The furor over that affiliated committees mess is not dying down. I had been hearing that Speaker Tim Moore and President Pro Tem Phil Berger have been getting an earful from angry party activists.

We got our hands on one example of the angry communications being directed to these two GOP legislative leaders. Here’s Moore County GOP chairman John Rowderdink giving Moore and Berger his two cents:

Grassroots Republicans in North Carolina are deeply disappointed with the recent passage of HB 373 and/or SB 119. Judging from the conversations I have had with Republican activists here in Moore County and in other parts of the state, we see these bills as seriously undermining the North Carolina Republican Party. I can only speculate about what your rationale was for pursuing these bills. You may have been opposed to the election of Hasan Harnett as Party Chairman, you may be concerned about the present financial condition of the party, or it may be some combination of these and other factors. I only know one thing for certain. Given the facts are they are, you could have chosen to work with our party to strengthen it, or you could have chosen to undermine it, and you chose the latter. That you have taken such action to undermine our party in the immediate run-up to such an important election is deeply divisive. You seem to think that the North Carolina Republican Party will be whatever you want it to be; that the control of the party will exist wherever you want it to exist. You are wrong. If you someday choose to implement the affiliated party committees as outlined in these bills, you will find the party to be an empty shell. The North Carolina Republican Party cannot be successful without the grassroots people who roll up their sleeves during every election to knock on doors, distribute campaign materials, plant signs, and do all the other things loyal, faithful Republicans always do. These are the people whose trust you have violated. We are disappointed.

I hate to be such a pessimist, but the only way I think these guys (Moore and Berger) would give a hoot about protests like this is if you have a four, five, or six-figure check in your other hand when you hand them your letter.

Shoe leather and sweat equity CAN beat the PACs / special interests machine. (See the David Brat – Eric Cantor primary race in Virginia.) But it takes some extremely hard work. One would hope that the fate of our state and nation would make the hard work well worth it.

Want to make sure these guys get the point? Put more than a few of them in the unemployment line on primary election day (March 15).