The 2028 race for NC Governor is (maybe) underway!! (11-12-2024--Hour3)

[00:00:04] What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepetekalendershow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, write to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.

[00:00:28] The North Carolina race for Governor 2028 has begun.

[00:00:36] Yeah, apparently. So let me read to you a couple of exchanges that occurred on the Twitter machine moments ago. Or, sorry, hours ago.

[00:00:51] There's a Twitter user named Foxy Farmer. And Foxy Farmer has a video that she posted, reposted, from Greg Biffle, maker of the Bat. Childhood favorite game.

[00:01:08] And, I'm just kidding. He's a retired NASCAR driver. And he has been flying his chopper to Western North Carolina since the storm hit. Right? Greg Biffle.

[00:01:23] He's been running supplies, making rescues, all of this stuff. He's been doing all of this stuff for weeks now.

[00:01:30] And he posts videos and that sort of thing. So he posted a video of Chimney Rock yesterday.

[00:01:39] And so Foxy Farmer reposts that video.

[00:01:44] And she says, we need the absolute hero to run for governor of North Carolina.

[00:01:50] NASCAR driver Greg Biffle has been running supplies with his personal helicopter since day one.

[00:01:57] And Greg Biffle responded to that tweet saying, quote, I'm ready.

[00:02:07] So I think Greg Biffle is now a potential candidate for governor of North Carolina, 2028.

[00:02:16] I guess to run against Josh Stein, who hasn't even been sworn in yet as governor.

[00:02:24] I don't know. I don't know what to make of it. I just figured I would pass it along to you.

[00:02:32] And we'll say, I don't even know. I guess I could pull his voter card to find out.

[00:02:36] Let's see. Do you think he's a Republican or a Democrat?

[00:02:44] I'm thinking Gregory. Go by Gregory, maybe.

[00:02:50] Searching. Yep, there he is.

[00:02:55] He's a Republican.

[00:02:58] And according to his voter card.

[00:03:03] He does not vote in primaries, though.

[00:03:06] That's interesting.

[00:03:07] Anyway, so, OK.

[00:03:10] The race for governor has officially begun 2028.

[00:03:15] You are warned.

[00:03:16] Now, we have a brand new labor commissioner.

[00:03:22] Not the guy that won last week.

[00:03:26] Mr. Farley.

[00:03:28] Not him.

[00:03:29] We have another guy named Kevin O'Barr.

[00:03:31] Kevin O'Barr.

[00:03:34] And he currently works in the labor department, North Carolina Department of Labor.

[00:03:41] He works there.

[00:03:42] But he's going to run it now.

[00:03:44] Because the guy who was running it quit.

[00:03:47] Which prompted the election.

[00:03:50] And then, like, right after the election, like, almost immediately after it was determined that Luke Farley had won.

[00:03:58] Josh Dobson said, I'm out.

[00:04:02] WRAL reports by Will Duran.

[00:04:06] No relation to the musical group.

[00:04:08] North Carolina has a new leader in the Department of Labor following the sudden resignation of the current labor commissioner, Josh Dobson, on Wednesday.

[00:04:16] The day after the election.

[00:04:19] Kevin O'Barr.

[00:04:20] A longtime employee in the department will take the helm temporarily following his appointment Friday by Democrat Governor Roy Cooper.

[00:04:29] O'Barr will serve until Commissioner-elect Luke Farley, a Republican who won the 2024 election for the job, takes office in January.

[00:04:42] Roy Cooper said, quote, I am thankful for Commissioner Dobson's years of public service to our state.

[00:04:49] And I look forward to working with Commissioner O'Barr as he assumes this role on the Council of State.

[00:04:57] For.

[00:04:59] Like.

[00:05:00] Eight weeks.

[00:05:04] That's right.

[00:05:05] This guy is going to be running the department for eight weeks.

[00:05:08] Like.

[00:05:09] Really?

[00:05:09] You're going to be working really closely with him for the next.

[00:05:12] Okay.

[00:05:12] Maybe he is.

[00:05:13] Whatever.

[00:05:13] But, like, why wouldn't you just put Farley in?

[00:05:18] I don't know.

[00:05:19] I mean, well, I kind of.

[00:05:19] I have a guess.

[00:05:22] I have.

[00:05:22] Oh, you know what?

[00:05:23] I'm already here.

[00:05:24] What's this guy's name?

