has moved to glossy mailers as a medium for his vacuous nutrition advice. Below, find an annotated version of Johnson’s note.
Read MoreIn a video presumably produced in the Lt. Governors office donor-funded TV studio, Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Forest explains a "theoretical" method for committing voter fraud, "just for fun."
Forest, during a Facebook Live he hosted on Wednesday, commended the “great job” the General Assembly has done drawing maps.
“The General Assembly has done a great job complying with the rules of the courts to draw these districts.”
Not quite
Pat McCrory is still coping with his loss last year to Roy Cooper. He recently told WRAL that it has been a “tough transition to leave a job he loved.”
In less than a year, the voters of North Carolina rejected him, academia rejected him, and the Trump administration rejected him.
Even the Trump family wedding planner got a job overseeing “billions of federal dollars as the head of the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s New York and New Jersey office.” That has got to hurt.
What’s worse is his successor has been busy as a member of Donald Trump’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis, working to solve a crisis with an administration McCrory has been so eager to join.
With his employment prospects bleak, McCrory has now decided to torment all of us with a Carolina Comeback that no one asked for, saying "I'd be foolish not to reconsider coming back.”