#NCGA: Big DC money coming after John Bradford

A local pol asked me a couple weeks ago about the finance reports for the candidates in the race for NC House 98.  With only Q2 reports in the system at NCSBE.gov it looked like money might not be a huge factor in the race.

Since the Q2 reports are almost a full quarter behind at this point lots more money has likely flowed in for both candidates by now.

A couple weeks later it seems the big money may not be coming from the campaigns, but from Washington DC instead.

Since that exchange we've seen the beginning of a wave of flyers attacking Bradford from "NC Families First" a 527 dark money outfit out of Raleigh.  One unconfirmed source tells aShortChronicle they had heard there may be a couple dozen of these before election day.  The fact that 3 have already hit since last Wednesday is a good indication that may be true.  In the mechanics of an election, it wouldn't make sense to fire off three of these this far out from election day if you weren't going to keep doing it.

An earlier post mentioned that NC Families First was active in the 2014 campaign, but that there wasn't any information on FollowNCMoney.org for them this cycle.  That's true.

HOWEVER...we here at aShortChronicle are a persistent lot.

527 organizations have to report to the IRS, so it seemed like a good idea to check IRS.gov to see what we could find.

The Q2 reports there for "NC Families First" show the below "contributions" and "expenditures"

CONTRIBUTIONS

EXPENDITURES

By Q2 2016, NC Families First has gotten:

$450k from The Democratic Governors Association...in Washington, DC

$1.475m from NC Citizens for Protecting Our Schools, a group that historically receives most of its cash from the NEA...in Washington, DC.

The oh so innocently named NC Families First has spent:

$620k with Great American Media...an ad company right down K street in...you guessed it...Washington, DC

While it's obvious a lot of this cash will flow to support Roy Cooper in his race against Gov McCrory, a good bit is left to pound other candidates into submission.

Expect the anti-Bradford flyers to keep on coming - funded by Washington cash.

The last straw...HB954 left to die on the vine by NC Senate Republicans

Tuesday, the other shoe finally dropped on the latest best chance at stopping the I77 HOT lanes project.  The NC Senate Republicans met in caucus and decided to not advance HB954 which had passed overwhelmingly in the House.

Soon after the closed door meeting, Kurt Naas posted this to the Exit 28 Ridiculousness group on Facebook.

Last week when it became clear the fate of this bill would be decided this way, Naas told me he wasn't sure what to think about the delay in the caucus meeting to this week.

To that I responded that maybe, just maybe, the Senate was hoping to run out the clock on the session and pass this bill just before it ended.  That would have given Governor McCrory the face saving opportunity to let the bill become law without his signature.

According to StateScape.com in North Carolina...

"The governor must sign or veto legislation within 10 days after transmittal, or it becomes law without his/her signature. If the legislature adjourns for more than 30 days, the governor must act within 30 days after adjournment, or the legislation becomes law without being signed. If the governor vetoes legislation after adjournment, he/she must reconvene the session or the legislation becomes law despite the veto on the 40th day after session adjournment."

To that Naas said "You're an optimist."

And you know what?  He's right.  I am an optimist.  I want to believe the system can be fixed.  I want to believe people will do the right thing if given enough information.

But after seeing this on Tuesday and coming on the heels of Davidson Commissioners' inaction last week regarding the Travis-Woods visit to Senator Berger's office to lobby for the project, that optimism that people will do the right thing has finally been shaken.

The last benefit of the doubt has been given.  The last second chance has been granted.

It is time to set a new course.

#NCGA - House Select Committee Bait and Switch on I77 HOT Lanes

After last November's election shellacking in Huntersville, one of the very first things that happened was announcement of a Select Committee in the NC House to look at I77 Toll issue.  In fact, the letter announcing the new committee has I77 Managed Lanes as the very first topic.

At the time, all this seeeeeeamed like a welcome about face from a legislature and local legislators who had done nothing to help the Lake Norman area avoid the NCDOT’S plan to saddle the area with 50 years of tolls.

So how has that worked out for us here in North Mecklenburg?

Unfortunately, things went steadily downhill after that initial announcement.

When the committee was initially announced, it became clear that it wasn't focused on tolls, but instead it was a body with a wide ranging scope.

While Rep Jeter of Huntersville is a Vice Chair of the group, he is one of three Vice Chairs and the body is Chaired by Rep John Torbett from Gaston County.

