Trump-hater vs Washington insider: North Carolina Republicans squabble over Senate seat with slew of negative ads & Glenn Youngkin comparison

[basquebromance]

2022 is gonna be fun

‘Trump-hater’ vs. ‘Washington insider’: N.C. Republicans squabble over Senate seat

The GOP Senate primary in North Carolina is heating up this week with a slew of negative ads.

www.politico.com

excerpts:

Negative attacks are ratcheting up in the fight for the open seat. A 12-page mailer landed in voters’ mailboxes this week calling former Gov. Pat McCrory “fatally flawed” and criticizing his ethics, while TV ads hammered him as a “Trump-hater, liberal faker” and attacked McCrory for endorsing Mitt Romney for president in 2012. They’re all paid for by the Club for Growth’s super PAC, part of a multimillion dollar effort to back Ted Budd (R-N.C.), who has received former President Donald Trump’s endorsement in the Senate race.

And McCrory, in his first interview since the ads started airing, went after the big-money group as Budd’s “bank,” intimating that Budd sold himself to the group “funding his entire political existence.”

“He’s standing on the backs of [a] Washington insiders’ group and endorsements with no record whatsoever,” McCrory said. “I don’t need to do that. I can stand on my record of accomplishments, kept promises as a mayor and as a governor. … My opponent’s vote may be for sale, but mine isn’t.”

The contest’s negative turn, heralded by the wave of new ads this week solely targeting McCrory, could leave the eventual GOP nominee bloodied and cash-poor ahead of the general election in a state Trump narrowly won twice.

As for Trump’s endorsement, McCrory said that “when I go out and speak with groups, we aren’t really talking about that issue. People want to know what you plan to do as a U.S. senator,” he continued.

Instead, McCrory likened himself to Glenn Youngkin, the Republican governor-elect of Virginia, who won his November race by picking up moderate and independent voters in a state President Joe Biden won by 10 points, all while keeping Trump at arm’s length. McCrory described his approach as “probably more like the Virginia situation, where, again, I respect the Trump policies, except for deficit spending, but I’m running on my own record of accomplishment, my own vision for the future.”

McCrory does currently lead public and private polling in the GOP primary, but he’s facing a deluge of negative advertising on TV and in voters’ mailboxes. The Club for Growth, which in 2020 gave Budd a 99 percent on its congressional scorecard, has pledged to spend at least $10 million to support his campaign. So far, the group’s super PAC has spent $8.6 million on television ads in the state, including advance purchases of air time over the coming months, according to ad-tracking firm AdImpact.

“If Trump had not gotten into it, McCrory’s got near-universal name ID … and it would’ve been his to lose,” said one Republican operative in the state, who is not involved with any of the Senate campaigns and was granted anonymity to discuss the issue candidly. “But the longer primary will doom McCrory because Budd now has more time to spend money, build momentum, build name ID.”

Jonathan Felts, a senior adviser to Budd’s campaign, said it was “laughable and silly” for McCrory to suggest Budd is only relying on his Washington support to advance in the race.

“Unless you’re referring to Davie County when you say Ted is a ‘D.C. insider,’ you don’t know anything about Ted Budd and his character,” Felts said, referencing Budd’s county of residence.

Felts also lambasted McCrory’s Virginia comparison, insisting Budd in the analogy would play the role of Youngkin, a businessman and political newcomer. “If you had to ask me which one knows more about business and which one knows the challenge of signing the front of a paycheck to pay his staff a salary and create jobs and the challenge that involves, that’s Ted Budd,” Felts said.

“If you want to know which one is a career politician, much more of the Terry McAuliffe model, it’s Pat McCrory,” he added.

For its part, the Club for Growth called McCrory “a failed former governor with a record of serious ethical lapses and corruption allegations, supporting subsidies to communist China and more,” said David McIntosh, president of the Club for Growth, in a statement shared with POLITICO. “The fact is the race is tied and he’s blown a massive lead — the real question is how much longer does McCrory stay in the race.”

