Saturday, August 31, 2024

THE CASH STUFF FOR SEPT. 5, 2024

 

                                                 NC AUDITOR JESSICA HOLMES


                                                   FORMER STATE AUDITOR Beth Wood


WHY IS FORMER AUDITOR

BETH WOOD THROWING 

SHADE ON JESSICA HOLMES?

By Cash Michaels

An analysis


Last week, headlines were brimming  in North Carolina’s political circles 

when disgraced former NC State Auditor Beth Wood, a Democrat, suddenly, after being forced to leave office after 15 years last December, not only endorsed conservative Republican state auditor candidate Dave Boliek, but blasted her successor, current State Auditor Democrat Jessica Holmes, telling both WRAL-TV and The News and Observer newspaper in Raleigh that Holmes, “ …doesn’t have a clue;”“…was picked because of race and gender, hoping to make her more electable;” is “not qualified;” “…clearly, ...does not understand what the function of that job is;” and “...can't lead what you yourself don't understand.” 

Top Democrats, from the chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party to Gov. Roy Cooper’s office, immediately shot back, noting that Wood was no longer respected after she pled guilty to misusing state-owned vehicles for her personal use, resulting in a hit-and-run drunk-driving accident in December 2022, only to now return to the public eye to demean her Black female successor and endorse Holmes’ Republican opponent in November.

But why is Wood stepping out on such a long limb now? Knowing that she’s persona non grata in the Democratic Party, why openly use her name to not just promote Republican Dave Boliek, even though he admittedly has no certified public accountant experience qualifying him to lead the NC Auditor’s Office, but trash incumbent Holmes, who has successfully been on the job since last December when Gov. Cooper appointed her?

Thus far, in answer to the controversy, Holmes has only issued a statement, which says in part, “I inherited an incredibly competent but demoralized staff, and audits that were several years old, some of which were fiscally irresponsible and /or politically or personally motivated fishing expeditions intended to make headlines as opposed to making a difference to ensure the public’s trust in government spending.”

“I stand by my approach, and statutory responsibility, to be the state’s “independent” auditor, to be solutions-oriented to prevent fraud, waste and abuse, and to call it out without bias or political puppeteering.”

Holmes’ statement is loaded with allegations that the state Auditor’s Office she took over nine months ago was beset not only with low morale (she lost several members of the staff upon arriving), who, despite their professionalism, were previously forced to produce “…audits that were several years old, some of which were fiscally irresponsible and or politically or personally motivated fishing expeditions intended to make headlines…”

In short, that’s an indictment of former Auditor Wood, and the alleged manner she conducted business during her tenure there.

Add to that sources within state government that confirm that during her tenure, Wood developed good relationships with legislative Republicans, and specifically former  Gov. Pat McCrory.

Given the unceremonious way she was drummed out of office nine months ago, being dismissive now of her Democratic successor, and fully supportive of Holmes’ Republican opponent, seems to make more sense.

Last April, Dave Boliek, a staunch MAGA conservative Republican, notably led the effort to defund DEI efforts on UNC-Chapel Hill University’s campus as chair of the Board of Trustee’s Budget Committee.

As a result, $2.5 million was removed from the budget that funded the UNC DEI office, forcing it to close. Boliek described the elimination of diversity, equity and inclusion policies from the UNC - Chapel Hill campus as “nondiscrimination.”

Boliek has also said if elected state auditor, he would create an “Office of Election Integrity,” even though North Carolina has almost no instances of voter corruption on record.

And Boliek, during a recent candidates’ forum in Cary, came out in support of MAGA state supt. of Public Instruction candidate Michele Morrow, who has touted attending the January 6th takeover of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., and has called for the execution of former Pres. Barack Obama by firing squad on pay-per-view television.

Despite all of the above, Wood told the N&O that her endorsement of Boliek “…was based solely on which candidate she felt has ‘the competencies, the experience, and the expertise to run that agency.’ “I’m just shocked that people are up in the air because I’ve picked a Republican,” Wood continued. “It’s not about party to me, it’s never been about party. It’s about who’s the most qualified.” 

