Nor should they be…..
But?
How come things got THIS sideways?
With most of his original advisers gone and no future ad buys announced by the Republican Governors Association, Mr. Robinson has struck a defiant tone since the scandal broke.
At a campaign stop in Taylortown, N.C., on Friday, he said in a brief interview that he had not spoken with the chairman of the state Republican Party, Jason Simmons, about strategy.
“We’re running our own campaign and running on our own steam,” Mr. Robinson said.
Even before the scandal, Mr. Robinson had been slipping in the polls all summer while Mr. Stein defined him on the airwaves as an extremist with a history of repellent remarks.
At a meeting in late July, Mr. Robinson shouted at members of the legislature’s Republican House Caucus, saying that he needed more support from them to salvage his campaign….
…
Six weeks before Election Day, the Republican Party in North Carolina is in an extraordinary standoff with its own nominee for governor.
After a CNN report last week linked the candidate, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, to offensive comments on a porn website, donations to his campaign have dried up. Most of his staff has resigned. Incensed Republican officials, donors and lawmakers want him to drop out, but Mr. Robinson has refused to quit.
The question now, party leaders say, is whether he will sink other Republican state and local candidates with him.
The deadline to replace Mr. Robinson on the ballot passed last Thursday, hours after the report that he had written years ago on the porn site that he was a “black NAZI,” that slavery was not bad, and that, as a teenager, he had gone “peeping” on women in public gym showers.
If anyone manages to force him to leave the race, his name will remain on the ballot. In one scenario, the state party would need to find a replacement candidate and explain to the electorate that a vote for Mr. Robinson is technically a vote for the replacement. It remains unclear who would want to run under the tarnished Robinson banner.
If Mr. Robinson remains on the ticket, though, he will likely continue to face a barrage of negative press that could hurt down-ballot candidates and, possibly, former President Donald J. Trump, who believes he must win North Carolina to win the election…..
….
As Mr. Robinson continues to campaign, Republican strategists are shifting their attention to legislative races in order to keep their supermajorities in the state House and Senate. Each chamber is holding on to its supermajority by a single vote…..
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