Former Governors’ Opposition of Amendments Driven By Consultants?

RALEIGH – Behind the scenes of big politics are usually some of those creatures that make politics seem like such a dirty word in the first place. One species of said creatures in the Old North State is that of the unprincipled, yet always in demand political consultants.

It turns out that the recent spectacle of a bipartisan group of all loving former governors coming out to oppose a couple constitutional amendments may have been put on by the creatures that specialize in that sort of thing.

DH:

“The state’s drivebys are captivated by the fact that all living former governors came out against TWO of the proposed constitutional amendments on the November ballot. Now, it appears the man behind the curtain on this gubernatorial protest is none other than uber-consultant Paul Shumaker — the mastermind of the 2018 congressional campaigns of Scott Dacey and Robert Pittenger.”

Letters sent to the legislature communicating opposition to these amendments on behalf of some of these governors were sent out by Shumaker and another consultant.

Shumaker not only advised the losing congressional primary campaigns of moderate Republicans Scott Dacey and Bob Pittenger, he also has done plenty of work with the U.S. senators Richard Burr and Thom Tillis – not exactly a crowd representative of conservative Republican values.

Worse, this consultant is a driving force behind the Orwellian named ‘Conservatives for clean Energy’ effort and a general champion of policies to subsidize wind and solar energy in our state.

Consultants like these are why it is so hard to actually affect conservative changes in state government with out it being watered down or outright gutted, despite the fact of a Republican super-majority on Jones Street.

They are anathema to limited government and maximum liberty and thrive on the backroom ecosystem that drives much of politics in Raleigh and D.C.

There are all sorts of other knocks against Shumaker here.