It’s been less than two hours since the North Carolina Senate primary was called for Thom Tillis, and there are already copious pages of commentary attempting to explain the masterful strategy of the establishment in pulling off the victory.  With 97% of precincts reporting, Tillis avoided a runoff, earning 46% of the vote, while Greg Brannon and Mark Harris took 27% and 18% respectively.  But as we pointed out last week, there is no great mystery behind the establishment’s victory.  There is no enigma.  It’s all about money and lies.

When there is only one candidate who has enough money between his campaign and his allies to purchase full saturation media buys for a sustained period of time, there is only one realistic outcome.  Let’s put aside any problems with the other candidates for a moment, Tillis was the only candidate who was up on broadcast television in a meaningful way.  Karl Rove and the Chamber of Commerce bought him the nomination.

But it runs deeper than that.

Do you remember seeing a single ad from Tillis touting his support for amnesty?  Debt ceiling increases?  “Fixing” Obamacare?  Corporate welfare?

Me neither.

Let them run ads echoing their statements in Washington with regards to bailouts, debt ceiling, fixing Obamacare, and open borders.  Then,if they still win, I’d be impressed – even with a massive fundraising advantage.

It’s precisely because the establishment interests are fully aware of Tillis’s allegiances on these issues that they pulled out all of the stops for him.  Yet, it is precisely these issues that they avoided during the campaign.  Tillis was the only candidate who had the requisite funding, and those funds were used to paint him as a conservative.  Hence, the points of contention between the two factions of the party in Washington were not represented on the ballot – at least not in perception.

I wish Tillis much luck in defeating Kay Hagen and look forward to him voting and legislating the way he portrayed himself during the campaign.  And given the fact that these people would never lie to us, I guess we can count Tillis as a no on amnesty.