[00:05:26] Let's see.

[00:05:27] New voter card search.

[00:05:29] Kevin.

[00:05:31] First name.

[00:05:32] Last name.

[00:05:33] Oh, bar.

[00:05:36] And I'm going to go out on a limb.

[00:05:37] I'm going to guess before it comes back, the search results come back.

[00:05:40] I'm going to guess he's a Democrat.

[00:05:42] Oh, no results found.

[00:05:44] Okay.

[00:05:44] So he must go by a different name.

[00:05:47] But he's a longtime employee in the department.

[00:05:50] Now, generally, I don't have any problem.

[00:05:52] Like, I understand why you would just move somebody from the agency to lead it.

[00:05:58] Right.

[00:05:58] Just put somebody in on an interim basis who is running the department anyway.

[00:06:02] You got an election coming up.

[00:06:04] In this case, we already had one.

[00:06:05] So it's just a matter of a couple weeks before Luke Farley is going to get sworn in and take over.

[00:06:12] So not a big deal.

[00:06:13] However, if Kevin O'Barr is a Democrat or is Democrat adjacent, or at the very least, he's cool with Roy, my good friend Ray.

[00:06:24] Then it might be beneficial to have a Democrat on the Council of State and to break the Republicans majority on that body.

[00:06:32] The Council of State is the 10 statewide elected offices.

[00:06:36] And right now, Republicans have a six to four majority.

[00:06:40] Dobson resigns and had Farley been sworn in by the governor.

[00:06:47] If he had been picked, then that would keep their six for majority until all of the other Council of State newly elected members are installed.

[00:06:57] So by keeping Farley out.

[00:07:00] And putting O'Barr in, you have a five five split for whatever good that might do.

[00:07:07] Roy Cooper, I don't know what he's got planned.

[00:07:10] I don't know, but.

[00:07:12] It accelerates the loss of the majority for the Republicans.

[00:07:18] And if this were the only instance of this kind of thing going on, then I would understand it's not that big of a deal.

[00:07:24] He's in the department anyway.

[00:07:26] It's just a placeholder kind of an appointment.

[00:07:28] And so I would probably let it slide.

[00:07:30] Seriously, it would not really matter to me.

[00:07:33] But here's why it does kind of matter.

[00:07:35] Do you remember bumper car Beth Wood?

[00:07:39] Remember her?

[00:07:40] The state auditor.

[00:07:44] After she cracked up the state issued car.

[00:07:48] Which was totally not alcohol related.

[00:07:53] And then remember she got busted driving a state issued vehicle when she shouldn't have been using it for personal errands and stuff.

[00:08:00] And then what happened?

[00:08:01] She resigned.

[00:08:03] Right?

[00:08:04] She resigned.

[00:08:06] And she recommended that Governor Cooper appoint like one of her top deputies in the auditor's office to run the office, to run the department until the election.

[00:08:19] And what did Roy Cooper do?

[00:08:21] Well, he took her advice.

[00:08:22] And I'm just kidding.

[00:08:23] He totally didn't do that.

[00:08:25] No.

[00:08:25] He put Jessica Holmes in there.

[00:08:27] Jessica Holmes, who had lost, what, two years ago or whatever it was, four years ago?

[00:08:32] So in another statewide race, she had lost that.

[00:08:34] I think it was, I forget what race it was.

[00:08:36] Was it treasurer or something?

[00:08:38] I forget.

[00:08:41] He put Holmes in there.

[00:08:43] And it's like, well, wait a minute.

[00:08:44] Why?

[00:08:45] And Beth Wood was like, she's unqualified.

[00:08:47] That's why Beth Wood endorsed somebody else.

[00:08:50] The Republican in the race.

[00:08:53] So Cooper does not have a consistent standard here.

[00:08:59] Except one, which is, does it benefit Democrats?

[00:09:03] Right?

[00:09:04] That's the reason he did that.

[00:09:05] That's the reason for the difference in approach for these two interim replacements.

[00:09:12] What benefits Democrats?

[00:09:16] This is what I've talked about, Roy Cooper, and his ability to, his ability to deceive.

[00:09:26] That he's some sort of just, oh, shucks, kind of folksy.

[00:09:29] I'm just a country lawyer, you know.

[00:09:33] Guy's a political animal.

[00:09:34] Has been for decades.

[00:09:38] But his demeanor, his face, like literally the way he looks, his face.