Despite Wood’s opposition, Auditor Holmes has been endorsed for election by most of the state Democratic Party’s top elected leadership, and recently, SEANC (the State Employees Association of North Carolina).

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                                                          LT GOV. MARK ROBINSON


                                                 NC ATTORNEY GENERAL JOSH STEIN

IS ROBINSON’S LOSING CAMPAIGN

HURTING TRUMP’S NUMBERS

IN NORTH CAROLINA?

By Cash Michaels


After weeks of unceasing rhetorical battering, and with just nine more weeks to go before the November 5th election, the gubernatorial political campaign of Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson is in serious trouble.

According to the most recent reporting, Robinson, who is seeking to be elected the first Black governor in North Carolina history, is trailing Democratic opponent Attorney General Josh Stein badly in two of the latest polls released..

In the High Point University/SurveyUSA poll released August 22nd, Stein led Robinson 48% to 34%, a 14 point lead. 18% were undecided.

The Elon University poll, taken August 2-9, wasn’t much better.

In that survey of registered voters, Stein topped Robinson in the favorable column, 44% to 30%. Again, a 14 point lead.

Considered to be one of the top gubernatorial races in the nation, the contest between fiery Black MAGA Republican Robinson and Gov. Roy Cooper loyalist Stein has been marked by one key factor - money, and who has the most of it.

According to North Carolina campaign analyst Thomas Mills in his weekly “Politics NC” newsletter, a campaign ad tracking service that reports advertising spending in realtime called AdImpact reports that Robinson’s campaign only has $1 million in advertising reserved between now and November 5th, Election Day.

Mills writes that that’s less than a week’s worth of advertising in a statewide media buy.

Meanwhile, the Josh Stein campaign has more than $16 million in advertising reserved for that same period, Mills adds. Stein has been outspending Robinson in ads 3 to 1 since the March primaries.

Unless the national Republican Party sends some big dollars to North Carolina in a hurry to help Robinson, not only has he been outgunned when it comes to the number of campaign ads needed to combat the literal $46 million onslaught Stein’s campaign and others have spent defining Robinson not only as a staunch opponent of abortion rights, but someone, who, along with his wife, allegedly once ran a daycare center which was cited by the state Dept. of Health and Human Services as being found dangerous for the children looked after there.

Robinson and his wife have denounced those ads, and charged that Stein’s wife, who works for NCDHHS, is responsible for leaking that report to her husband’s campaign. Stein has denied the charge.

Meanwhile, the sudden emergence of Democratic VP Kamala Harris as a formidable opponent to former Republican Pres. Donald Trump has become a problem, many observers say. In just over a month, Harris has taken a national polling lead over Trump in several battleground swing states, and is running a statistical dead heat with Trump here in North Carolina presently. In fact, Cook's Political Report, now moves North Carolina from leaning 

Republican to tossup, meanIng that Harris can win it in November.

Trump narrowly won North Carolina over Pres. Joe Biden in 2020.

Are Robinson’s bad polling numbers affecting what was once seen as a solid Trump lead in the Tar Heel state when Pres. Joe Biden was still running for re-election?

Trump did endorse Robinson for governor, calling him “Martin Luther King on steroids,” and Robinson likewise has endorsed Trump, so theoretically they share the same voters. But if Robinson can’t energize his campaign, and continues to flounder, while Stein puts further distance between the two, observers say that can only help Harris possibly win North Carolina and its 16 Electoral College votes.

“Trump is being weighed down by a very unpopular Republican candidate for governor,” Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s former chief of staff, told News Nation on Aug. 17.

“Trouble and dissension down ballot can have an effect on party turnout, which can influence the results at the top of the ticket,”  Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, told the Associated Press. 

For his part, Robinson, who is now on the campaign trail, rejects Mulvaney’s concern.

