Political Hacks Continue to Infiltrate North Carolina’s Republican Controlled Government

An Ugly Preview of What Would Happen if Conservatives Gain National Power

[Editor's note:  The Dismal Political Economist is trying to stop picking on North Carolina, but the Republicans are just making that impossible.]

The formerly progressive and effective government of North Carolina is being systematically destroyed by Republicans who now control the state.  The Raleigh News and Observer has a report on the appointment of a seemingly unqualified person to a just created high paying political position to design the destruction of Medicaid in the state.

Margaret “Mardy” Peal, 42, has been hired as part of the “Partnership for a Healthy North Carolina,” Gov. Pat McCrory’s initiative to allow private insurance companies to run the government’s health care program for the poor in North Carolina.

So what has Ms. Peal done to deserve such a plum appointment?  Well it’s not that she has been active in the area of health care for the last decade or so.

According to court files, Peal was married in 1998, changing her name to Mardy Grubb. She stopped working outside the home after her first child was born in 2001.

Grubb “is a stay at home parent who has not earned an income since early 2001,” according to a judge’s 2011 court order. “She is very talented and has work experience. She is also engaged in civic and political groups and activities, and devotes a substantial amount of volunteer time at the children’s school working on projects such as developing a high school curriculum.”

Gosh, we wonder what she is talented at.  Turns out it is not writing correctly or love of country.

In October 2008, Grubb posted to an online forum that she hoped to move with her husband and children to Chile, where the couple had honeymooned. She sought information on how her husband, an anesthesiologist, could obtain a visa and a medical license for Chile.

She also listed some of the reasons for wanting to leave the United States: “how many dollars can the treasury print before they are worthless? what will happen when the entitlements have to be scaled back?? For us we also have additional concerns relating to healthcare. One concern is the move to a socialized system in which folks who move outside the system are punished (Hillarycare) and the lack of torte (sic) reform – I could go on ad nauseum (sic).”

So here’s a clue how she got this job.

In April 2009, Mardy Grubb appeared on a Greenville talk radio show promoting the inaugural rally for the Eastern North Carolina Tea Party.

The Greenville Daily Reflector covered the rally, where Grubb was one of the speakers. The Reflector reported:

“ ‘The out-of-control spending we see coming out of Washington is going to have dire effects on the next generation,’ Grubb said, her son and daughter standing at her side. ‘But the government cannot continue to intrude in our lives if we don’t let them. And we must fight. Not with weapons, but with knowledge.’ ”

Ah yes, your basic ardent Conservative, whose only credentials for serving in government is a desire to destroy it.  And here’s another clue as to how she got the job and why other, actually qualified candidates did not.

Peal gave $1,250 to the McCrory campaign in 2012. She helped organize the Eastern North Carolina Tea Party in 2010.

The job was not posted, which prevented others from applying. Department officials declined to provide a job description or list Peal’s duties.

Of course if Ms. Peal really wanted to help the nation and her state she could have done so by going to live in Chile.

But to be fair, this Forum wants to hear from the other side.  Here it is.

Secretary Aldona Wos declined to be interviewed, as did Peal.

Maybe Ms. Wos and Ms. Peal were afraid they would be committing or even worse,  eating a torte.

Now this is not significant in the overall scheme of things, just a petty official appointed to a plum state job by another petty official and sanctioned by a petty Governor.  But it is illustrative of how Conservatives think, mainly that as long as one toes the Conservative line nothing else matters.