 

[JackOfNoTrades]

Love seeing Republicans eat their own.

 

[Otis Mayfield]

"Filthy trump hater!"

 

[jbrownson0831]

2022 is gonna be fun

‘Trump-hater’ vs. ‘Washington insider’: N.C. Republicans squabble over Senate seat

The GOP Senate primary in North Carolina is heating up this week with a slew of negative ads.

www.politico.com

excerpts:

Negative attacks are ratcheting up in the fight for the open seat. A 12-page mailer landed in voters’ mailboxes this week calling former Gov. Pat McCrory “fatally flawed” and criticizing his ethics, while TV ads hammered him as a “Trump-hater, liberal faker” and attacked McCrory for endorsing Mitt Romney for president in 2012. They’re all paid for by the Club for Growth’s super PAC, part of a multimillion dollar effort to back Ted Budd (R-N.C.), who has received former President Donald Trump’s endorsement in the Senate race.

And McCrory, in his first interview since the ads started airing, went after the big-money group as Budd’s “bank,” intimating that Budd sold himself to the group “funding his entire political existence.”

“He’s standing on the backs of [a] Washington insiders’ group and endorsements with no record whatsoever,” McCrory said. “I don’t need to do that. I can stand on my record of accomplishments, kept promises as a mayor and as a governor. … My opponent’s vote may be for sale, but mine isn’t.”

The contest’s negative turn, heralded by the wave of new ads this week solely targeting McCrory, could leave the eventual GOP nominee bloodied and cash-poor ahead of the general election in a state Trump narrowly won twice.

As for Trump’s endorsement, McCrory said that “when I go out and speak with groups, we aren’t really talking about that issue. People want to know what you plan to do as a U.S. senator,” he continued.

Instead, McCrory likened himself to Glenn Youngkin, the Republican governor-elect of Virginia, who won his November race by picking up moderate and independent voters in a state President Joe Biden won by 10 points, all while keeping Trump at arm’s length. McCrory described his approach as “probably more like the Virginia situation, where, again, I respect the Trump policies, except for deficit spending, but I’m running on my own record of accomplishment, my own vision for the future.”

McCrory does currently lead public and private polling in the GOP primary, but he’s facing a deluge of negative advertising on TV and in voters’ mailboxes. The Club for Growth, which in 2020 gave Budd a 99 percent on its congressional scorecard, has pledged to spend at least $10 million to support his campaign. So far, the group’s super PAC has spent $8.6 million on television ads in the state, including advance purchases of air time over the coming months, according to ad-tracking firm AdImpact.

“If Trump had not gotten into it, McCrory’s got near-universal name ID … and it would’ve been his to lose,” said one Republican operative in the state, who is not involved with any of the Senate campaigns and was granted anonymity to discuss the issue candidly. “But the longer primary will doom McCrory because Budd now has more time to spend money, build momentum, build name ID.”

Jonathan Felts, a senior adviser to Budd’s campaign, said it was “laughable and silly” for McCrory to suggest Budd is only relying on his Washington support to advance in the race.

“Unless you’re referring to Davie County when you say Ted is a ‘D.C. insider,’ you don’t know anything about Ted Budd and his character,” Felts said, referencing Budd’s county of residence.

Felts also lambasted McCrory’s Virginia comparison, insisting Budd in the analogy would play the role of Youngkin, a businessman and political newcomer. “If you had to ask me which one knows more about business and which one knows the challenge of signing the front of a paycheck to pay his staff a salary and create jobs and the challenge that involves, that’s Ted Budd,” Felts said.

“If you want to know which one is a career politician, much more of the Terry McAuliffe model, it’s Pat McCrory,” he added.

For its part, the Club for Growth called McCrory “a failed former governor with a record of serious ethical lapses and corruption allegations, supporting subsidies to communist China and more,” said David McIntosh, president of the Club for Growth, in a statement shared with POLITICO. “The fact is the race is tied and he’s blown a massive lead — the real question is how much longer does McCrory stay in the race.”

Dream on Dimmer.