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Doug Clark had a couple of questions when I filed this week's newspaper column: Why did I not use the name of Jeff Hyde's ally, and how important was it to include the URLs of the blogs mentioned?

My answers: Although the name is public and easy to find on blogs, including this one, it's not of great importance to this analysis of the story, the guy's not running for office, and leaving it out it seemed a simple kindness to the family; I told Doug I'd discussed this with a trusted adviser (thanks, Mom) and it seemed worth the clunky prose. The web addresses, I conceded, look terrible in print -- even moreso on the new, narrower pages -- but I think linking out is just the way we journalism now.

Thanks to Doug for listening. This concludes today's tour of the sausage factory. You can read the column  -- it's about the contest within the Guilford County Republican Party and its echoes of national politics -- after the jump.

Joe posts about a conversation with a couple who say the information about Bret Riddleberger really was discussed as a threat, concluding, "It appears to me that certain individuals within the county GOP owe Jeff Hyde and the Riddleberger's a public apology."

Reports of turmoil in the Republican Party are being heard across the country, and the Guilford County Republican Party is no different.

Yes, and that is the story the N&R seems to be missing in its half-hearted coverage of the GC GOP saga.

There's something happening here, and it goes well beyond the ugly personal politics of this election.

With the GC GOP election over, it's time to let the healing begin.

Or not:

Within the county GOP, we have some who are liberal on certain social issues.  There are some who think it is a great strategy politically to bow before the socialist Alma Adams obsequiously and kiss her ring to obtain her PAC endorsement.  There are some big Greensboro Coliseum supporters within the party.  Some have been friends, supporters and confidantes of City Councilman Zack Matheny.  (In fact, it would be extremely ironic if these particular folks were among those who were hyperconcerned about the past of one specific C4GC founder.)  And we have at least four non-conservative Republicans serving in local offices (and perhaps more)-- Matheny, Robbie Perkins, Linda Shaw and Mike Winstead.

Worse, some are Presbyterians.

The proposed alliance with the Constitution Party is an interesting idea. It's a group that takes what might charitably be called a loose constructionist view of the Constitution.

UPDATE:

I believe the C4GC organization has been fatally damaged in the past two weeks even if they don't realize it.

The public missteps, the paranoia, the unproven allegations, and the refusal to embrace political realities have taken their toll. No amount of passionate commentary or political challenges at public meetings will matter if you aren't taken seriously, and that's too bad when there are serious issues involved.  But without personal credibility, your message will fall on deaf ears and that is something that is very disappointing to me because C4GC does have a good message on fiscal matters and smaller government.

I'm told Jeff Hyde said from podium tonight, before losing the GC GOP chairman's vote, that Tony Wilkins can hang out with Nancy Vaughan, Jordan Green, and me -- he'll hang out with Thomas Jefferson.

For the record, I'd rather hang out with TJ than me, too.

UPDATE: More here. "[S]everal delegates who declined to be identified said the turning point for them came when Hyde, during his official speech, attacked outgoing Guilford GOP Executive Director Tony Wilkins...The delegates said those comments turned them against Hyde."

The vote between Al Bouldin, who entered the race just two days ago, and Hyde was a reasonably close 119-97, so maybe dissing Tony wasn't such a great idea.

Credit Jeff Hyde with a better grasp of Revolutionary War history than Michele Bachmann. The part where the Democratic Party is a "foe" on par with the Redcoats may strike you as hyperbolic, but, hey, it's play-to-the-base time. 

Tonight's GC GOP convention has been moved to larger quarters: Vandalia Christian School, 3919 Pleasant Garden Rd.

The 3/29 event with Pat McCrory is still on Hyde's front page. Does McCrory plan on attending?

UPDATE: More here. "It does have to do with some things that happened behind the scenes, including some possible dirty tricks to try and make Yon less appealing politically.  As a result, Hyde's quest to become Chairman has become even more difficult."

Wait...so now Theresa Yon has resigned from the race for GC GOP chair?