Furthermore, Rep John Bradford was not initially on the select committee.  Bradford represents Cornelius, the epicenter of the anti-toll movement.  At the same time Rep John Fraley of Mooresville who is openly pro toll was on the initial list.  (Rep Bradford eventually got onto the list, but only after lobbying to be added.)

aShortChronicle outlined these and other concerns back in December.  See here for that.

Now, after eight - yes eight!!! - meetings of the committee since last December - little to nothing has been done on the I77 issue according to the committee website at the NCGA.  One very pro-toll presentation can be found, but nothing from the anti-toll side.

Back on March 15th, Kurt Naas with WidenI77.org had this to say on Facebook in response to this story on aShortChronicle.

"With regards to the Select Committee, Widen I77 was twice asked to present and both times subsequently disinvited and removed from the agenda. To my knowledge the committee has not taken up the issue of I-77 tolls."

Since then, there have been two meetings neither of which included I77 on the agenda.  In fact, in the meeting on Monday 4/4 the committee published a draft report and passed two proposals.  One proposal was to remove tolls on all ferries in the state.  The other was to remove the cap on light rail funding from the state.

For a committee that had discussing I77 Managed Lanes as the first priority listed when the committee was formed, that's quite a record.

Bonus Observation:  Newly converted anti-toller Rel Charles Jeter chairs the sub-committee over public transit.  Avid pro-toller Rep John Fraley sits on the sub-committee overseeing roads like I77.

Will Town of Davidson officially oppose HB2?

With the debate about Charlotte's "Bathroom ordonance" and the NCGA invalidation of it continuing to rage across the nation, municiputies in the state have begun passing resolutions opposing HB2 which invalidated the Charlotte's action.

Will the Town of Davodson follow suit?

That question was posed to Davidson's Board on Friday with Mayor John Woods responding immediately with this.

"The Town Board has not met since the passage of HB2.  It is possible we will discuss this in due time and engage a conversation.

We will certainly keep all citizens informed."

Responses from a majority of Commissioners indicate if such an ordinance does come up for discussion, it likely will be well received.

Commissioner Rodney Graham chimed in with this lengthy statement.

"I'm happy to give you my personal opinion, but it only represents my opinion.  I can't speak for anyone else.

I think it's a terrible piece of legislation.  It has been mischaracterized as dealing with bathrooms, but if you look at the Charlotte ordinance the bathroom issue was a very minor part of that legislation.  Charlotte was simply wanting to join hundreds of other municipalities across the country (including some in North Carolina and several in South Carolina) and extend protections against discrimination to the LGBT community, which is a sizable community which suffers from discrimination.

The NCGA took away those protections, and even made it more difficult for people in existing protected classes to take action if they feel they have been discriminated against.  They have made it legal in NC for businesses to refuse to provide services to the LGBT community.  Fortunately, most businesses realize that it is bad for business to discriminate against anyone, but it is shameful that it is the law of our state that they can do so.

You have undoubtedly observed the reaction of the business community to this legislation.  While facebook is not a scientific gauge of public opinion, both Tarte and Bradford are getting criticized roundly on their facebook pages for their support of this legislation, and not just by the usual suspects.

Ultimately the legislation will be overturned either through the political or judicial process.  It is unfortunate that the NCGA put the state through this embarrassment.

And yes, it is one more example of a Raleigh knows best attitude.  I'd love for people to contact their local legislators about this issue."

Commissioner Jim Fuller followed that with a simple "I agree with Rodney."  Commissioner Stacey Anderson then said "I agree with Rodney and Jim."

That gives the town a Board majority supporting opposition to HB2.  The only quesion is will they act on it.

Update 4/4:  All five Davidson Commissioners have now expressed support for Rodney Graham's comments.

Update 4/12: Davidson adds request to repeal HB2 to its legislative agenda for the upcoming NCGA session .

State's redistricting chickens come home to roost....

This post first appeared in the Herald Weekly at HuntersvilleHerald.com

If you are going to have a good year in politics, have it in a year that ends in a zero.

That’s an axiom Republicans in North Carolina have been benefiting from since the 2010 Tea Party fueled election and the subsequent redistricting required after the decennial census. The axiom holds true because he party in power controls the redistricting process and that’s particularly true in North Carolina where the governor plays no role in redrawing the district maps. In the Tarheel state, the process is totally controlled by the legislature.

