Comments for Beaufort County, Two Republican Parties, The Purge | Eastern NC Now

The goal is to get rid to the bad guy who hold office. Many people who want change keep voting for the same nin oom poop. Stop looking at personalities and look at performance. Donald J. Trump is a great example.

Commented: Wednesday, June 22nd, 2022 @ 9:36 am By: Hood Richardson

Often politicians from districts never face a decent challenge from a bright and skilled citizen of better intentions, and that bothers me, especially when corruption is all but certain in a particular type of politician as they rule rather than wisely govern.

These corrupt politicians will often commit nefarious deeds of infamous purpose to achieve the continuance of their position.

If there are to be districts in the final analysis, there must be enough at-large positions, where the People can elect county-wide commissioner seats of a higher purpose in order to dilute these probable crony political actors of low skill, and of a sorrier purpose.

Commented: Wednesday, June 15th, 2022 @ 4:44 pm By: Stan Deatherage

It is very simple, Stan. In a county-wide limited voting election, it is hard to get traction running an issue-based campaign. Candidates win with far less than a majority of anything, and they can run on things like what zip code they are from. A district campaign is less costly and therefore it is easier to recruit candidates. All candidates are from the same zip code anyway, so that is not a something any candidate can use as a crutch The school board primaries this year are a good example of how candidates feet can be held to the fire on issues in a district race.

An at-large system with full voting rights also enhances how much issues play, but not as much as a district plan. Limited voting is the worst of the lot.

Commented: Wednesday, June 15th, 2022 @ 6:58 am By: Steven P. Rader

Stan, District races are friendly to candidates who do what they say and are strong on the issues. They are unfriendly to those project one thing on the campaign trail and do another in office. You would have no problem getting reelected under a district plan unless you got gerrymandered into a Democrat district. The same is true of Hood Richardson.

The election system that is the friend of the political chameleon is limited voting, which is why we have the type of majority we have had under that system. The lack of accountability that exists under that system is what creates the lack of responsiveness to the voters.

Commented: Tuesday, June 14th, 2022 @ 5:27 pm By: Steven P. Rader

When the then 5 member all-Democrat county commission squared off with Rev. David Moore over Moore's lawsuit, Republicans were kept at arm's length. Everything was done in the backroom. Indeed the average voter was shut out and not allowed to be part of the process. The Democrat County commission hired an ultra-partisan attorney from Chapel Hill who never wanted to fight voting rights cases, only help negotiate the surrender. That was unfortunate because Beaufort County actually had good defenses if the case had been fought in court.

I did have a chance to see David Moore's district map after the court imposed the backroom settlement that the commissioners had made. Moore's map created two majority black districts, but the others were drawn without seemingly party comsideration. Republicans would have easily won two of them, and would have been competitive if we had good candidates and campaigns in two more. Moore's map would have given the GOP at least two seats and a decent shot at a majority right out of the gate.

Moore's map would have ended the political career of then county commission chairman Frank Bonner, whose home was placed in a black majority district. To save Bonner's political career, he and the other Democrats asked their attorney to prepare an alternative, and that alternative was limited voting. Their highly partisan attorney also designed this to try to preserve a Democrat majority. In their view, they could always elect two black Democrats and two white Democrats under limited voting, guaranteeing a majority. They did not foresee the flight from their party by white voters as Democrats kept veering left. The county commissioners' purpose is proposing limited voting was 1) save Frank Bonner, and 2) create the best system to preserve a Democrat majority.

Moore's objective was two black commissioners which this seemed to do, so he dropped his district plan and agreed to limited voting. This backroom deal was never intended to be seen by the citizens and voters, just whisked through the courts. When word leaked out, there was a furor over this awful voting system, and at its next executive committee meeting, the Beaufort County Republican Party denounced it by unanimous vote and demanded that the county retract it.

Public opposition was so massive that the commissioners tried to walk it back and end their settlement of the case. The court ruled, however, that they had pursued the settlement too far and could not back out of it.

The Beaufort County Republican Party has adopted a number of resolutions over the years calling for an end to limited voting, most recently at the 2019 county convention. To the best of my recollection they have all been unanimous. That has been clear party policy since before the system was created by the court imposing the backroom deal "settlement" on the county.

Limited voting has disadvantaged a number of groups. One of them is black voters in the eastern end of the county, who have never been able to elect one of their own. The dynamics of limited voting give control of the two black seats to the black political operatives in Washington township. When a black Democrat city councilman in Belhaven tried running for county commissioner, he did not get very far. What has really taken a backseat for all voters, however, is the nature of limited voting precluding an issue based election.

Commented: Tuesday, June 14th, 2022 @ 1:50 pm By: Steven P. Rader