NCDP Knives Out For Popular (Independent) Consultant Working With A “Republican”

RALEIGH – The Left’s knives are out for a long time political consultant that his typically worked for Democrats in the past. Brad Crone, founder of Campaign Connections, was the subject of a nasty blast from the N.C. Democratic Party cautioning Democratic candidates against working with him.

What did Crone do? Well, this Unaffiliated voter agreed to work with N.C. House lead budget writer and Rep. Nelson Dollar, who is a Republican (at least on the surface), and the Democrats reacted like a scorned lover:

“Today, the North Carolina Democratic Party publicly condemned campaign consultant and Raleigh-based media personality Brad Crone for creating a dark money effort on behalf of Rep. Nelson Dollar (R-Wake) in North Carolina House District 36 and possibly other Republicans after a document titled, “Independent Expenditure Campaign In Support of State Representative Nelson Dollar, R-NC 36 Wake County,” surfaced this weekend.

Dollar, the Republican General Assembly’s chief budget writer in the House of Representatives and the “House gatekeeper,” has been a key driver of Republicans’ reckless agenda that put the wealthy and well-connected ahead of everyday North Carolinians. His dangerous budgets have undercut public education, shifted our economy towards the wealthy and corporations and against our middle class, and blown a billion-dollar hole in our state budget. In short, Rep. Dollar is fundamentally opposed to the most basic values that bring Democrats together.”

The NCDP is giving Dollar way too much conservative credit here. Dollar is part of the House leadership troika that ‘holds all the cards’ as conservative Rep. John Blust lamented in his retirement announcement. But we’ll touch more on that later.

First, Brad Crone is guilty of one thing here – being an independent center-left political consultant that doesn’t play along with the NCDP leadership that has lurched further and further to the Left over the last decade or more. And that drives the Left nuts, apparently.

NCDP Condemns Media Personality Brad Crone’s Dark Money Effort to Elect Republicans https://t.co/OaYFxnbp3L #ncpol pic.twitter.com/nJv8A3sKb9

— NC Democratic Party (@NCDemParty) February 14, 2018

The problem is that what N.C. Democratic leadership ‘believes in’ these days is a radical departure from much of the Democratic base in the Old North State, Chapel Hill, Durham, and Asheville notwithstanding.

Blue Dogs and Dixie-crats are not typically fans of Marxist race-baiters that dwell in identity politics and put more of a fight on behalf of transgenders than blue collar workers hoping to keep more of their paycheck.

First in Freedom Daily caught up with Mr. Crone to get his take on being the target of the NCDP smear campaign:

“It’s sort of an indication of our politics today. I’m registered unaffiliated, will work for who I want to work for. I’ve been in the business for 26 years, people know my work, they know my reputation, they know my character, and I’ll let it stand at that.”

[…]

“I’m not moving to the center; I’ve been in the center for 26 years. I’m still in the center and I’ll stay in the center. I may get run over in the center, but that’s where I come from, that’s where I’m at, that’s where I’ll be.”

Crone is not leaving the NCDP; the NCDP ‘left’ Crone quite a long time ago with the hyper-progressive politics that earned them a super-minority in the legislature.

We’re not in the business of helping Democrats get elected, but if they had any clue at all they would recognize that Crone’s centrist approach to politics is the only chance they’ll ever have at making a dent in Republicans’ strong majorities.

That brings us back to Nelson Dollar. This new relationship may say more about Dollar, than it does Crone.

Dollar, as chief budget writer in the House, is a fan of spending a lot of your dollars. Despite taking credit for fiscal conservatism and state government reforms, Dollar has proposed spending about a BILLION more of your tax dollars than anyone else on Jones Street and even fought the changes the Medicaid that have put that program on a more manageable fiscal path.

Now, Dollar is working with a decidedly centrist consultant with a history of working with Democrats. That actually makes sense, but it won’t be reflected in his campaign ads for sure. Those will likely boast about his conservative principles that he conveniently forgets about once reelected.

So Crone and Dollar working together has told us what we already know about Dollar, but also incensed the radical Leftist leadership of the N.C. Democratic Party. Hopefully the former gets a strong conservative primary challenger, and the the latter isn’t careful, they’ll see their minority shrink even further.