Beaufort County Republican Executive Committee cautions on misleading endorsements | Eastern North Carolina Now

For immediate Release:

    WASHINGTON     The Beaufort County Republican Executive Committee has issued a warning to voters about endorsements by small private clubs that some voters have misinterpreted as official endorsements by the party itself.

    In a statement adopted unanimously, the party's executive committee called on such clubs to clearly state in their advertisements that their endorsements were not official endorsements by the party. Some clubs have names that are confusingly similar to that of the party itself, which can often lead to such voter confusion as to who an endorsement is actually from.

    The executive committee statement also clarified that the party itself has made no endorsements in party primaries or runoffs and will not do so.

    The issue arose due to a large endorsement ad in the sheriff's primary published in the Washington Daily News from a private club called the ''Beaufort County Republican Club''.

    Contact: Steven Rader
      (252) 721-0780

Statement of Beaufort County Republican Party on endorsements by GOP clubs

    The Beaufort County Republican Executive Committee is the body charged with taking official positions on behalf of the Republican Party in Beaufort County. It is an official organ of the Republican Party created and existing under the Plan of Organization of the North Carolina Republican Party.

    There also exist within Beaufort County two private Republican clubs, which are independent of the party, and are not federated within any official auxiliary structure of the North Carolina Republican Party, and whose views do not necessarily reflect the official position of the party. The names of these private clubs are similar enough to the name of the party organization, that endorsements or other positions taken by these clubs can easily be misconstrued as actions of the party itself.

    There has been a long tradition within the North Carolina Republican Party and its official affiliated organizations of not taking sides or making endorsements in primaries. Indeed a recent legal opinion by the General Counsel of the North Carolina Republican Party has ruled that any such endorsement in a primary by an official party organ constitutes a violation of the party's Plan of Organization.

    The Beaufort County Republican Executive Committee wants to make it clear that it has not endorsed and will not endorse any candidate for any office in the 2014 Republican primary.

    One of the private GOP clubs in the county, the Beaufort County Republican Club, did make an endorsement in the Sheriff's race, and its large ad in the Washington Daily News was misinterpreted by some voters as an endorsement by the Beaufort County Republican Party. The Beaufort County Republican Executive Committee is concerned about this incident and regrets its misleading of Republican voters.

    Given the easy name confusion due to the similarity of both clubs names with that of the official party organization, we call upon both private GOP clubs, the Beaufort County Republican Club and the Beaufort County Conservative Republican Club, to include in any ads endorsing primary candidates or taking public positions on issues to include the language ''this club is not the Beaufort County Republican Party and the views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the Beaufort County Republican Party'' and in the instance of any print advertising that such language be at least 3/4 the size of the club's name in the advertising.

    We apologize to any voters misled by the actions of the private club involved.

    (copies of this statement shall be provided to local news media and to the NC Republican Party headquarters in Raleigh)

    Adopted unanimously by the Beaufort County Republican Executive Committee.