State Republicans hire state-funded political advocates

 The NCGOP never made much pretense about why they had moved control over North Carolina’s elections from the office of the governor to the Republican state auditor. There was no credible logic to the reform. No one in the auditor’s office had any experience in administering statewide elections, nor does the office’s constitutional role involve anything of the sort. The Auditor’s qualification was that he was Dave Boliek, uber-partisan. 

The GOP has now made its partisan intentions explicit. Personnel is policy, says Senator Elizabeth Warren. And by hiring Dallas Woodhouse of Art Pope’s newsweekly Carolina Journal to oversee “election integrity,” Boliek and his legislative allies have announced a policy of stringent voter suppression. Woodhouse, like Boliek, has few qualifications to oversee elections. But in the eyes of the Republican panjandrums he has a saving grace: He is the fiercest and most determined voter-suppressor in North Carolina. 

“I’m an unabashed partisan,” Woodhouse explained, when queried about why he had called for Republicans to “make party-line changes” to local election policies to enhance the McCrory-Trump ticket and kneecap Roy Cooper. Rhetorical subtlety is not something Woodhouse possesses in abundance. His juices flow over when it’s time to screw the Democrats and seize the most dominant share of power he can for the GOP. He’s not a rebel; the Tea Party-infused Daily Haymaker regularly pillories him. What Woodhouse is, is an ultra-partisan with the instincts of a raw political brawler. 

Woodhouse gleefully promotes aggressive Republican partisanship. I once heard someone who had debated him on TV describe Woodhouse as a “loudmouth bully.” He is a partisan bull, with one mission in life: to defeat Democrats utterly and establish North Carolina Republicans as the supreme authority in state government. He long ran the Art Pope-funded Americans for Prosperity and helmed the PAC that essentially destroyed Senator Kay Hagan’s public image. He has never done almost anything but promote the partisan interests of the Republican Party. 

He will now play a key role in running North Carolina’s elections machinery. How he will handle these duties is already evident. The Raleigh-born hardliner, who once posed in front of his suburban home grinning ear-to-ear with an assault rifle in his hands, will do everything he can to deliver a decisive advantage to the party he has avidly served for his entire adult life. He will use spurious and scurrilous accusations of fraud to invalidate Democratic votes. This is not a baseless criticism; it is obvious. 

Woodhouse once quoted me respectfully in Carolina Journal, and I appreciated that. But he is a public figure who is fair game for criticism. He has a track record of suppressing votes already—and now he will wield the power of the State. The Republicans created a position specifically designed for him to enforce his ruthless will on the Democratic Party. He’s ready. I hope you are, too.