“I don't believe that at all,” he told a Raleigh television station outside of a campaign stop at a local Beaufort County restaurant. “When you put your ear to the ground and you hear what's going on — you see most of the people that are in here right now? What was the gear that they had on? Mark Robinson, Donald Trump. We're arm-in-arm.”

Though Election Day is nine weeks away, absentee voting begins Sept. 6th when mail-in ballots are sent out. So Mark Robinson does not have long before voting starts in North Carolina to turn his electoral fortunes around.

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Thursday, August 29, 2024

CASH COMMENTARY FOR SEPT. 2, 2024


                                                                     CASH MICHAELS

                          THE BETH WOOD TRAGEDY

by Cash Michaels


        When I was a teenager, I dated a girl named Carla who once told me she couldn’t get up in the morning unless she knew other people in the world were feeling as miserable as she was every day.

Needless to say, Carla and I went out on all of maybe three dates, and never got any closer - physically or otherwise -  than disco dancing on two of them.

Former NC Auditor Beth Wood reminds me of Carla.

Gee, on second thought, maybe I’m being a bit too harsh…on Carla.

What Wood pulled on current State Auditor Jessica Holmes last week was low, selfish, petty, transparent and racist. Hard to believe Wood was ever a Democrat, given the to-a-tee deranged MAGA behavior she’s displaying toward the Black woman, also a Democrat, who was appointed by Gov. Cooper to replace Wood last December after the former longtime auditor - in office since 2009 -  disgraced herself violating the law (pleading guilty to drunk driving, crashing a state-owned vehicle into a parked car, then running from the scene) and violating the very essence of what North Carolina taxpayers were paying her over 15 years in office NOT to do - namely betray our trust and the mission of the NC State Auditor’s Office by using state-owned vehicles for her own personal errands.

I don’t care what you are - Democrat, mineral or vegetable. What Wood pulled in December 2022 with that drunk-driving crash incident, followed by being indicted and pleading guilty in Superior Court months later on two misdemeanor counts of misusing government property, cast aspersions on the integrity and hard work of her office, and all 120+ people working there at the time.

According to Wake District Attorney Lorrin Freeman, “…Wood had used the [state-owned] vehicle between 2021 and 2022 for over a dozen trips to a hair salon, more than 40 shopping trips to Knightdale, and over two dozen trips to spas.”

So even Stevie Wonder could see that when Gov. Roy Cooper was looking for someone not only to fill out the rest of Wood’s unexpired term after her welcomed resignation, and also to run for the seat in 2024, he needed someone with unquestioned integrity, honesty and willingness to do all she or he could to earn the public’s respect back for the critical work that the NC Auditor’s Office does for the taxpayers of this state - namely root out government waste and corruption, regardless of party affiliation.

Cooper wanted someone in charge that he could trust wouldn’t grab a new state-owned Chevy to go glam shopping at the mall, or binge-drinking with the gals.

Someone who had enough respect for the people of North Carolina to behave themselves when no one was looking.

That someone, Gov. Cooper decided, was Jessica Holmes.

The fact that Holmes - a labor attorney by trade, and a former two-term member of the Wake County Board of Commissioners who, as chairman, oversaw a $1.5 billion budget - had zip-zero-nada experience as a trained or experienced government certified public accountant, apparently was not a concern to the governor.

Old enough, and mature enough to appreciate the opportunity, yet young enough to work very hard for the citizens of North Carolina, Ms. Holmes dug in, apparently using common sense and lots of heart, to guide her through her new challenge.

“I’m here today not because I’m Black or not because I’m a woman, but because I’m the person to do the job, and my credentials back that up,” Ms. Holmes said when the governor introduced her as his selection to replace Wood.

Of course things at the Auditor’s Office went slow at first with the dramatic transition. But Holmes is bright, determined, and dedicated. Thus far, she’s done nothing to embarrass her office, her governor or herself. She wears her heart on her sleeve, because coming from the small community of Maple Hill in Pender County, Holmes was brought up to care about her neighbors, to care about people.

