Tillis’ Chief of Staff Affair and Amendment One
Tillis’ Chief of Staff and fellow “Protector of Marriage” Charles Thomas Resigns After Affair is Discovered
Charles Thomas, the married chief of staff to state House Speaker Thom Tillis and part of the brain trust that helped craft Amendment One to “protect marriage”, resigned Thursday evening after admitting to an affair with Jessica Hayes, a married lobbyist for the North Carolina Home Builders Association. The NCHBA is a special interest group that often seeks help from the legislature and provides money to political campaigns.
Thomas is a former one-term lawmaker from Asheville who wielded clout in Raleigh. As the top aide to Tillis, Thomas influenced law making and put forth bills, ran Tillis’ office in Raleigh, could hire and fire personnel, and helped set the agenda for each session.
When Thomas was asked if the affair was appropriate, given his position, he replied: “It depends on where you sit.”
“It depends on a person’s life experiences and what’s happened to them … Everyone comes with a different lens through which they view and make judgment of others.”
Hmmm…wonder what lens Thomas and Tillis were looking through when they crafted Amendment One?
Bob Phillips, who was involved in changing ethics laws as executive director of the nonprofit Common Cause North Carolina, said that personal relationships between public officials and lobbyists are not an area covered by laws. WHAT? So when are we going to see a constitutional amendment prohibiting personal relationships (in or outside of marriage), between public officials and lobbyists paid to influence legislation?
Thomas said he believes someone is out to get him, probably connected to a local issue in his hometown of Asheville, in what the former Army soldier called an “assassination.”
“This is a new low ,” Thomas claimed, “It’s new territory.”
Is it as low as prohibiting gay people from entering into contracts with one another?
Turns out Karma really is a (lesbian) bitch.
If it seems like I am crowing, I am not – but I think that two people, married to other people, who have an affair, wreak a lot more destruction on the “sanctity of marriage” than do two unmarried people entering into a domestic partnership. I could care less what Thomas and Hayes do in their personal lives. I only ask that they show every other citizen in the state the same lack of caring.
We are all human, and have human needs and weaknesses. The sooner lawmakers realize that they cannot change human behavior with laws and amendments, the better off all people, gay and straight, will be. And to claim allowing domestic partnerships harm children, is a specious argument – don’t know if these two have children but if they do, how harmed do you think they are feeling right now? Bad choices are made by people of all stripes and are not limited to gay people, as we all unfortunately can attest.
When Republicans run around crowing about being the party of “morality” as an excuse to deny rights to taxpaying citizens, things like this are bound to happen. Amendment One damages Republicans in ways two people having an affair could never do, and this latest scandal should serve as a reminder to lawmakers to get off their highhorse and stick to the bread and butter issues that will not only keep them in power, but will provide jobs and freedom to all North Carolinians.
Read more here: Charles Thomas, N.C. speaker’s top aide, linked to lobbyist
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