This morning's N&R (GPV) says tomorrow's election is between Jeff Hyde and Al Bouldin.

Bouldin stepped in at the last minute Saturday to replace former state representative candidate Theresa Yon for chairman, after Yon said she had become a “lightning rod.”   

Yon said Saturday there were so many accusations, it was best to take herself out of the race and let the rest of her ticket continue with their party unification plans without her. She declined to explain the accusations.

Why is Yon suddenly a lightning rod?

Surely some will see this as a tacit admission that the accusations by Hyde's camp carry some weight, or at least that Hyde has real clout. Is the choice of Bouldin, described at his Twitter page as National Co-Chair for Take America Back, an attempt to co-opt Hyde's Tea Party cred?

And how is a scoop like this left to the nearly-newsless Sunday print edition of the paper, rather than the insidery folks on the interwebs (including the N&R's own blogs?) UPDATE: Jordan had it last night, including a copy of Yon's withdrawal letter.

It's seemed obvious for some time that Jeff Hyde's career in local Republican politics is over, but apparently the party establishment thinks it necessary to sow with salt, and to rub a little in Joe Guarino's wounds, too.

Where does the internecine warfare leave Danny Thompson?

Reader K: "Do people just expect that the Rhino will ignore stories that are embarrassing for Republicans?"

No, people expect the Rhino to spin political stories, but not to ignore them outright, which makes the decision to whistle past the Hyde/Riddleberger story most peculiar, as it involves, per K's summary, "a major division in the party, accusations and cross accusations of dirty politics featuring a sitting city councilwoman and a crisis in one of the most visible and vocal conservative groups in the county over the last two years."

So just ignoring it was an odd choice, although not as odd as Jeff Hyde's decision to stake his political career on an accusation that parties he still refuses to name were threatening to reveal widely-known information about somebody else.

I'm hearing that the C4GC fundraiser for Pat McCrory was on McC's schedule for March 29. Cancellation of such an event is, says one GOP insider, "a huge story" in these circles.

Jeff Hyde's website shows an event called "North Carolina Business Outlook With Pat McCrory," scheduled for 3/29 at the Greensboro Country Club. That may need updating.

A prominent local Republican asks why Hyde won't identify the people who allegedly threatened his campaign, saying, "At this point, everything we're seeing points to it not having happened."

Seems like the ball is in C4GC's court.

Still wondering about the rumored cancellation of a Pat McCrory/C4GC fundraiser, but I have been told that McCrory, his man Chris Emanuel, and Jeff Hyde met behind closed doors before the former QC mayor's recent talk to Crescent Rotary.

Outgoing GC GOP chair Bill Wright:

I intended to stay silent on this and like many political controversies, let it play itself out. However, even though I am not seeking re-election as Chairman, I cannot and will not sit by and allow unfounded, unproven, and unsubstantiated allegations go unanswered against the Guilford GOP.

Full text of press release after the jump.

"No need for you to start letting facts get in the way of the truth now."

Outgoing GC GOP exec director Tony Wilkins writes a not-love letter to Jeff Hyde,"self appointed leader of c4gc and excitable boy who aligns himself with the local tea party."

More: Does [Nancy Vaughan] pilot the black helicopters that land on your roof at night?

Meanwhile, rumor has it that Pat McCrory has bailed on a fundraiser with C4GC...anyone got the scoop on that one?

...they say some fellow Republicans came to them as Hyde announced his candidacy and implied that the whole story would blow up at an inconvenient time if he didn't get out of the race.

"I was told this information by dear friends who had a meeting with a couple of people and they were blind-sided with this information," Riddleberger said in an interview over the weekend. "We're talking Republicans — not only Republicans but political establishment folks."

So...who were these (alleged) "political establishment folks,"  and for whom were they (allegedly) working? Mightn't local Republicans want to check out this story before choosing their new leadership?

More here from the N&R on the Hyde/Riddleberger story, including additional evidence that Riddleberger's record surfaced as he became a public figure, not because of his association with Hyde.

