Why would a Yellow-Dog Democrat want Tillis to win the Republican nomination? | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

    We had an interesting conversation with a friend the other day that in retrospect we think worthy of disclosing here. Here's where we're headed with this: Thom Tillis is the favorite of the Democrats in North Carolina to win the Republican nomination for U. S. Senate.

    Here's how we came to that conclusion.

    Our friend, who is a Yellow Dog Democrat (and actually owns a yellow dog  -  and yes, he would vote for his dog before he would vote for any Republican) chastised us for posting "that junk Brant Clifton writes..." It took some wringing to get him to specify what exactly he disagreed with that the Daily Haymaker had said. When we looked back on the conversation we began to realize why he really was against us promoting the Haymaker. It became clear that he is afraid Greg Brannon is going to win the nomination.

    Here's how that fits together.

    Brant has been reporting on the "coincidences" between strange things happening in the General Assembly, such as bills that had strong conservative support getting "deep-sixed" in some committee and never voted on, particularly in the House (but it also happened in the Senate also, but that's for another day.) The coincidences are simple: Money talks.

    Political contributions buy things. More often than not they keep things from happening. It doesn't matter whether it is how beer is sold or cars are sold or how some companies are able to get subsidies from taxpayers' money or how a bill that would reduce electric rates could not even get a vote on the floor of the N. C. House. What matters is what your money will get you, if you are a special interest and you need to protect your special interest.

    We all know that. Nothing new there. That's why after all is said and done, there is always much more said about "campaign finance reform" than is actually done.

    The Republicans came into power in the General Assembly in large part because enough voters were fed up with the Jim Black/Marc Basnight way of governing. But it is beginning to look like all they've done is change the names of the players. The game's the same.

    My Yellow Dog Friend knows Kay Hagan has a boatload of money to campaign on and will get more. Much more.

    But, I asked myself, "if he is confident Hagan will have all the cash she needs why would he be worried about the Haymaker exposing how successful Tillis has been in stepping in where Black/Basnight left off?"

    Then it dawned on me. He wants Tillis to win the nomination because Hagan will then hang the "special interest" moniker around his neck. That won't get her many votes, but what it will do is cause a lot of conservatives to simply not vote.

    Under this theory, we would surmise that it is the Hagan campaign that is trying to figure out a way to hush Brant up. They don't want a conservative backlash against Tillis before the primary, but they want to use the dirt against him in the General Election. So we would suspect Brant's catching it from both Hagan's Hoards (pronounce that correctly now) and the GOP Establishment.

    So it suddenly dawned on us what is going on. The Democrats want Tillis to be Hagan's challenger because they can beat him at the money game, even if Karl Rove is running a Quantative Easing gig for Tillis. And they will beat him by driving off the conservative vote by planting the seed: "there's not a dime's worth of difference between voting for Tillis or Hagan."

    What they don't have a weapon to fight is Greg Brannon's "I'm not for sale. I'm not going to play the money game...I'm going to operate on principles (smaller government, free markets, individual liberties etc....and stick to the constitution.) That is what the Yellow Dogs fear most. They fear that North Carolina will be another Kentucky (Rand Paul) or Texas (Ted Cruz), or even South Carolina (Tim Scott).

    And we suspect that is what their polls are telling them. Many people are fed up with this "government as usual," "pay to play" thingy. There are more and more who feel we should "throw the bums out"  -  no matter whether they have a "D" or and "R" after their names.

    Brant hasn't had much to say about it yet, but there is another shoe to fall on Team Tillis. That is his role in not standing up to Obama on ObamaCare. And South Carolina is not helping him on this one as they do just what North Carolina should have done.

    Hagan is most vulnerable on ObamaCare. And it's going to get worse the closer we get to November. Tillis can say he opposes ObamaCare and try to mark a distinction between him and Hagan on it, but what will come out is how he kept the conservatives in the House from moving to nullify the implementation of ObamaCare in North Carolina as is now being done by our neighbors to the South. We also have a gut feeling that if the truth comes out we'll also know why the Legislature did not clean up this scandal in property insurance in our state. Ditto the "green energy" mess.

    Some believe a bill to block ObamaCare from being implemented in North Carolina would have passed easily in the last session. But it was never brought out of committee for a vote. Why that happened will come out and we'll bet Hagan will run a stealth campaign to convince conservatives that Tillis will not stand up to Obama any more than Burr was willing to do.

    If conservatives, be they Democrats, Republican, Libertarian or unaffiliated, don't see they have a viable conservative candidate they are likely to simply not vote in that race. That's exactly why Mitt Romney lost. And a significant number of conservative activists will not get out and work to turn out the vote for Tillis. And that is Hagan's--and Obama's--best hope.

    And that is why our Yellow Dog Democrat friend wants Tillis to win the nomination. It is Greg Brannon that scares the daylights out of him.