To give a sense of how important control of this process can be, one just has to look at the maps available at Ballotpedia.org. According to this data, North Carolina has moved to the right farther and faster than any state in the country – at least when one looks at its elected officials. Just prior to the 2010 election, the state had what’s called a “trifecta” for the Democratic Party. Meaning, both houses of the legislature and the governor’s mansion were held by Democrats. After the 2010 election Republicans held both houses of the legislature. The Governor was not up for reelection that year, so the Democrats still held the executive branch.

By the end of the 2012 election cycle, things had changed dramatically. By then, NC had what Ballotpedia calls a “trifecta plus with supermajorities”. Meaning, Republicans held both houses of the legislature with veto proof super majorities, the governor’s office, and control of the state supreme court. No other state moved from a trifecta of one party to a trifecta plus with super majority of the other party in that time period.

On top of that, the state Congressional delegation moved from 7-6 favoring Democrats to 10-3 favoring the Republicans after the 2014 elections. Much of that swing has to do with who controlled drawing the maps after 2010. Or, to put it more bluntly, who controlled the gerrymandering of those maps.

Gerrymandering, or the act a drawing district maps to gain political advantage, is a fact of life in politics. Both parties do it to varying degrees. One could certainly argue the Democrats had drawn the Congressional maps going into the 2010 election to their advantage. In that election, the one where Republicans took control of the legislature at the state level, Republicans got 54% of the votes cast in the races for Congress, but walked away with just 6 of the 13 seats. After they redrew the maps for 2012, Republicans more than turned the tables and walked away with 9 of 13 seats after winning less than 49% of the popular vote. They gained 1 more seat for Congress in the 2014 election to get the current 10-3 majority in the delegation.

Is it fair? No. No it’s not. However, it is maybe the best example of the saying “elections have consequences.” Or, said another way, “he who draws the maps, wins.”

Some of those consequences are being felt here in the Lake Norman area as the fallout from the drawing of these maps reaches a crescendo heading into 2016. With Federal courts last month throwing out the maps of 2 NC Congressional Districts - including the long-time worst in the country District 12 running from Charlotte up to Greensboro - we are now facing totally new maps and a primary election day for Congress postponed until June. (Only races for Congress are impacted by this change. All other primaries will occur as planned on March 15th.)

Unless the courts intervene again, North Mecklenburg has moved from the solidly Republican old District 9 to a much more compact, but still solidly Democrat, new District 12. Voters used to having a Republican represent them in Washington will almost certainly have a Charlotte Democrat in that role.

Meanwhile, voters in South Iredell will move from the 9th to the new 13th District. They face a free for all primary on the Republican side with numerous candidates vying for what has suddenly become an open seat leaning solidly Republican.

Are you confused yet? Yes, democracy is messy, but this is really getting ridiculous.

#NCGA: About those $15,000 boomerang checks...

The Charlotte Observer reported last week about the campaign coffers of Mecklenburg pols running for the NCGA.

In the report, the Observer reported, Rep Charles Jeter was "boosted by $16,000 from the House Republican caucus."

That of course would be a totally improper use of party funds since Jeter faces a Republican Primary opponent in Tom Davis and the party is not supposed to meddle in primaries.  It is also totally not true.

Yes, Jeter's campaign report shows a $15,000 contribution from the Republican Party House caucus on August 20th, 2015.  However, what the Charlotte Observer failed to report was that this money was returned to the caucus on December 1st, 2015.

So, what was that money shuffling really all about?  The answer to that is the real story.

Regular readers of this site will remember some stories from last year about shenanigans in the closing days of the NCGA long session - shenanigans  involving legislation for something called Affiliated Party Committees.  These committees if used would allow NCGA leadership to cut the state parties out of the campaign fund management loop. This was an effort by legislators to do an end run around the NCGOP after the top spots in the party apparatus were taken over by grassroots activists.

This money shuffling in/out of Jeter's account was part of a larger effort by the legislators to protect their money.  Or maybe another way to put it, it helped protect the money of the special interests that fill their campaign coffers.

As reported at DailyHaymaker.com, Jeter was not the only person to receive one of these $15,000 checks.  At least eight legislators received them.

Charles Jeter
Rob Bryan
Susan Martin
Nelson Dollar
Bill Brawley
David Lewis
Stephen Ross
John Szoka

As was mentioned in the linked Haymaker story, this was initially explained as an effort to bolster campaign funds for legislators in risky districts.  The Haymaker clearly debunked that explanation.  It might have applied to Jeter in NC-92 because that is one of the few partisanly competitive districts, but certainly it did not apply to several of the others.