An oddly truncated version of the Riddleberger/Hyde story runs in this morning's N&R -- the full article is hidden in the GPV, but it's not much longer than this web special. 

No quotes from anyone but Hyde and Barrett Riddleberger, no mention of the attempt to blame Nancy Vaughan, no indication that reporters at the paper have known about Riddleberger's past conviction for quite some time, nothing about the strange publish-and-delete PR game that pushed the story public this weekend.

There is a fuller explanation of Riddleberger's crime ("indecent liberties with a child, charges stemming from a videotape of Riddleberger having sex with a 15-year-old girl when he was 25"), a brief explanation from Hyde about how this was supposed to hurt his candidacy (delegates, including "retirees," would see guilt by association with "someone with a past"), and a quote from Riddleberger saying God wanted him and his wife to get involved in politics.

I have a question for the regular Republicans in Guilford County who have seemed eager to advance this issue, regardless of whatever impacts may be on the children.  What have they done to expose the moral turpitude seen in one particular Republican elected official in this county?  Since there is a seeming newfound desire to expose Barrett, perhaps we should also expose the actions of one elected official who has committed indiscretions while serving in office.  Let's remember-- at this point, Barrett is just a citizen activist.  But there is at least one elected official about whom we might have concerns.

Local politics ain't beanbag.

Faith and redemption are powerful things, but they don't require the public to suspend all further judgment when making choices in the public sphere.

Previously, previously.

C4GC has disappeared from public view the comments linked in this post about Bret Riddleberger's record and its alleged impact on Jeff Hyde's campaign for GC GOP chair. I cut and pasted the comments from the original Facebook postings, so they are accurate.

Contrary to what Jeff Hyde writes, a lot of non-Christians understand and believe in change and redemption (the fact that many of the people involved in this story are, one supposes, Christians, is another issue). I don't see how the Riddleberger story is supposed to torpedo Hyde's candidacy, but then again I'm not a GC GOP or C4GC insider, and maybe from those vantage points this seems more logical; from where I sit, I think Hyde's done his candidacy more harm than did Jodi Riddleberger's scoop.

UPDATE: C4GC has disappeared the comments linked below; I cut and pasted them from the originals, so they appear here as originally made public.

At the Conservatives for Guilford County Facebook page, the announcement of Jeff Hyde's candidacy for GC GOP chair is followed by a comment by Jodi Riddleberger, who alleges that Nancy Vaughan "dug up" dirt on her husband, Barrett Riddleberger, and that this "info has been passed on to her GOP establishment friends in order to deter Jeff from continuing on in his bid for Chairman" (full text after the jump).

Vaughan tells me:

I just read Jodi Riddleberger's statement on the C4gc facebook page and she is 100% incorrect. I never went to the courthouse looking for information to discredit Jeff Hyde (he was doing such a good job of it himself) or ANY of his friends. I am NOT the person who uncovered the information in question. Her statement is scurrilous. I believe in compassion and redemption and I also believe that if you want compassion you should show compassion.

The fact is that Barrett Riddleberger's record (per the report: Indecent Liberty W/ Child, a felony) has been widely known among area journalists since his emergence as a semi-public figure; I heard about it before I ever heard of Jeff Hyde. Nobody has made a big deal of it because Riddleberger has not announced a run for office, and it was in fact long ago, but in the wake of Jodi R's comment, I guess it's about to be part of the public conversation.

Hyde, in the same comment thread at FB, says:

The Vaughan camp is not responsible for this recent release, however, they did spread it around the first time. It is Ruling Class Republicans, elitists, paranoid party people that have gotten their hands on this info and now, somehow, hope to use it to discredit a Constitutional, Conservative movement.  

I believe in the "transformative power" of Jesus Christ. Non Christians do not seem to understand this power. The scare tactic of "exposion" doesn't work with folks secure in their faith.

Vaughan says she learned about the record last week.