John,

Three weeks ago, I told you to expect a three-act play for the latest government shutdown saga.

Act One: The Speaker pretends to agree to the demands issued by his right-flank.

Complete.

Act Two: The Speaker lets that effort fail, then throws his right-flank under the bus and gives them nothing by agreeing to a normal budget extension, as he was always going to do.

Complete, as of yesterday.

Act Three: The right-flank pretends to be angry and goes on TV to blast the Speaker for his weakness.

Pending. This is what you’ll see this week.

It’s just the latest performance of Congressional Outrage Theater, but now you have a playbill to follow along - and, hopefully, to spread some awareness about how contrived this stuff is so we become less susceptible to this kind of manipulation going forward.

Mark Robinson, man of destiny

Our country got a big dose of this gentleman last week.

I met him when I served in the state Senate. One of his duties as LG was to preside over our sessions, but he usually skipped them so I didn’t see him much.

There was one time he called gay people “filth” and a member of the state Senate waited until he was with us and then gave a short speech about how his words were inappropriate.

After our session was over, he followed her into the hallway and yelled at her.

And now, his behavior has probably made North Carolina the second most important state for this presidential election, after Pennsylvania.

Going into this week, an average of the polls had North Carolina almost exactly tied. Even a shift of a few thousand votes could swing the presidential election - or my election, for that matter.

His reported behavior is so extreme that the blast radius is going to envelope lots of other candidates. The truth is, Mark Robinson has been the most popular person for his party in our state for several years, so lots of major candidates have fallen over themselves to be pictured with him and praise him.

For example, my opponent, Dan Bishop, called him “a thoughtful and learned student of history” who brings “a fresh perspective” and said he’s running for Attorney General to be Robinson’s “sidekick.”

Those were all weird things to say even before this episode, but now they’re a particular liability. He thought he was tying himself to a rocket, but it turned out to be an anchor. And here comes the descent.

The big national group that was funding Robinson ads just announced they’re canceling the rest of their ad buys and won’t be making any new ones.

And almost all of Robinson’s campaign staff just quit - reportedly after he refused their attempts to find some evidence to back up his claim that he’s been framed. For some reason, he didn’t want them taking a closer look.

As has often been said - frequently by John McCain - character is destiny. Mark Robinson has been on this path for a long time. For him, destiny no longer awaits - it has arrived.

Campaign update: You came through

The last time you heard from me, I told you the first attack ad against me was about to start running.

Sure enough, the next day my phone blew up with text messages from friends in Charlotte and Raleigh as the ad swept through those media markets.

The ad featured a scary narrator voice, stock footage of women walking through parking garages and entering their homes at night, and ominous rhetoric about crime.

Then it had a black and white picture of me while the narrator gravely intoned, “Jeff Jackson won’t keep you safe.”

I told you this was coming sooner than we expected, and you answered the call.

In fact, you came through in such a big way that we were up on TV the next day.

Thank you. That’s a big deal.

Our first ad is linked below, but before you watch it, here are the five things we were trying to convey:

1) I’m Jeff Jackson and I’m running for Attorney General, 2) I’ve been a prosecutor, 3) I’m a veteran, 4) I’ve got specific priorities that will make sense to you, and 5) I have a family and they’re an important part of my life.

That’s a lot for 30 seconds! Watch it here and tell me what you think:

And feel free to send that YouTube link to anyone you’d like. I’d appreciate it!

Zoom call, open to all

Tomorrow at 7pm we’re doing one of our regular campaign updates via Zoom. Everyone is welcome.

We do charge a little for admission, because it’s crunch time and that’s what we have to do.

But we’ve kept the price low to encourage as many people to join as possible.

It’s super informal, and there’s so much to talk about. I’ll give you a more detailed look at our race and take questions. You can go here to RSVP, and I hope to see you then.

Best,

Jeff Jackson