slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

By Brian Murphy, Jim Morrill and Ely Portillo, The Charlotte Observer

RALEIGH, N.C. - In a startling statement, Republican candidate Mark Harris on Thursday called for a new e******n in North Carolina's 9th Congressional District "to restore the confidence of v**ers."

Harris' statement came after a break in a hearing after he had testified about his dealings with Bladen County operative McCrae Dowless. On the stand, Harris said he suffered two strokes in January while hospitalized for a severe infection and was "struggling" to get through the hearing.

After hearing the evidence of absentee b****t fraud, Harris said, "I believe a new e******n should be called."

A member of North Carolina's State Board of E******ns had pressed Harris on why he didn't heed warnings from his son about hiring Dowless to run an absentee b****t operation in his 2018 campaign for Congress.
John Harris, an assistant U.S. attorney, had testified Wednesday that he tried to warn his father about dealing with Dowless, who is now at the center of allegations about v****g irregularities in the 9th District.
"It was painfully clear to me that your son was saying, 'Daddy, don't mess with this guy,'" board member Jeff Carmon told Harris on the fourth day of a hearing. "This is beyond a red f**g. This is your son ... who wanted to make sure you were protected."

John Harris' dramatic testimony Wednesday, which brought his father to tears, included emails from April 2017 in which he warned the candidate that Dowless might have been engaged in illegal v**e "harvesting," which other witnesses confirmed this week. John Harris even sent his father a copy of the law that bans v**e harvesting.

"I didn't take it as a major warning - 'Danger Ahead,'" Harris said Thursday. "He raised concerns (about Dowless). I did not consider John's (emails) to be a warning. I thought he was overreacting."
The candidate's testimony came on the fourth day of a hearing that could decide the unresolved congressional race. Harris leads Democrat Dan McCready by 905 v**es in unofficial returns in the district that runs from Charlotte to Bladen County.

The Harris campaign was on the defensive from the start Thursday.

E******ns officials announced the campaign had just turned over more than 800 pages of documents Wednesday night, long after the deadline. Harris attorney John Branch took responsibility for the late arrival. But Marc Elias, attorney for McCready, expressed surprise about emails and other documents that had "miraculously appeared."

"I feel frankly that a game of three-card Monte is going on," he told the board.

Harris described meeting Dowless through the intercession of a mutual friend, former Judge Marion Warren. Harris knew that Dowless had helped Todd Johnson win almost all absentee v**es in the 2016 GOP congressional primary.

In a 2017 email to Warren, one of the documents turned over Wednesday night, Harris said he wanted to meet "the guy whose absentee b****t project for Johnson could have put me in the U.S. House this term had I known and had he been helping us."

Harris said he met with Dowless and other local v**ers April 6, 2017, in Bladen County. When John Harris expressed concerns a day later, after having done an analysis of 2016 absentee v**es, Harris recalled saying, "John, it all comes down to relationships. ... "

He said he weighed his son's concerns against what he'd seen in Bladen and the description of his program he'd heard from Dowless.

"The relationships I felt was what caused him (Dowless) to be successful," he said. "I did have a comfort level at that point."

Harris said he took Dowless' word about the legality of his operation. He said he also asked his main consultant, Andy Yates, to weigh in
.
Yates testified over two days this week that Dowless' hiring was a "done deal" by the time he came on board in the summer of 2017. He also testified that for the most part he paid Dowless not on invoices but by verbal requests. E******ns officials say Yates' company, Red Dome Group, paid Dowless a total of $131,000 during the campaign.

In answer to questions, Harris said he didn't know about the lack of oversight until this week. "I did not know it was simply word of mouth," he told the board. "I was not keeping up with the checks and the money being spent down there until I saw your figures here."

Harris was asked about a check he wrote Dowless in May 2017 made payable to "Patriots for Progress," a political action committee. Kim Westbrook Strach, executive director of the board, asked him if he knew it was illegal for campaigns to coordinate with PACs set up for independent spending. He said he did not.
Carmon, the board member and a Democrat, concluded his questions to Harris with one more: "(Did) you just want to win?"

Visit The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.) at www.charlotteobserver.com

Liberty Tree

No Democrat would do this although they benefited from the same practice in California. By the way, the Charlotte Observer is just another Democrat mouthpiece.

bahmer

I did visit out in Charlotte, N.C. and it is a nice place to visit and play golf in I didn't engage in politics while there. Also the peaches fresh off of the tree are delicious and oh so juicy and sweet. I was visiting my sister in law and her husband who also loves to play golf. They have left Charlotte and have moved to Atlanta Georgia he is a Pastor and is now establishing a new business there.

Weasel Loc: In the Great State Of Indiana!!

After intense research on this matter I have to agree with you 100%.
California is a shark in their political practices.
Buyer beware!

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

There is a reasonable chance of meeting up with Bdamage on my next trip east. I believe he lives near Charlotte, and on the way to Greensboro...if I have my N.C. geography straight and in order.

bahmer

From where I live it was fourteen hours of driving to Charlotte and I am getting to old for that type if driving any more. The scenery is beautiful but one has to watch the road and that takes the fun out of driving. Plus the older I get the more tired I get while driving.

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

My understanding is that BearK travels up to your area every so often and tries to straighten you out.

bahmer

She lives in Tennessee and has relatives I believe that they are her children that live in Chicago area. So every so often she travels to Chicago and then they go on a cheese shopping tour up in Wisconsin and they usually go through Rockford on Interstate 90 so they sometimes take a break and drop her off so that we can talk for awhile and then they head back to Chicago after a bit. It's nice to see her every so often.

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

Then please respond, if you would, with your choice of a republican mouthpiece on this matter. Let's see how their facts differ.

Carol Kelly

That’s what I like to read. Thanks, Bahmer.

woodguru

This isn't about California, it's about North Carolina

woodguru

Show me the article that covers the proof that it was anything like what took place in North Carolina, meanwhile try reading what went on

https://www.npr.org/2019/02/21*696561080/email-shows-n-c-gop-candidate-sought-out-operative-accused-of-illegal-b****t-sch?utm_source=npr_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20190221&utm_campaign=breakingnews&utm_term=nprnews

woodguru

And for the record Harris did not call for a ree******n until the hearing was going so bad it resulted in a unanimous v**e for a ree******n.

Harris should be going to prison...spare us the "but what about California" drivel

Liberty Tree

It is about your hypocrisy in complaining about one small district while you support the same thing statewide when it is to your advantage. The only reason nothing will be addressed in California is because it is controlled by the corrupt Democrat party.

Carol Kelly

Amen.