Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Being a corporate sellout has made all the difference in the world for Jason Saine.

December 11, 2017
By Lynn Bonner

State Rep. Jason Saine, (click here) a Republican from Lincolnton, will be the next chairman of the American Legislative Exchange Council.

ALEC is a conservative group backed by corporations that proposes model legislation for state legislators to introduce.

Saine will serve a one-year term beginning January 1, an ALEC spokesman said in an email.

Clothing makes the man evidently.

December 10, 2015
By Jim Morrell

N.C. Rep. Jason Saine (click here) on Monday defended spending more than $19,000 in campaign money on clothes, including some from a custom tailor in Charlotte.

Saine, a Lincolnton Republican, cited the spending on his most recent campaign report. It was first reported on The Daily Haymaker, a conservative website.

Saine spent $17,908 on clothes from Tom James Co., which bills itself as “the world’s largest manufacturer of custom clothing.”...

Good 'ole Jason can handle conflict of interest just fine.

January 8, 2017
By Jeff Moore

Raleigh — Republican state lawmaker Rep. Jason Saine (click here) of Lincoln County has been named to the Federal Communications Committee’s (FCC) Intergovernmental Advisory Panel.The Intergovernmental Advisory Committee (IAC) is a two-year advisory panel that will focus its efforts on recommendations to the FCC on broadband and wireless infrastructure deployment, Universal Service programs, consumer complaints processes and public safety issues. It may be renewed for an additional two-year term at the discretion of the FCC.In an interview Saine said he looks forward to the opportunity to work with federal regulators and help them shape policy around broadband and wireless infrastructure, an area in which the lawmaker has been active in the N.C. General Assembly.”The IAC serves as an advisory board to the FCC to relay some of the challenges that state and local governments face with broadband deployment,” said Saine. “It provides a nice platform to interact with federal decision-makers on some of the policies that they’re setting forth and how they work and how they don’t work....

Nothing  like spreading oneself so thin that simply voting conservative is better than thinking for high-value targets, like the Koch's campaign contributions. That is especially true when privatizing the public schools is paramount to turning the USA into a profit machine for private industry.

October 17, 2017
By Lynn Bonner, Jane Stancill and David Raynor

...Johnson said campaign contributors (click here) have not influenced his thinking.

“These are things I have learned from my own experience,” he said. “If I disagree with the policy, I’m not afraid to say ‘no’ to anyone who gave me money.”

Charter Schools USA CEO Jonathan Hage contributed the maximum amount, $10,200, to Forest and Republican former Gov. Pat McCrory in the last election cycle. Charter Schools USA is a for-profit charter management company.

Hage gave smaller amounts to legislators. From 2014 to 2016, he gave $5,500 to Republican state Rep. Jason Saine of Lincolnton, who helped sponsor a new law that allows companies to employ the teachers in the schools they manage. Before the change, teachers had to work for the schools’ boards of directors. That law also allows charter schools to grow faster and authorizes the state charter school office to help the schools open NC Pre-K programs.

Saine is on the board of directors of West Lake Preparatory Academy, a Charter Schools USA school set to open next year in Lincoln County.

Republican legislators don't have to think. They simply vote the party line and solicit contributions for election and re-election. There is nothing to it. A legislator can be predictable to their contributors because that is all there is time for.

Acting as Chair for ALEC will be the first time Saine ever had to write legislation. He always had it done for him before. I doubt he will be a Chair, so much as a salesman.

And then there are the White Supremacists among the NC Legislator. It is simply a question as to how to contain them until it is socially okay again to be more verbal.

April 13, 2017
By Colin Campbell

...At least one House Republican legislator, (click here) however, is denouncing Pittman’s remark and voicing support for Lincoln.

“There’s no excuse for making that kind of blanket statement that’s incredibly offensive,” said Rep. Jason Saine, a Lincolnton Republican who chairs the powerful House Finance Committee. “Sometimes people say something they don’t mean, so I hope that whatever statement that comes next is apologetic.”...

A gaff. Comparing Abraham Lincoln to Hitler is a gaff. Interesting.

...Saine says Pittman’s comment harms the legislature’s reputation. “The public perception of elected officials is tarnished every time there’s a gaffe like this, whether it’s on the left or the right,” he said, noting that Pittman was a hot topic Wednesday morning in Saine’s hometown barber shop. “I’d rather talk about issues and things that are important, and when someone goes rogue like this, it’s certainly newsworthy.”

Should House leadership take action against Pittman?

“I don’t really know what our options are,” Saine said. “I have a feeling the folks that are going to go to the polls in 2018 will certainly remember this. I’m not sure that it’s up to us to dole out any punishment.”

Saine said the NC GOP is still the “Party of Lincoln,” and he’s a fan of the 16th president.

“He is a symbol of our party,” he said. “We certainly respect and hold high on a pedestal Abraham Lincoln.”

Democrats were quick to pounce on Pittman’s comments and criticized Moore’s silence on the issue Wednesday.

“Speaker Moore has remained silent after yet another outrageous comment by Rep. Pittman,”...