No, this was an effort to secure the House Caucus money, from any possible use at NCGOP HQ.

A peak at all the latest campaign reports for the above mentioned legislators shows that they all received $15,000 checks in late August.  Most were returned in late October/early November.  Rep David Lewis was particularly generous adding an extra 10 grand for a total of $25,000 sent to the caucus.

During just the last reporting period, Lewis raked in $58,800 from special interest PACs. That's not counting contributions from individuals who may also be rated to those same industries.  When you see that kind of money flowing back up to the caucus and you look at the sources going to the legislators sending the money to the caucus, it's safe to say some of it is special interest money that the caucus was "protecting" when it did all this shuffling.

Jeter's $15,000 check was returned on December 1st - the first day of the filing period for this election cycle.  Jeter's check was one of the last 2 returned.

So, circling back to the beginning, no caucus money will be helping Jeter in his primary against Tom Davis.

HOWEVER, this does show that on Jeter's watch as Republican Conference chair there was some "three card monte" shuffling going on with caucus $$$ due to a lack of trust between GOPe legislators and Grassroots activists who had stormed the barricades at NCGOP HQ.

What happened between August when the Caucus money was drained from the accounts and when it was returned a few months later?  Establishment operative Dallas Woodhouse took over as NCGOP Executive Director.

You may remember the Woodhouse name from these posts regarding HOT lanes connections.  See here and here.  He was the staffer at the Tom Tillis supporting PAC that funnelled $4.7 million in dark money to Tillis's NCSEN campaign.

Putting a hard core establishment guy in charge of NCGOP HQ made sure there were friendly eyballs watching, making it safe to return the money.

Always, alwaaaaaays, follow the money!!!  It will tell you a lot!

#NCGA - Pro-Toll Mayor Travis continues support of Pro-Toll Rep Fraley

There are lots of sayings in the rough and tumble game of running for public office.  One of them is “money is the mother’s milk of politics.”

With last Friday’s deadline for submitting campaign finance reports now in the rear view mirror, we get the first glimpse at how candidates are doing in this phase of the run-up to next month’s primaries.  That should definitely provide some interesting fodder in coming weeks for those who follow local elections closely.

With so much going on with the I77 tolls project recently, it seemed like a good idea to check up on the report for NC House 95 Representative, John Fraley.  Fraley is currently the only Lake Norman area member of the General Assembly still openly supporting the project and its controversial contract with Spanish firm Cintra’s local subsidiary -  I77 Mobility Partners.

When Fraley challenged Mooresville’s Robert Brawley for the seat back in 2014, his candidacy was widely speculated to be an effort supported by Raleigh power brokers backing the tolling project – people such as Thom Tillis, then the Speaker of the NC House.  Back then, Brawley had been involved in a very public spat with the Speaker largely over the plan to put HOT lanes on I77.

Fraley’s 2014 campaign finance reports were highlighted by huge loans to his campaign from his own personal funds totaling over $80,000.  He also raked in 10s of thousands of dollars more in contributions with much of that coming from out of state sources.  Much of that war-chest, to the tune of over $64,0000, was spent with a high powered and well connected Raleigh political consulting outfit called The Stewart Group.  Fraley’s campaign treasurer also happened to be the same firm used by most Republican US Federal candidates, a firm named CM&CO, out of Raleigh.  One of that firm’s largest clients that cycle according to OpenSecrets.com just happened to also be the Thom Tillis US Senate campaign.

With all that political fire power backing him, Fraley eked out the primary election victory against Brawley by a mere 106 votes.

However, all of that may not be the most interesting thing about Fraley's reports that cycle.  The most interesting was one donation from an address in Cornelius.  That address would match the address on Cornelius Mayor Chuck Travis’s campaign reports.  However, the name on the donation was not that of the Mayor, instead it was from his wife.  In fact, the $2000 donation was one of the largest individual donations Fraley received last go-round.

All of that just provides a little background.  What does it have to do with this cycle, you may be asking?

Here are two things.

First, Fraley has raised and spent much less this time – a mere $20,000 raised and less than $3,000 spent – leaving him with cash on hand of about $23,000.  Things could certainly change after this report, but that’s a clear indication he believes he has little to fear from his primary challenger this time.  That would be political newcomer and anti-toll candidate David W Thomson of Mooresville.

