North Carolina Open Thread: Cawthorn's Corner

NORTH CAROLINA OPEN THREAD Sunday, May 8, 2022

364th Weekly Edition 

This is a weekly feature of North Carolina Blue. We hope this weekly platform gives readers interested in North Carolina politics a place to share their knowledge, insight and inspiration as we work on taking back our state from some of the most extreme Republicans in the nation. Please join us every week. You can also join the discussion in four other weekly State Open Threads. If you are interested in starting your own state blog, weekly to occasionally, we will list your work below.

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Please jump the fold for links to stories and opinion. The first link is an opinion piece from this morning’s News & Observer. The rest are reposted from my weekly collection of Madison Cawthorn shockers at DKos Asheville.

Thanks for reading and contributing. Happy Mothers Day!

In Madison Cawthorn’s NC district, it’s not the scandals that matter to voters

News&Observer, SARA PEQUEÑO, 5/8/2022

MARION - About a year and a half ago, Madison Cawthorn signs were all over Marion, a community of about 7,700 in one of the easternmost parts of his district. The election results corroborate this: he won McDowell County by 67 percent in the 11th Congressional District runoff, and with nearly 72 percent in the 2020 general election. But if you drive around Marion this week, the only signs you’ll see for Cawthorn are at the McDowell County Board of Elections.

It’s not that similar signs are missing entirely in Marion. Matthew Burril, a McDowell County native and one of the eight candidates taking on Cawthorn in the Republican primary, has signs all over. The candidates aren’t missing, either: Chuck Edwards, a state senator with support from U.S. Sen Thom Tillis, held an event at Bear Creek Marina Wednesday night.

Backdropped by Lake James and the Blue Ridge Mountains, Edwards told the small crowd he decided to run “when our congressman turned his back on us and moved” to run in the 13th Congressional District, only to return to NC-11 when the maps were drawn again. It’s a sentiment other Republicans shared this week, including those who supported the freshman congressman beforehand. Cawthorn may have earned the ire of Democrats before he got elected two years ago, but at least some Republicans now seem tired of him, too.

From DKos Asheville Open Thread, Saturday, 5/7/22

“He went from being the future of the Republican Party to now an embattled member of Congress, a reckless member of Congress, an immature member of Congress,” said Dr. Chris Cooper, a political professor at Western Carolina University. "It is a shock a day. Every time I think I can't be shocked that another video comes out, another revelation goes out.”

Madison Cawthorn May Have a New Ethics Violation to Handle

Daily Beast, Roger Sollenberger, 5/5/2022

Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) has been embroiled in scandal after scandal. But this one, while much more traditionally Washington, could still be a problem.

Overpaying a staff member hardly seems like Rep. Madison Cawthorn’s biggest scandal these days, but a Daily Beast investigation into Cawthorn’s compensation for his chief of staff reveals a cut-and-dried ethics violation—one his office appears to have tried (and failed) to skirt.

Congressional pay data shows that North Carolina Republican paid his chief of staff, Blake Harp, $131,278 in 2021. That actually ranks Harp at the low end of compensation for chiefs of staff in Congress.

But why he was paid that specific amount could be highly relevant.

House ethics rules stipulate that senior congressional staff can only earn $29,595 in outside income each year. According to filings with the Federal Election Commission, Cawthorn’s campaign paid Harp a combined $73,237 in direct payments and payments to his LLC, EMP Strategies.

U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn gave cousin $141K in campaign and taxpayer funds, records show

WRAL, Bryan Anderson, 5/6/2022

A relative and close adviser to U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn has pocketed more than $141,000 from taxpayers and campaign donors since 2020, according to congressional and campaign payroll records.

The documents also show a roughly eight-month period during which the 26-year-old North Carolina congressman paid Stephen Smith, his second cousin, simultaneously from Cawthorn’s congressional office and campaign. The payments were addressed to Smith at a Hendersonville address. The address matches that of Cawthorn's, state voter registration records show.

U.S. House members are prohibited from hiring immediate family members, such as first cousins. But the requirement doesn’t extend to second cousins. Nonetheless, the payments sharpen the focus on the nature of the relationship between Cawthorn and Smith and raise questions from political observers about the perception of family self-dealing.

Voters in Madison Cawthorn's North Carolina district have very mixed feelings about the freshman lawmaker as controversies swirl before his May 17 primary

Business Insider, Camila DeChalus, 5/5/2022

Republican Rep. Madison Cawthorn is in trouble.

He's twice brought guns to airport checkpoints, allegedly drove without a valid license, made dubious claims of cocaine-fueled orgies, called Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a "thug," is facing a congressional financial investigation, and, most recently, appeared in a leaked video depicting the conservative lawmaker naked in bed while simulating sex with another man.  

These and other recent controversies — yes, there are more — have made Cawthorn a target within his own party ahead of a May 17 primary that could determine his future in Congress, if he has one. And some voters preparing to cast their ballots in North Carolina's 11th congressional district, which covers much of the state's western region, have decidedly mixed feelings about Cawthorn's run for reelection.

"He's dangerous," said Philip, a longtime resident of Cawthorn's hometown of Hendersonville, North Carolina, who declined to give his last name. "He has got to get out of here … He has lost a lot of respect in this community."

Court mulls ruling that blocked NC Rep. Cawthorn challenge

Associated Press, GARY D. ROBERTSON, 5/3/2022

A federal appeals court on Tuesday questioned whether a lower court got it right when it blocked a challenge of North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn’s candidacy by voters who cited a section of the Constitution addressing insurrection as disqualifying him.

Three judges on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, heard arguments in a lawsuit that the first-term Republican congressman filed to derail the formal challenge sent to the State Board of Elections from going forward.

U.S. District Judge Richard Myers ruled for Cawthorn in March and prevented the board from formally examining whether he should remain on ballots, and the voters appealed. Cawthorn is one of eight candidates on the May 17 primary ballot for the 11th Congressional District. There's no timetable on when the judicial panel will rule, but the court did accelerate the appeal process. insurrection."

Cawthorn addresses video released by opposition group showing him naked in bed ‘being crass’

CNN, Mary Kay Mallonee, 5/5/2022

An opposition group that is actively campaigning against Rep. Madison Cawthorn has released a video clip appearing to show the North Carolina Republican naked in bed and, as Cawthorn described it, “being crass with a friend” and “acting foolish.”

After the video appeared on social media, Cawthorn tweeted, “A new hit against me just dropped. Years ago, in this video, I was being crass with a friend, trying to be funny. We were acting foolish, and joking. That’s it. I’m NOT backing down. I told you there would be a drip drip campaign. Blackmail won’t win. We will.”

CNN has not been able to independently confirm the video. CNN has reached out to Cawthorn for comment. It’s the latest controversy for the 26-year-old, who is running for reelection with early voting already underway. The primary will be held on May 17.

Madison Cawthorn: US lawmaker 'won't back down' after naked tape leak

BBC, 5/6/2022

Thanks again, I hope you have a safe and happy day, see you next week.