Business As Usual: Speaker Tim Moore Reelected Despite Corruption Controversy

RALEIGH – Speaker of the North Carolina House Rep. Tim Moore (Cleveland-NC) has been reelected by the Republican House Caucus, extending his hold on that post for another two years.

Moore has been in the news a little too much for his liking lately, amid state and federal investigations into possible corruption. He rakes it in with ‘part time’ gigs, and has been accused of using his official capacity as Speaker to enrich himself and friends in high places.

Apparently, though, the worries of appearing just as slimy as the Democrat majorities of years past were not enough to dissuade a majority of House Republicans from voting for his reelection.

Moore celebrated his vote of confidence with a press release:

“Becoming the best state for business, saving a record rainy day reserve for hurricane relief, and budgeting five consecutive teacher and state employee pay raises – these historic accomplishments for North Carolina didn’t happen overnight,” Moore said Wednesday.

“We will maintain North Carolina’s pro-growth policies that have grown the state economy, kept our promises to taxpayers, and prioritized public education to build the very best state in the nation for families and businesses.”

No doubt, the Republican led General Assembly has a respectable run of lowering taxes and practicing some fiscal conservatism. However, what the Speaker is also likely to maintain is a system that fills budgets with tens of millions in pork; plays venture capitalists with taxpayer money via ever-growing corporate incentive packages; ignorantly mangles judicial election laws that imperil important Republican Supreme Court Justices; and, casts a pall of possible corruption at the top that doesn’t serve to bolster the Party’s image in the least.

For the next two years we are assured leadership in the N.C. House is Republican, but not conservative. While (rightly) boasting of budget surpluses, the caucus has also boasted of spending more than Democrats. Instead of continuing to return money to the taxpayers who’ve earned it, they use it to expand state bureaucracy.

They have proven themselves beholden to lobbyists, running protection for the powerful hospital association at the expense of other healthcare providers and, most importantly, healthcare consumers. Under Moore, the REPUBLICAN legislature could only manage quasi-reforms to the State’s energy policies, cementing the kind of Big Government clean energy mandates championed by the Left. Moore’s leadership has played a central role in squashing gun rights legislation and pulling the plug on investigations into impeachable offenses by the Democratic Secretary of State, who was illegally (and knowingly) giving state notary licenses to illegal aliens.

So, while the next two years will likely be better for North Carolina than had Democrats taken over the majority in 2018, these next two years could be enough to insure Democrats do just that in future elections. Voters gave Republicans a clear mandate in the elections of 2010 to change the ‘Good Ol’ Boy’ culture on Jones Street and institute conservative policies. The follow through on the latter is still left wanting, and the former has been completely abandoned as the pull of power and money leads them to further entrench the culture at the expense of citizens. Those failures have likely contributed to all the ground Republicans lost in recent elections, and the Republican Caucus’ refusal to change course doesn’t bode well for the future.

No; the next two years will be business as usual. That’s precisely what we’re afraid of.