[00:09:44] And his accent, the way he speaks.

[00:09:48] Right?

[00:09:48] It gives this impression that he's just some kindly old gent.

[00:09:53] But he does this kind of stuff all the time.

[00:09:57] Once again, nasty.

[00:10:00] Dobson served less than one term as labor commissioner.

[00:10:05] A former state lawmaker from McDowell County.

[00:10:07] The Republican was elected in 2020.

[00:10:10] He took office in 21.

[00:10:12] And in 22, he announced he would not seek re-election.

[00:10:15] And then he quit.

[00:10:17] Wednesday.

[00:10:18] Why?

[00:10:20] Hmm.

[00:10:21] Well, for that answer, we'd have to go to Business North Carolina.

[00:10:26] BusinessNC.com.

[00:10:28] David Mildenberg has the story.

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[00:11:32] So David Mildenberg at businessnc.com.

[00:11:37] Quote,

[00:11:38] The North Carolina Healthcare Association named Raleigh political veteran Josh Dobson,

[00:11:43] President and CEO effective today.

[00:11:46] He succeeds Stephen Lawler, the wrestler, right?

[00:11:50] Wasn't he the wrestler?

[00:11:52] Lawler?

[00:11:53] Stephen Lawler?

[00:11:55] Jerry?

[00:11:57] I knew that.

[00:11:59] See, one day people are going to realize.

[00:12:05] Anyway, he succeeds the wrestler Stephen Lawler, who is retiring after seven years in the post.

[00:12:12] Dobson's 43 years old.

[00:12:14] The post is among the state's most powerful trade association jobs, representing some of the state's largest employers.

[00:12:21] Dobson will represent about 135 members, including hospital giants, Advocate Health, Novant Health, UNC Health, and Duke Health.

[00:12:33] The group also has physician groups and other healthcare organizations as members.

[00:12:39] The group hired Dobson after a national search.

[00:12:42] Lawler's resignation was announced September 2023, with plans for him to retire at the end of this year.

[00:12:49] So they obviously knew that he was going to be taking the gig, and that's why he resigned or announced he wasn't running for re-election, I should say.

[00:12:59] And then as soon as the election was over, he resigned.

[00:13:04] Because they made the announcement effective.

[00:13:08] He's been named effective today.

[00:13:13] Dobson is an Avery County native who was a McDowell County commissioner for two years, then a state representative for seven years, representing Avery, McDowell, and Mitchell counties in Western North Carolina.

[00:13:24] He was a chair of the House Appropriations Committee and the House Healthcare Committee.

[00:13:30] He won the statewide election for labor commissioner in 2020, defeating Democrat nominee Jessica Holmes, whose name I just said.

[00:13:40] Right? I couldn't remember what race it was.

[00:13:42] Oh, that's right. It was labor commissioner.

[00:13:44] She lost that race, but now finds herself as the auditor of the state when Beth Wood resigned her seat.

[00:13:55] And Governor Roy Cooper named Jessica Holmes to that seat.

[00:14:00] And then she lost that seat as auditor.

[00:14:06] So, Dobson decided against running for another term, and Raleigh lawyer Luke Farley won last week's election, defeating former Charlotte City Councilman Braxton Winston.

[00:14:17] Sigh of relief there.

[00:14:18] And, yeah, I wonder who will DeSantis appoint to replace Marco Rubio if he joins Trump's cabinet.

[00:14:28] By the way, I am, at this point, agnostic on any of the contenders for Senate Majority Leader.

[00:14:40] John Thune, John Cornyn, Tim Scott.

[00:14:43] They all are equally problematic.

[00:14:46] Well, I shouldn't say equally.

[00:14:47] Cornyn's the worst.

[00:14:49] But, yeah.

[00:14:52] It's kind of funny, the retconning that's occurring with Tim Scott, or sorry, Rick Scott in Florida.

[00:14:58] I know that there are a whole bunch of right-wing influencers and such that are all on the Rick Scott train, but so far I am, meh, to all of them.

[00:15:13] So, let's talk about the North Carolina State Supreme Court judicial race that's still being contested.

[00:15:23] This is by Dr. Andy Jackson over at the John Locke Foundation, johnlocke.org.

[00:15:28] When Governor Roy Cooper announced in 2023 that he was appointing Allison Riggs to the North Carolina Supreme Court to fill the remaining term of retiring Justice Michael Morgan.