Add to that her tremendous love for children and the elderly, and you have someone who wants more than anything, to make government work for all citizens. After all, that’s the essence of her job - making sure that every taxpayer dollar paid is doing what it’s supposed to do for citizens.

Inherent in all of this is the fact that Gov. Cooper trusted the staff at the Auditor’s Office - folks Wood herself calls “a well-oiled machine” - to continue to do their jobs efficiently, and help their new boss learn the ropes along the way.

According to Auditor Holmes, that’s exactly what has happened.

“I inherited an incredibly competent but demoralized staff, and audits that were several years old, some of which were fiscally irresponsible and or politically or personally motivated fishing expeditions intended to make headlines as opposed to making a difference to ensure the public’s trust in government spending,” Holmes said in a statement to The News and Observer. “I stand by my approach, and statutory responsibility, to be the state’s “independent” auditor, to be solutions-oriented to prevent fraud, waste and abuse, and to call it out without bias or political puppeteering.”

Under Holmes, the Auditor’s Office uncovered almost $700,000 in fraudulent university-issued credit card spending at Fayetteville State University; uncovered two people illegally allowed to live in the Town Hall of Fremont with their pets for six months, along with  “More than $230,000 paid to the former town administrator and former payroll clerk for services performed from 2014 through 2021 not reported to the IRS,” according to The News and Observer; in addition to other falsified payroll records, fiduciary and personnel records violations of the public trust.

And now, State Auditor Holmes is working with state agencies and local governments in hopes of preventing this kind of waste and corruption in the future.

Hmmm…sounds like good, common sense leadership in ferreting this stuff out to me.

Now along comes charming Beth Wood.

Apparently, despite claiming that she’s doing just fine these days, after her disgraceful exit from state government nine months ago, Wood still can’t let go of the fact that she didn’t leave on her own terms.

In interviews with WRAL-TV and The News and Observer, Wood was gleefully wearing out her Wicked Witch of the West routine when it came to Jessica Holmes.

“ She doesn’t have a clue.”

“You can't lead what you yourself don't understand.”

“I think she was picked because of race and gender, hoping to make her more electable.”

“Wood said [Holmes being in office since December 2023] doesn’t count for much because she believes Holmes is “not qualified” to lead the office.” 

“…clearly, she does not understand what the function of that job is.” 

Mess right out of the MAGA Republican songbook. OK, so far, I’ve given you Beth Wood’s low, selfish, petty and racist MAGA talk.

But now for her transparency.

My great sources in state government tell me that when Wood was still there, years ago, she was known to get along quite swimmingly with the Republicans, and particularly Gov. Pat McCrory. So the fact that she now admits to virtually job interviewing current Republican state auditor candidate Dave “I hate DEI” Boliek several times, not only does not surprise me, but tells me, in the words of current Auditor Jessica Holmes, that when she first got there nine months ago, she found, "...audits that were several years old, some of which were fiscally irresponsible and or politically or personally motivated fishing expeditions intended to make headlines as opposed to making a difference to ensure the public’s trust in government spending."

        If I'm interpreting Auditor Holmes' statement properly, she allegedly found evidence of her predecessor using the State Auditor's office to fulfill a "political or personal" agenda.

        Guess what? That's exactly what Dave "MAGA" Boliek wants to do if he gets in there, and why, in my opinion, Wood is pushing so hard for him to succeed her.

        So he can conveniently coverup her alleged "...audits that were several years old, some of which were fiscally irresponsible and or politically or personally motivated fishing expeditions intended to make headlines..., " not to mention do some damage himself.

Boliek is a conservative ideologue who is NOT a trained CPA either, and certainly has less experience than Jessica Holmes at this point because she’s been in that office for the past nine months. Wood says Boliek has impressed her with his attitude that he can do the job. That tells me that Wood, despite her vigorous denials, not only politically identifies with him, but needs him or his type in that office for a reason.

