I don’t often write about state politics. North Carolina has been my home for about a decade so I am a bit more familiar with its politics than those of many other states. Tuesday night the Republicans in North Carolina proved they are incapable of learning. Let’s explore.
North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District has been without a representative in the 116th House because the North Carolina Board of Elections refused to certify the results of the November 2018 election. In that election Republican Mark Harris initially appeared to have defeated Democrat Dan McCready by a bit more than 900 votes. The problem was that widespread voter fraud by Republican operatives in the employ of Harris was detected. When I was involved in party politics (as a Democrat) in North Carolina “old timers” told me they suspected the Republicans were “playing games” with absentee ballots. The detected voter fraud solely involved absentee ballots.
While the scandal wound its way through the adjudicative process the Republicans in the North Carolina General Assembly (NCGA) quickly changed the election law in North Carolina to make any “do-over” election start from scratch with a primary.
Keep in mind that Bishop is currently a sitting North Carolina State Senator. In that role Bishop’s big claim to fame is that he was the sponsor of the infamous “bathroom bill”. That legislation has since been repealed but not before economic boycotts cost the state an estimate $3.7 million and made it the laughingstock of the nation. Like most Republicans, North Carolina Republicans like to portray themselves as business friendly; obviously the business community didn’t think this bill was very friendly. In fact, I think the $3.7 million number has to be too low. My concern is did the next Microsoft or Google opt out of North Carolina because it would be too difficult to recruit the best talent if some had to worry about their ability to relieve themselves in public facilities?
Hours after Bishop won a nine person primary with almost 48% of the Republican primary electorate vote the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee (RCCC) attacked McCready for his stances on issues like health care and climate change. The Republicans want to “protect” North Carolina from someone who wants to make medical care available to all its citizens. Bishop and the Republican in the NCGA have consistently blocked Medicaid expansion. While Democrats are trying to address climate change; Bishop and his Republican cohorts are denying it. In North Carolina they have gone so far as to prohibit state agencies from using the term and made making any provision for it in state planning illegal. They consistently protect polluters who just so happen to be prominent among their financiers.
Since the Republicans took control of the NCGA in 2011, (which included control of the governorship until 2017) they passed more than a dozen laws over the warnings of the Democrats that were subsequently declared unconstitutional. Included in that total were Voter ID and gerrymandering bills. The Voter ID legislation was supposedly to protect against almost non-existent in-person voter fraud. It turns out there was widespread and systematic voter fraud, but it was the Republicans that were perpetrating it and it had nothing to do with in-person voting.
I live in North Carolina’s Second Congressional District and have my own Congressional representation problems. Richard Burr and Thom Tillis are my Senators and George Holding is my Representative. You tell me who represents my views in Washington among that trio. Burr may well be the best of the three and he is implicated in the redacted version of the Mueller Report. (I get to and will vote against Tillis and Holding in 2020.)
North Carolina’s version of the modern day Republicans are among the biggest losers the GOP is putting forth. Bishop represents the worst of the worst and he won the GOP Primary overwhelmingly. North Carolina Republicans appear to have an obsession with failure. The Special Election between McCready and Bishop will be held on Tuesday September 10, 2019. I get a lot of emails from McCready. They come from info@danmccready.com. He is accepting donations and welcoming volunteers.
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