[00:15:38] You remember Michael Morgan?

[00:15:42] Retired off the state Supreme Court.

[00:15:44] He was a Democrat.

[00:15:46] He retired rather than run for re-election, knowing he'd probably lose.

[00:15:51] Ran for governor against Josh Stein in this primary.

[00:15:54] Remember?

[00:15:55] And then Democrats rejected him because they're racist.

[00:15:58] I think that's, right, that's the standard?

[00:16:01] Right, that he didn't win that race because the voters in that primary were racist.

[00:16:06] I mean, that's what I've been reliably informed by media in the wake of Mark Robinson losing.

[00:16:13] Anyway, go back and listen to our, was that our two?

[00:16:19] Yeah.

[00:16:20] So, Michael Morgan, when he retired off the bench, and Allison Riggs was appointed, Andy Jackson said,

[00:16:28] I predicted that she would likely have a short and unhappy tenure on the court.

[00:16:33] Unhappy because she was in the minority, and short because she would have to defend the seat just one year later.

[00:16:38] After the November 5th election, it appears that the prediction will come true, but just not yet.

[00:16:45] Riggs trails her Republican opponent, Jefferson Griffin, by, I think the number is down now, like around 7,000 votes or something like that.

[00:16:56] His win was part of a sweep of statewide judicial races that also included three court of appeals contests.

[00:17:02] Republicans enjoyed similar sweeps in 2022 and 2020, although Democrats won every statewide judicial race in 2018.

[00:17:13] Riggs is not ready to concede.

[00:17:16] She may hold out through the county canvases on November 15th and the all but inevitable recount after that.

[00:17:25] This is not the first time we have seen this play either.

[00:17:29] You'll recall in 2020, four years ago, State Supreme Court Chief Justice Sherry Beasley, she lost to Paul Newby by about 400 votes.

[00:17:42] And they fought it out in court, what ballots to count, and does that smudged postmark count?

[00:17:50] This ballot doesn't even have postmarks.

[00:17:52] Can we please count those?

[00:17:53] Like that kind of stuff.

[00:17:56] Riggs, and by the way, Newby eventually did win that.

[00:17:59] Beasley then ran for U.S. Senate, and Newby has been the Chief Justice.

[00:18:06] So Allison Riggs is unlikely to be any more successful than Sherry Beasley was in reversing the election night result.

[00:18:13] The first and most obvious reason is that her vote deficit is more than twice as big as Sherry Beasley's was.

[00:18:20] And if Beasley couldn't close it, it's not likely that Riggs is going to.

[00:18:26] When looking at the batches of ballots not counted on election night, none offer a clear path to the large gains that she needs.

[00:18:36] But the race is close enough that she could call for a recount.

[00:18:40] Beasley did the same thing, and the result was a change of 15 votes.

[00:18:45] That's what the recount got her.

[00:18:47] 15 additional votes.

[00:18:49] Not enough to close the gap.

[00:18:50] But that's where we are.

[00:18:55] There's also some, I don't know what to call it, out in New Hanover County.

[00:19:02] WECT News has learned there are more uncounted absentee by mail ballots in New Hanover County than first thought.

[00:19:11] WEC reports, quote, we've obtained emails from the county manager explaining the details to county commissioners.

[00:19:18] Okay, so the county manager emailed to the commissioners what's going on with the Board of Elections.

[00:19:24] While investigating why their election results were delayed on election night, WECT, television, obtained a county email saying the local board of elections stopped processing absentee ballots on Halloween.

[00:19:42] Ooh.

[00:19:43] Ooh.

[00:19:43] And did not include any received after that day in their election results.

[00:19:50] Right?

[00:19:51] So for like a week.

[00:19:53] For a week.

[00:19:54] They did not count.

[00:19:56] They stopped processing the ballots on October 31st and did not include any that they got.

[00:20:02] After that day, when they were announcing the election results.

[00:20:06] The county manager named Chris Kudray or Kudrit?

[00:20:10] Kudray.

[00:20:11] Told commissioners that about 1,500 absentee ballots received after the cutoff date would be processed and counted prior to the vote canvas on November 15th.

[00:20:22] Here's what he said in the email, quote, it appears, and I believe the county attorney can confirm, the administrative cutoff decision for the absentee ballots is in conflict with the state statute.

[00:20:39] Let me unfancy that.

