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Ongoing NC GOP debacle thread

The Civitas Institute (a right-wing think tank) sues the State Board of Elections to try to throw out 90,000 votes by voters who used the same day registration process prescribed in the NC General Statutes, which process has been in place for like 10 years. This is clearly an effort to save McCrory's scant hopes of overcoming his ~10,000 vote deficit (and it will fail).

State Board of Elections is a state agency. As a state agency, by law, it is represented in litigation by the Attorney General.

Obviously, the Attorney General cannot take this case and defend the State Board of Elections, as Roy Cooper has a conflict of interest because the suit is intended to keep him from becoming governor.

Thus, the State Board of Elections has to hire outside counsel to defend it from the Civitas lawsuit. In order to hire outside counsel, the State Board of Elections must receive permission from...the governor!

Typically, this is just a formality. State agency requests permission to engage outside counsel, the governor signs off. You would think that here, with McCrory having a clear conflict of interest, he would be especially reticent to involve himself in this process.

Nope. McCrory DENIES the State Board of Election's request to engage its outside counsel of choice - the Brooks Pierce law firm, which is not only a prestigious NC firm, but has attorneys who specialize in this type of matter (note: I do not work for Brooks Pierce). The result is that the State Board of Elections is left scrambling to figure out how to adequately defend itself in the Civitas lawsuit. McCrory does not offer justification for denial.

In the end, McCrory, the Governor of the State of North Carolina chose to hamstring one of his own state agencies, the Republican-controlled State Board of Elections, in the defense of a lawsuit brought by an outside party (which happens to benefit McCrory personally). He is hurting a state agency for his own personal gain. Clear conflict of interest, one of the most unethical things I've ever seen.
 
Junebug said:
No agenda, just curious -- why can't Cooper recuse himself and have the deputy AG defend the board? The conflict is personal to Cooper, not to the AG's office.
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Good question. I would guess to avoid any thought of interference at all since it's his AG office?
 
Not to mention that's basically the same situation that exists with Brooks Pierce.
 
McCrory can point to either organization as potentially influenced by Cooper.
 
Gotcha. I assume McCrory was going to cry foul no matter what.

The whole situation is dumb.
 
Deacsfan27 said:
McCrory turned down the SBOE's request to hire lawyers from the Brooks Pierce law firm to defend the state against the Civitas Institute lawsuit (about voter registration).

It's an interesting situation because I think Cooper's office (as the DA) would normally defend the state, but obviously he has a vested interest. Therefore the SBOE sought outside legal counsel to do so, and picked four lawyers. Since McCrory is the Governor, he has to approve it, and he rejected 3 out of the 4 brought up.

It seems the McCrory team is worried about Jim Phillips, who is one of the heads of the Cooper transition team, but he is just a partner at Brooks Pierce (a pretty decent sized law firm with offices in many locations across NC).

There appears to be no "legal" reason that McCrory should have rejected those three, hence the BS that Say Hey is calling.

He's basically rejecting what most would say are impartial lawyers to defend the state for (what would seem to be) his own benefit.
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I have never regretted a vote for a politician more than the one I cast for McCrory in 2012.
 
Will the 2017 elections lock all those seats into odd number election years from here on out? Because that's pretty good news for NC republicans.
 
Say Hey Deac said:
The Civitas Institute (a right-wing think tank) sues the State Board of Elections to try to throw out 90,000 votes by voters who used the same day registration process prescribed in the NC General Statutes, which process has been in place for like 10 years. This is clearly an effort to save McCrory's scant hopes of overcoming his ~10,000 vote deficit (and it will fail).

State Board of Elections is a state agency. As a state agency, by law, it is represented in litigation by the Attorney General.

Obviously, the Attorney General cannot take this case and defend the State Board of Elections, as Roy Cooper has a conflict of interest because the suit is intended to keep him from becoming governor.

Thus, the State Board of Elections has to hire outside counsel to defend it from the Civitas lawsuit. In order to hire outside counsel, the State Board of Elections must receive permission from...the governor!

Typically, this is just a formality. State agency requests permission to engage outside counsel, the governor signs off. You would think that here, with McCrory having a clear conflict of interest, he would be especially reticent to involve himself in this process.

Nope. McCrory DENIES the State Board of Election's request to engage its outside counsel of choice - the Brooks Pierce law firm, which is not only a prestigious NC firm, but has attorneys who specialize in this type of matter (note: I do not work for Brooks Pierce). The result is that the State Board of Elections is left scrambling to figure out how to adequately defend itself in the Civitas lawsuit. McCrory does not offer justification for denial.

In the end, McCrory, the Governor of the State of North Carolina chose to hamstring one of his own state agencies, the Republican-controlled State Board of Elections, in the defense of a lawsuit brought by an outside party (which happens to benefit McCrory personally). He is hurting a state agency for his own personal gain. Clear conflict of interest, one of the most unethical things I've ever seen.
Click to expand...

Roy Cooper's entire body of "professional" work the last 4+ years has been one giant conflict of interest. Every fucking thing the guy has done in his position as Attorney General has been done with the primary objective of his running for governor. Why stop now? This scumbag is going to make McCrory look like George Fucking Washington.
 
I look forward to McCrory leading our troops against . . . against . . . well, somebody.
 
BTW, if McCrory looks like GW, who is going to look like Alexander Hamilton, cuz dat dude gonna get a musical about himself ???
 
Thanks Obama

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk
 
Cooper is saying he's over the 10k margin now.
 
Really looking forward to another few years of the Nancy Pelosi Democratic reign of terror over the Dems as she has really help us along with OBummers terrible economic & healthcare policies. We have shored up the 'Pub base in ways previously unimaginable since OBummer took over in Jan 2009--Dems have seen their Governorships drop to 18 from 31 and the 'Pubs have 31. Dems have seen their House control drop from 257 seats to 193 so Botox Pelosi has dropped 64 seats there but yet she somehow remains in minority control??? Dingy EyePatch Harry Reid saw his Senate majority drop from 57 down to 48, so he lost 9 seats due to their loser ObummerCare Obamanation. No wonder they made him retire.

Then we get to the state houses where there has been a changeover of over 900 seats to the 'Pub side. Dems used to control 27 state legislators & now it is down to 13 [so they can't carry out their gerrymandering deal that gave us the original Mel Watt 12th congressional district that ran from Durham to Charlotte directly along I-40/I-85, only to pick up the black vote]. The liberal press totally forgets that district as they point out the NC districts these days in our NC voting law suit for next year but it was the DEMS who first made that minority gerrymandered district! The R's control 32 state houses. My what a change--America has spoken. There is even a trifecta of 25 state houses where all 3 bodies are controlled by the R's to only 6 by the D's.
 
Reff, how do you explain McCrory losing if Obummer had made the Dems a sinking ship?
 
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