 Obviously, homegirl’s days as a loyal Democrat have long been over. 

Instead of realizing where she went wrong with her past reckless behavior, all of a sudden, disgraced former public official Beth Wood decides she knows what’s best for the NC Auditor’s office she brought shame to, and demands not only to still pick her own successor nine months after being shamed into leaving, but has the unmitigated gall to cross party lines to choose someone SHE KNOWS the NC Democratic Party and Gov. Cooper would never go for.

Either the woman has lost it, or something has been cooked in that kitchen Wood doesn't want us all to smell. I strongly suspect something is up here, and getting an honest broker like Jessica Holmes out of the way is part of the strategy.

Boliek may be a good family man, friendly, and even go to church every Sunday and all that, but back in April, he headed up the Budget Committee of the UNC - Chapel Hill Board of Trustees, and led the way towards defunding $2.5 million from all diversity, equity and inclusion efforts on campus, closing the diversity office there. 

         And then claimed he was doing so for the cause of “nondiscrimination.” 

         I'm sure Dr. King would have approved, Dave, after a tortured roll in his grave.

And if elected state auditor, Boliek says he wants to create an “office of election integrity,” as if North Carolina is rife with imagined MAGA voter fraud.

Plus, Boliek recently endorsed crazy Michele Morrow, the MAGA state superintendent of Public Instruction candidate who says she wants to see former President Barack Obama shot by a firing squad on pay-per-view TV, among other off the wall MAGA foolishness.

This is who Beth Wood is impressed with and wants to succeed her in the NC Auditor’s Office - a sorry, right-wing, anti-diversity, election denying MAGA cartoon character straight out of Rocky and Bullwinkle!

Sorry, Beth, but that Dave Boliek dog you're backing just don’t hunt for anyone but Republicans. Might as well throw him in the toilet along side Mark Robinson, Michele Morrow and Dan Bishop, and flush, ‘cause that kind of NC MAGA politician is going down the drain this fall.

I don't know what you're specifically allegedly up to, but your Dave Boliek endorsement smells to the highest heavens.

Needless to say, the Beth Wood story is a tragic one. Instead of leaving NC state government heralded for her stellar work after 15 years, Wood's name, picture and the word “disgraced” will occupy the same space in the history books of this state for the rest of time.

In an interview with the N&O, Wood had the yams to proclaim that her endorsement of Boliek “…was based solely on which candidate she felt has ‘the competencies, the experience, and the expertise to run that agency.’ “I’m just shocked that people are up in the air because I’ve picked a Republican. It’s not about party.”

The poor woman, in my opinion, is full of copious amounts of crap, and if she thinks any Democrats worth their salt are going to listen to her about anything, let alone Jessica Holmes, she’s fooling herself.

And believe me, the joyous way Democrats are feeling these days about Black female Democratic candidates, and one in particular…well let’s just say pulling this nonsense a week after the best DNC Convention ever is crappy timing to say the least!

Give me an honest, forthright public servant willing to work hard to serve all the citizens any day, every day, versus someone who has proven themselves to be so self-destructive, petty and blind to the fact, that she vindictively strikes out because she believes she’s entitled to.

How did NC Democratic Party Chairwoman Anderson Clayton put it ? “The opinion of a disgraced auditor who misused State property, in direct conflict to the whole point of their job, and has now endorsed a MAGA election-denier, won’t change our mind.”

By the way,  Clayton also used the opportunity to ask her followers on ‘X” (formally Twitter) to show some love, and donate to the Holmes campaign. Hey, after the BS Wood put her through, Jessica deserves every dollar!

I feel so very sorry for you, Beth Wood. I hope you and your new MAGA Republican political boyfriend, Dave Boliek, have a great life together.

Especially after this November's elections are over.

Hey, maybe you two could hook up with Carla?!!!

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