ICYMI:

State Sen. Jeff Jackson Rips U.S. Senate Candidate Cal Cunningham

Raleigh, NC - It appears that Jeff Jackson agrees with the liberal DC establishment that a candidate should blow off voters and grassroots supporters, even if he is not willing to run a race utilizing those tactics.

In an audio recording from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, state Sen. Jeff Jackson is heard ripping into U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and candidate Cal Cunningham. Jackson criticized the lack of interaction with voters and Sen. Schumer's strategy, which isn't the first time it's been criticized. Then, in a stunning act of cowardice, Sen. Jackson endorsed Cunningham after learning of the audio. It seems that when a person doesn't have any legislative accomplishments, staying in the favor of party bosses from DC is the only way forward. From the National Review:

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer has taken a heavy-handed, top-down approach to selecting Democrats... putting his thumb on the scale for candidates willing to shun grassroots outreach in favor of a smile-and-dial, fundraising-first approach, according to an audio recording obtained exclusively by National Review.

In the recording, taken during a September 26 talk at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, North Carolina state senator Jeff Jackson describes the experience of courting Schumer while he was considering running for the Democratic nomination to challenge the state’s incumbent Republican senator, Thom Tillis, in 2020.

Jackson had grand ambitions: When he flew to Washington to meet with Schumer earlier this year, he told the minority leader that he was going to do “100 town halls in 100 days” and talk to as many North Carolinians as possible to get a feel for the electorate’s priorities. But Schumer, who had previously dispatched his staff to meet with Jackson at his home, had other plans.

“Wrong answer,” Schumer said when confronted with Jackson’s grassroots strategy, according to the account of their conversation Jackson gave at UNC Charlotte. “We want you to spend the next 16 months in a windowless basement raising money and then we’re going to spend 80 percent of it on negative ads about Tillis.”

“So, did I need his permission to run for that race? No,” Jackson said during his address at UNC Charlotte. "...I mean, they kind of tipped the scales in favor of not running.”

“Yes,” Jackson said when asked if Cunningham has been in “a windowless basement” since announcing his candidacy. “He hasn’t held a public event. He didn’t have a kickoff. This is like month three. He goes to Democratic-party events if you follow him, right — places where they’re going to say, ‘And everybody, Cal Cunningham is here!’ And he gets to be like, ‘Hey!’” (Jackson did not respond to a request for comment, but announced his endorsement of Cunningham hours after he was contacted and learned of the existence of the audio recording.)

http://www.nc.gop/