Who knew? Not only is Thom Tillis the Senator-elect from North Carolina, he’s also an interior designer. At the same time he’s measuring drapes for his new Senate office, he’s taking down the ones in the building where he used to work. Seems Tillis authorized a makeover of the House chamber without asking his fellow legislators. You know, the people who will actually use it while he’s in Washington.
Rep. Grier Martin first noticed the changes when he saw workers covering doors and the masonry walls with drywall. Martin is a Democrat and when folks first got wind of the renovations, most assumed that Tillis just left Democrats out of the loop. But Republican Rep. Julia Howard, who’s spent a lot more time in those chambers than Tillis ever did, was also blindsided.
So far, nobody seems too happy with Tillis. It appears he made a unilateral decision to update the Chamber without consulting anyone. That says a lot about the mentality of our new Senator. His talk of bipartisanship always rang hollow since he was so often recorded scheming to screw his perceived enemies. But this episode really speaks less to his partisan nature and more to his arrogant one. He’s the smartest guy in the room and he always knows what’s best for everyone.
From a political standpoint, the move was stupid. When the Senate revamped its chamber a few years ago, the Democrats in control convened a bipartisan group of senators to approve the renovations. Republicans own this one. At a time when the state has a huge budget hole, schools are underfunded and people were denied healthcare, the GOP leadership decided to spend money making their lives easier instead of helping the people of North Carolina. These ads just about write themselves.
Thom Tillis has always seen himself as a smooth political operator. In fact, he’s tone deaf and clumsy. But he’s also a man on the move. He’s got too much going on to worry about how his bad decisions will affect the people he left behind.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
He will be the undoing of the fabric north Carolina was built on. He don’t care for no one but himself and what he wants.
Means to an end. The NC Legislature was his means to the current end; the US Senate. Those that put him there, the voters, bore the same importance.