NC Dem Lawmaker Asked To Resign After Sexual Harassment Allegations

RALEIGH – During the height of the #MeToo campaign, in which it seemed celebrities and public personas were being outed as sexual predators every other day, press in North Carolina began wondering what kind of cretins could be exposed among the white haired gents int he N.C. General Assembly.

To be sure, these media were primarily interested in uncovering Republican improprieties with which they could do the Left’s bidding and help them ‘Break the Majority.’

Wednesday, a Leftist site dedicated to state politics and generally advancing policies that Karl Marx would be proud of, announced they had indeed uncovered a dirty old man prowling the halls of the legislature – Democrat Rep. Duane Hall.

“The first time Rep. Duane Hall made Jessie White feel uncomfortable was in early 2016.

That’s when she says Hall, a nascent star in the North Carolina Democratic Party and a state representative, ran into her at the Anchor Bar in Raleigh.

Hall, 51, was looking for a new legislative aide for his office. White, a top campaign official with multiple Democratic candidates for the state legislature, said she spoke with the lawmaker about the vacancy.

“That’s when he said he wouldn’t hire me unless I gained 100 pounds,” she said. “Because I was too pretty.”

[…]

[…] five sources—some of whom requested not to be named for fear of repercussions in their current jobs—detailed persistent sexual innuendo from the three-term legislator and, in some cases, repeated, unwanted sexual overtures.

[…]

The allegations include claims that the lawmaker harassed a woman and kissed her without her consent at a 2016 Equality N.C. gala, and that he kissed a party official without her consent at a Democratic function in summer 2016.”

So the Left’s fishing expedition has hooked one of their own for being a dirty old man that thinks his position should come with some extra ‘perks.’

Democratic leaders, from Gov. Roy Cooper, to the head of the N.C. Democratic Party and top minority leaders in the legislature are now calling for Hall to resign in light of the allegations.

All this comes as Hall was be pumped up for a possible statewide run.

“Two years ago, insiders suggested Hall would be an apt opponent to challenge U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, although Hall later opted out of the race. And this year, Hall is a rumored candidate for lieutenant governor in 2020, reportedly loaning his campaign $100,000 last year in what would be a key race for one of the state’s top political jobs.

At a June 2016 Democratic event in Raleigh, Hall kissed a party official without her consent, according to a Policy Watch source who witnessed the encounter. Sources who witnessed the incident said the individual immediately rebuked Hall for his actions.

And at an October 2016 gala for the LGBTQ rights group Equality N.C., two witnesses said Hall made persistent sexual advances toward an unidentified woman.

Ben Julen, a former Equality N.C. worker assisting with check-in for elected officials during the gala, said Hall was accosting the woman. “He just wouldn’t take no for an answer,” Julen said.

A second witness to that event, an advocate with connections to local progressive organizations, confirmed Julen’s account. She said the woman claimed Hall kissed her without her consent while he took a photo on his phone. When the woman demanded Hall delete the photo, he refused, according to the Policy Watch source, who added that she was ultimately forced to stand between Hall and the woman as a barrier.

[…]

White also related a story to Policy Watch of a second meeting with Hall in 2016, this time at the Green Light bar in Raleigh. White said she’d had a couple of drinks and “made the mistake” of mentioning her relationship problems to Hall.

Hall, she said, leaned in close and whispered in her ear, “If you give me two hours, you’ll forget about all those other guys.””

Unwanted sexual advances that are rebuffed are not a crime, but they do run afoul of the General Assembly’s ethics standards which bar such behavior.

In a body full of older, well-to-do men with a lot of perceived power, it is surprising that it took this long to uncover allegations of such behavior. It is not surprising that it is a politician like Hall.

Credit to those on the Left willing to call him out, but they are likely only concerned with clearing the deck so they can get an untarnished candidate in the race for his western Wake County district in 2018. Hall has a few challengers on the Right, and a couple women that filed Wednesday from the Left.

His resignation would open the seat up, but if he decides to forge ahead despite the allegations Roy Moore style a Republican would likely beat him. And that’d be good, because Hall is a Progressive Leftist that loves to rail against offshore drilling and whine about Republican reforms.

In any case, it’s be no loss for North Carolina voters to have this scandal sink Hall’s political prospects. Now, if only all the dirty laundry from leadership on both sides could be aired out, you’d likely find that unwanted advances are not the biggest problem on Jones Street, but rather the consensual escapades between lawmakers and lobbyists that reveal the true character of the Establishment that conservatives already have a sense of.

Read the rest of the damning report on Hall here.