[00:20:42] It's illegal.

[00:20:44] That's what the county manager is saying.

[00:20:47] It appears that what they did was illegal.

[00:20:50] It is in conflict with the state statute.

[00:20:55] He says, I take that to mean the ballots received on Friday, Saturday, and Monday should have been processed and counted.

[00:21:04] I have no clue what this means practically, but I know it looks bad, wrong, and plenty of other descriptors.

[00:21:16] In another email to commissioners, Kudret says that election staff now has the total of uncounted absentee ballots at over 1,700.

[00:21:26] He also requested a meeting with the State Board of Elections to try to get answers to questions that could not be addressed locally.

[00:21:32] And the State Board of Elections said, sure, we will gladly accept a call with you on November 26th.

[00:21:42] And so we're not going to get answers to what the hell happened until after Thanksgiving.

[00:21:50] Really restoring our confidence in the system here, people.

[00:21:53] So the General Assembly in Raleigh is scheduled to convene at least two times before the balance of power is set to change in January when Democrats will likely gain one seat in the House.

[00:22:09] And then we're going to have a call on November 26th.

[00:22:11] And then we're going to have a meeting with the House Bill 10.

[00:22:11] And a piece by Andy Weber says during the session next week, so they're going to be coming back next week, the GOP leadership promises to bring House Bill 10 to the floor and to override a veto from Governor Roy Cooper that was handed down in late September.

[00:22:32] So House Bill 10, this is going to be the fight.

[00:22:35] It's got two different, very controversial things that most people actually agree with.

[00:22:40] We got school vouchers, the Opportunity Scholarship, or as QC News calls it, funding to a private school voucher program.

[00:22:55] It's the Opportunity Scholarship Program.

[00:22:59] They're increasing the funding because there are too many people trying to get access to the vouchers to get out of the public schools.

[00:23:09] Cooper accused the idea, which I'm not really sure how you accuse an idea, but we're just going to go with it, accused the idea of being devastating for education across the board.

[00:23:22] The Speaker of the House, Tim Moore, said, yep, North Carolinians are actually on our side on this.

[00:23:27] There are some families who want to have an opportunity to have a choice.

[00:23:32] Yeah, that's the whole point.

[00:23:33] And by the way, vouchers are popular.

[00:23:35] It is the majority opinion that vouchers are good.

[00:23:40] People would like to see them.

[00:23:42] People would like to have them.

[00:23:43] People who are unaware of them then become aware of them, and then they're like, oh, I want some of them.

[00:23:49] So it's a majority view.

[00:23:50] It's kind of like voter ID that Democrats fought.

[00:23:53] So there's that.

[00:23:54] So that's one part of the bill.

[00:23:56] The other part of the bill in HB 10 contains language requiring Gary Not My Fault McFadden, the sheriff of Mecklenburg County, and all sheriffs, actually, to cooperate with federal immigration officials.

[00:24:13] Again, another popular piece of legislation, another popular idea.

[00:24:21] HB 10.

[00:24:23] While the override vote is set for November 19th, Republicans are not revealing what else they want to get done for that session and another one in December.

[00:24:32] Their vote on the 19th could be the last override before they lose their super majority in the House.

[00:24:38] And then you get Josh Stein taken over in the governor's mansion.

[00:24:43] And Republicans insist that this will not change their legislative priorities.

[00:24:47] Right.

[00:24:48] They're still going to run their bills.

[00:24:49] The bills may look a little different, may have some things in there, but they only need to peel away one Democrat.

[00:24:57] And, you know, Democrats.

[00:25:00] Need to decide whether they're going to continue on the path that they have been on that has led them to lose repeatedly.

[00:25:10] Right.

[00:25:11] Or they could try to join Republicans in passing legislation in a bipartisan way that people want to see passed.

[00:25:21] Right.

[00:25:22] It's totally up to them.

[00:25:24] We'll see what.

[00:25:25] I'm just kidding.

[00:25:25] We're not going to see.

[00:25:26] We know what they're going to do.

[00:25:27] They're going to.

[00:25:27] Yeah, they're going to obstruct.

[00:25:28] That's their jam.

[00:25:29] All right.

[00:25:30] That'll do it for this episode.

[00:25:31] Thank you so much for listening.

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[00:25:46] Again, thank you so much for listening.

[00:25:48] And don't break anything while I'm gone.