Republicans are in a bind. They know that supporting Robinson is almost certainly throwing good money after bad, but if Robinson loses by too large a margin, he could sink other GOP candidates below him on the ballot. If they keep spending valuable resources on him, they’re just trying to keep the race from becoming a blowout. They don’t have good options.
Wish it was a little firmer, but still thought you and the house would find it interesting. EDIT: To keep it tied into the OP topic – Robinson’s waning support is a likely harbinger of a rise in fervency of support for Kamala Harris.
That would be appropriate if it happens. The chair of the NC Democratic Party was on Maddow last night and said not a single elected Republican in North Carolina has failed to support him. (and he’s not just “crazy,” he’s anti-Sematic, and completely unhinged about satanic shit.)
I’d imagine that NC Republicans will shortly shift their focus to ensuring they maintain their supermajorities in the state legislature, which have been freshly entrenched through their recent gerrymander. It’s been these supermajorities that have let them override every one of Democratic Governor Roy Cooper’s vetoes the last couple of years, including vetoes of a 20-week abortion ban, a ban on gender-affirming medical treatment for youth and eliminating the need for a permit to purchase a handgun. Unfortunately, should Stein prevail, he’s likely to be hamstrung by the same dynamic.
Unfortunately for the pubbies, Robinson won’t back off on any of his insanity. Nothing like telling 51% of the electorate that you don’t want them to have the right to vote. Bold strategy, Cotton.
What about that state legislator who flipped parties last year to create the super majority? Are her voters going to hold her accountable?
Michelle Morrow, the Republican candidate for state superintendent of public instruction, is if possible even worse than Mark Robinson. She’s never been involved in NC public schools, she homeschooled her kids, she hasn’t run any organization larger than a nuclear family; but she has Tweeted about her desire to execute Obama on live-streamed pay-per-view, and added her support for executing traitors–among which group she includes all her political adversaries.
As an NC public school teacher, I really need people to see her and Robinson as a package deal, and to reject them both.
Tricia Cotham. Republicans gerrymandered her a nice new R-leaning district – her district now leans Republican by a 52% to 45% margin. Honestly, I think she got kind of hosed selling her soul for a solid-but-not-overwhelming partisan advantage. That’s easily the kind of margin where – if the races higher up on the ticket flame out – she could find herself in trouble.
Robinson is currently running for governor against Democrat Josh Stein. Here is the most recent polling per 538, running August 14-27 (through today). Average them all out, and Stein’s up about 10 points (ranging from +6 to +14).
I was asking about the Lt. Governor’s race. NC has that goofy rule that the Lt. Governor becomes acting governor any time the Governor leaves the state.
I’ve not been able to find any polling on the Lieutenant Governor’s race. Ballotpedia shows that Democrat Rachel Hunt’s war chest is over twice as large as Republican candidate Hal Weatherman’s. But that’s about all I can see.
In new Mark Robinson news, fresh scandals have popped up. Let’s see if they stick around or fade away. I don’t think people will really care about the porn one, but Girl Scouts being robbed?
Best quote, “This went on for several years, Money said. Robinson came in after his shifts at pizza restaurants and hung out for hours. He said Robinson’s tastes were fairly standard for a straight man. Though he added, “I know he might have problems with gay people, but I don’t think he has problems with lesbians.””
There’s also this tidbit, which is about the least surprising thing ever:
Money had more vivid recollections. He described the future lieutenant governor as funny.
“I mean, like, hilarious,” he said. “He would have like five or six of us up front dying laughing at 4 in the morning. Almost like a standup routine—not copying Andrew Dice Clay, but almost like doing an Andrew Dice Clay comedy bit.”
Gents’ backroom catered to the gay community, and Robinson’s jokes often targeted the store’s gay clientele, Money added. “I hate to admit this, but he was very homophobic,” Money said.
Super excited to hear what it is. However, the law apparently says the Republican party can nominate someone to replace him if he withdraws, and all his votes go to the new nominee.
On the one hand, we do have some sane Republicans in the state. Our treasurer, Dave Folwell, is a sane Republican; and although he gets up my nose and is wrong about everything, it’s the “normal parameters” kind of wrong. If they replaced Robinson with Folwell (who lost his bid for the nomination originally), that would be a salutary turn toward sanity for the state party.
On the other hand, Stein is ahead by double digits in the race for governor, and Folwell would be significantly worse than Stein, and I’d feel a little robbed if suddenly Folwell swapped in. I might understand a little more of how Trump feels about the Biden-Harris switcheroo.
On the third hand, if it comes out that Robinson is (as Dan Savage persuasively speculates) having sex with men, or was recently (Savage suggests that no guy went into the private film booths of porn shops in the nineties more than once, unless he was there for the holes between the stalls), or even if it comes out that Robinson did something wrong, it’s hard for me to imagine a scenario where a significant number of voters know that he withdrew, and also know that their vote goes to a different Republican, and also are enthusiastic about casting their vote for Robinson in an effort to elect someone else. It doesn’t seem like the shot is much less long.
His campaign manager is saying it’s because he called himself a black Nazi and said unspecified racist things against Jews on a message board in 2009. Given the current climate I’m skeptical that’s it.
Honestly, getting blown by random men in a glory hole I’m not sure would do it either. Hypocritically play the homophobia card and you’re good.
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