Posted on 03/18/2014 5:28:19 AM PDT by cotton1706
Turning up the heat in the U.S. Senate primary, Republican Greg Brannon said a “culture of corruption” would make N.C. House Speaker Thom Tillis “unelectable” in November.
“The Democrat attack machine will make easy pickings of his candidacy,” Brannon wrote in a new fundraising letter.
Brannon hit Tillis on several points, including his 2012 decision to give severance pay to two staffers involved in sex scandals.
The attacks are among the sharpest yet in a Republican contest to pick a challenger to Democratic U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan.
Eight Republicans are running in the May 6 primary. But Brannon, more than any of his rivals, has tried to make it a two-man race with Tillis, a former Cornelius businessman who has led in fundraising and in most polls.
Tillis spokesman and campaign manager Jordan Shaw called Brannon’s attacks “laughable.”
In his fundraising letter, Brannon laid out four issues he said “Thom Tillis will spend the fall campaign apologizing for.”
One was Tillis’s 2012 decision to give more than $19,000 in severance pay to two House staffers who’d been caught in sex scandals. Tillis defended the payments, saying among other things that the two staffers had periodically worked without pay.
(Excerpt) Read more at charlotteobserver.com ...
It’s like going to a mechanic. He says you need this and that. Who are you to know if your not from N.C?
WOW! EIGHT Republican candidates!
What a GREAT way to burn through contributions from Tea Party conservatives that otherwise MIGHT have retired Obama’s pal, Kay Hagan!
Hagan smirks as the “crazy eight” simply WASTE those contributions by fighting one another before the Primary!
I gather that most of the “crazy eight” spend more time gazing in the mirror than they do reading our Constitution.
Do any of them talk to Reagan Democrats?
Or talk to still unemployed college graduates?
Or talk to parents about adding more “charter” schools to bring real education to their children?
No?
Gotta win the “primary” FIRST, donchaknow...
Unfortunately, the “divide-and-conquer” strategy deployed by the Dems to keep their power rolls on.
I don’t like Tillis and am having reservations concerning Brannon.
Brannon is correct, the dims will paint Tillis as a crook, but Brannon could be painted also.
Planning on looking at the other candidates to see if there is someone better.
Someone without baggage.
Looking in to the race from SC, there is little information about the GOP primary candidates but one gets the feeling that NC republicans are waging a civil war amongst themselves and a party split will hand Hagan a re-election victory.
Last month, a Wake County jury found Brannon had misled investors in a technology start-up company. Last week, a judge ordered him to pay a judgment of $454,631.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Isn’t there another candidate we could get behind who doesn’t have this baggage on his back? I’m so afraid that this will cause us to lose a seat that we should easily pick up. Surely out of a field as large as we have, there must be another good Conservative running. We can make all the excuses for Brannon we want. We can say it’s a political dirty trick, etc. Regardless, PERCEPTION IS REALITY!! This has me very nervous.
Last month, a Wake County jury found Brannon had misled investors in a technology start-up company. Last week, a judge ordered him to pay a judgment of $454,631.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Isn’t there another candidate we could get behind who doesn’t have this baggage on his back? I’m so afraid that this will cause us to lose a seat that we should easily pick up. Surely out of a field as large as we have, there must be another good Conservative running. We can make all the excuses for Brannon we want. We can say it’s a political dirty trick, etc. Regardless, PERCEPTION IS REALITY!! This has me very nervous.
There’s a runoff in NC if no candidate receives 40%. With 8 candidates and the two candidates tied, there’s likely to be a runoff.
I suppose that the candidate that attracts the most DEMOCRAT cross-over votes in the Primary will get past that 40% red-line pretty easily.
Then, the real election will pit that RINO against Kay Hagen. Then Kay Hagen will win.
Hint: This is not a “happy” result....
There is no path for Tillis to gain a majority of the votes against Hagan in the general election. He’s a mainstream Republican moderate, and he’s also Karl Rove’s guy for the nomination.
Because he’s the sitting Speaker of the House in NC, Tillis a natural villain for the Democrats and the Moral Monday race baiters to use in GOTV for Hagan.
Since Democrats have a HUGE advantage in registered voters over Republicans, and since there will be a large stay home factor among Republican and conservative unaffiliateds (who can vote in either party’s primaries), there is no foreseeable way to a win by Tillis over Hagan, despite her failures.
None of the negatives listed above apply to Brannon. He’s clearly the guy, and there’s a clear path for him to beat Hagan.
Quite possible, but it would clearly be between Tillis and Brannon, and the advantage will likely be Brannon’s in the runoff.
None of the other candidates’ campaigns are viable (possible exception being Mark Harris), although several are pretty solid folks.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.