Outside groups try to buy GOP House and Senate nominations | Eastern North Carolina Now

    The 2014 election cycle has seen an unprecedented effort by out of state groups through independent expenditures to control the results of Republican primaries for Congress and the Senate in North Carolina. While there has always been some independent expenditure in these races, it has in the past mostly been in the general election. In some races, voters are hearing more advertising from outside groups than from the candidates' own campaigns. Much of this increase seems to be a result of a nationwide showdown between conservatives and the more moderate or liberal establishment wing of the party. Some of it is also involves efforts by supporters of amnesty for illegal aliens to impact Republican primaries.

    The 2nd Congressional District features two term incumbent Renee Ellmers, a darling of the House GOP leadership, facing off with grassroots conservative Frank Roche. Illegal immigration has been a major issue in contention in that race. That has led to a bizarre intrusion by an unusual out of state group which calls itself ''Americans for a Conservative Direction'', a false flag organization that is anything but conservative. It is the creation of liberal billionaire and major Obama supporter Mark Zuckerberg, whose major issue at the moment is promoting amnesty for illegal aliens. Zuckerberg's deceptively named group has been flooding the airwaves in the 2nd district primary with ads which among other things talk about how strong Ellmers allegedly is on border security. The actual record, however, reflects no involvement whatsoever on that issue by Ellmers.

    The 3rd Congressional District features longtime incumbent Walter Jones, known as a strong conservative on budget issues, a strong social conservative, and the strongest opponent of amnesty for illegal aliens in the NC Congressional Delegation, against longtime Washington DC operative Taylor Griffin who has recently moved into the district and argues that Walter Jones is really a liberal. Jones has voted against every debt ceiling increase since he has been in Congress, the Wall Street bailout, the automaker bailouts, the stimulus, and budgets from both parties which he thinks spend too much money. In the process, he has upset some of the special interests on Wall Street and in Washington, DC. That has motivated many of those interests to get behind Griffin, some of which is by direct contribution. However, the airwaves of the 3rd district are also being flooded by a PAC controlled by Joe Ricketts, a Wall Street insider who is former CEO of TD Ameritrade, that calls itself the Ending Spending Action Fund. Ricketts and his family are also known as major supporters of amnesty for illegal aliens. Like Zuckerberg, Ricketts' ads ignore the real record, accusing Jones, for example, of voting for trillions of dollars in debt when Jones has actually voted against every single debt increase since he has been in Congress. Walter Jones has had a much smaller amount of outside ad buys on his behalf from the conservative grassroots group Americans for Prosperity, mostly praising him for his conservative stands on issues like Obamacare and government spending.

    The 7th district is an open seat with two main GOP competitors, Woody White and David Rouzer, both former state Senators. White is a stalwart of the state Republican party establishment, and was their initial candidate for state GOP chairman in 2009. He is now a New Hanover County Commissioner. Rouzer, on the other hand has been close the Washington beltway Republican establishment and once worked as a K Street lobbyist. Illegal immigration is among the issues which divide these candidates, Rouzer having once lobbied Congress for amnesty. There has also been a division between the candidates regarding the GOP leadership in Congress, with White criticizing them for ineffectiveness while Rouzer has brought Majority Leader Eric Cantor to the district to campaign for him. Out of state spending in this race has come from the American Action Network, a PAC run by moderate former Republican US Senator Norm Coleman of Wisconsin. Not only is Coleman a supporter of amnesty, but one of his board members, Barry Jackson, is playing a major role in the current drive for amnesty legislation in Congress. Coleman's group has been flooding the airwaves of the 7th district with ads which essentially accuse White of being a lawyer and talks about just how awful that is.

    The US Senate race is a multi-candidate contest with the party establishment lined up behind State House Speaker Thom Tillis, while Tea Party groups and many grassroots conservatives are behind Dr. Greg Brannon, many social conservatives behind Dr. Mark Harris, former president of the state Baptist Convention, and several other generally conservative candidates having other scattered support. The biggest PAC of the establishment wing of the party, Karl Rove's American Crossroads, has swung in with heavy media buys for Tillis, mostly trying to spin Tillis' record as conservative. The US Chamber of Commerce, a group which for years had mostly supported Republicans across the spectrum, is now almost entirely focused on supporting moderate Republicans, sometimes even in primaries against incumbent conservatives, and they too are flooding the airwaves on behalf of Tillis. Rove and the Chamber are both strong supporters of amnesty for illegal aliens, while Tillis has publically come down on both sides of the issue. There is also outside money coming in for Greg Brannon, from conservative groups FreedomWorks and PatriotMajorityUSA.

    According to a recent tabulation from National Journal, Tillis' campaign is the only major Senate primary that American Crossroads has engaged in so far this cycle and overall Tillis has had more outside spending coming in than any other candidate in a GOP Senate primary. Their calculations based on spending reports filed so far show $2,637,000 spent on behalf of Tillis, mostly by American Crossroads and the US Chamber of Commerce, and $918,000 spent on behalf of Brannon by FreedomWorks and PatriotMajorityUSA.

    The side where most of the out of state money is coming in is the opposite side of where the grassroots Republican activists are as shown by straw polls of delegates at county and district conventions. Jones and Roche both won the straw polls at their district conventions by wide margins, and Brannon has done so as well at most of the county and district conventions around the state which have held them.

    The widespread and well funded attempts by out of state groups to play such major roles in deciding whom North Carolina Republicans nominate for our Congressional and Senate seats is a new experience for the state, and one not necessarily very well received by party activists. It may well call into question, for example, the wisdom of continuing to require party officials to remain neutral in primaries.