The second is that one of his biggest donors, continues to come from that same address linked to Cornelius Mayor and HOT lanes supporter, Chuck Travis.  This time though, there is really no mistaking where that money originated.  The name on the check is Travis’s, or more specifically the “Chuck Travis for Mayor” campaign committee.  Travis raised an unusual amount of money last time for someone running unopposed – over $35,000.  It was many times what he'd raised for his previous local campaigns.

Travis serves on the state's Turnpike Authority Board, so sending some of his leftover campaign cash to a fellow toll supporter to use in this cycle somehow seems sort of fitting.
That brings to mind another saying…
“Birds of a feather….”

Bradford, Jeter not to blame for marriage bill override

The “veto” used to be a powerful weapon in the Governor’s arsenal, but recently it has not been an effective one for North Carolina’s chief executives.  With veto-proof super majorities in both houses of the legislature, the General Assembly now regularly overrides gubernatorial vetoes – sometimes with ease and sometimes only after “gaming the system”.

Last week’s veto override of Senate Bill 2 in the House – a bill which allows magistrates and registrars to “opt out” of performing any marriages if they object to performing same-sex marriages due to a religious objection - definitely falls into the latter category.

Before getting into the details of how the House override occurred, here is a little history on the recent demise of the veto’s power.

Over the last ten sessions of the NCGA there have been 34 gubernatorial vetoes issued.  Sixteen of those vetoes have been overridden.  Fifteen of the sixteen overrides have occurred since the Republicans took over both houses of the legislature after the 2010 elections.  Eleven of the fifteen Republican-led overrides were against Democrat Beverly Perdue.  However, maybe more surprising is that four out of five vetoes from Republican Governor Pat McCrory have also been overridden by the heavily Republican legislature.

This recent history shows where the real power lies in Raleigh.  It’s in the General Assembly, not the Governor’s mansion.  But even with all that power, sometimes the leadership in the legislature has to work at it to achieve the 3/5ths vote, or 60% super majority, in each chamber to snub the Governor.

So, what does all this have to do with local politics?

Well, it just so happens that all three local legislators, Senator Jeff Tarte, and Representatives Charles Jeter and John Bradford all supported the Governor’s opposition to this bill.  All three voted against its initial passage, and Senator Tarte was one of only three Republican Senators to vote against the override in the Senate..

The Senate override however was the easy part.  That vote was 32-16 in favor  – easily surpassing the 60% mark of the members present.  Two of the total 50 senators were absent for that vote.

One would think absent voters would not matter, but in the subsequent NC House vote they would be necessary to ensure a successful override attempt.

In the House override vote last Thursday, 10 members were not present – four Democrats and six Republicans.  That dropped the total number of “yes” votes required to 66.  Those favoring overriding the governor had 69 votes in their pocket, so a vote was called and the bill was overridden.

As soon as the vote occurred Thursday morning, attention turned to those who were absent which allowed for the smaller number of votes required.  That attention – particularly on the political left - quickly focused on the three Republicans who voted against the original bill but who were not on hand last Thursday to vote against the override.  Two of those three Republicans were local Reps Charles Jeter and John Bradford.

The questions being asked in cyberspace implied the Republican no-shows deliberately sandbagged the vote by not showing up and thus allowed the override to succeed.  The implication was that they had not stood by their original votes.  After all, last Thursday was the first excused absence this legislative session for each of them.  It seemed suspicious.

Unfortunately for those critics, the math doesn't support their position.

Everything else being equal, even if Jeter, Bradford and fellow Republican Rep Jon Hardister who all voted against the original bill had been on hand last Thursday, the override would have still been successful.  Or put another way, their absence did not cause it to pass.

Rep Jeter was out with a stomach bug.  He says he would have been there, but knew his vote would not have altered the outcome.  Rep Bradford knew new was going to be out that day and let the Governor know in advance that his opposition to the bill had not changed.

But what about the other absent members?

There were also four Democrats and three other Republicans not present last Thursday.  After analyzing their previous votes, it appears this override likely would have occurred even if the full House membership had been present.  If all of the other absent members had been present and voted the same way they did when the bill passed originally, the vote would have been 72 – 48 – or exactly 60%.

That however might have been too close for comfort for those wanting the override to succeed, so they waited until the odds were in their favor.  In doing so, they gave a lesson in power-politics and dealt another blow to the power of the veto.