The North Carolina Democratic Party filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission against Republican Senator Thom Tillis and the state Republican party over their involvement with data-collection company Cambridge Analytica. BPR's Jeremy Loeb spoke with North Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Wayne Goodwin about it.
The British company Cambridge Analytica became the center of a political firestorm after it was revealed they improperly collected data on some 50 million Facebook users to help the Trump campaign. They've since been banned by the company. It was revealed the company has been used by Senator Thom Tillis, the state Republican party, and western North Carolina Congressman Patrick McHenry.
"There's just a lot of questions and that's the role of the Federal Election Commission is to find out the facts," Democratic Party Chairman Wayne Goodwin told BPR. "So the only way to find out the facts is to submit a complaint and ask for the FEC to do its job. We should not turn aside any potential interventions in our elections that may have been improper and unlawful."
BPR reached out to both Sen. Tillis and the NC Republican Party. The NC GOP emailed BPR a statement from Executive Director Dallas Woodhouse:
This complaint is a libelous, false, and dirty move to once again fight an election in a court of law that Democrats could not win at the ballot box.
Decisions about the Thom Tillis campaign were made by North Carolina citizens in Cornelius, North Carolina. Decisions about the North Carolina Republican Party were made by North Carolina citizens from our downtown Raleigh office.
Over just the last few weeks North Carolina democrats have:
1. Attempted to seize Republican Party phone records
2. Attempted to have the Attorney General order the North Carolina Republican party stop candidate recruitment efforts
3. Under threat of contempt of court, forced Republican party leadership to be deposed under oath by democratic lawyers to revel campaign strategy
4. Under threat of contempt of court forced the North Carolina Republican Party to provide internal Republican Party documents to the North Carolina Democrat Party.
With today's actions, North Carolina Democrats have shown they have no message and no real plan for the future. Only a plan to continue to sue over choices voters make that the democrats disagree with.
You can hear BPR's full interview with NC Democratic Party Chairman Wayne Goodwin in the audio link above.
