Big time election spending comes to Beaufort County | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

    Within the past seven or eight years a county commissioner race from the primary to the November General Election could be financed for $3,000.00. Twenty thousand dollars would do the same for a sheriff's election. That all changed this year. Big time money is being spent. Voters need to know about what's going on or some people could easily buy the next election.

    Economical elections disappeared this year with the coming of election consultants. People who promised the payment of the "right amount of money would (almost) certainly guarantee election." Sounded like these experts could elect a ham sandwich. The way this works is the candidate comes up with the money and the consultants do the rest. They select the issues, do the press releases, write the advertisements, and some even send out the ridiculously comical post cards. All the candidate has to do is what he is told and everything will be all right. The consultant also provides weasel words on issues to make the public believe the candidate is on their side. All it takes is money. This system of campaign deception is worked on the public in almost all other political campaigns. Look at all those candidates that fooled us. All had paid or unpaid consultants helping them manipulate the voters.

    There are two providers of campaign in a bottle. They are The Washington Strategic Group from Arlington, Virginia and the Media Corporation from Asheville, N, C. Neither of these organizations can be found to be registered with the North Carolina Secretary of State. They would be required to register if they were operating as a corporation in this state. Searches of the internet have not produced information about these organizations.

    There are rumors that these groups may be local and are run by local people.

    Three candidates paid substantial sums for campaign "consulting" in their primary election according to filings made with the Beaufort County Board of Elections. Harry Meredith paid them $48,000. Ron Buzzeo paid $19,000. Don Cox paid $10,000. Some sitting elected officials have said they never realized these positions were worth that much campaign money just for the primary election. It remains to be seen what the General Election will cost.

    It is a certainty that as candidates become more sophisticated and weasely with words, voters in Beaufort County are going to have to become more skilled in seeing through deceptive campaign tactics. Voters are going to have to demand candid answers from candidates. The proposed jail is an excellent example of candidates providing shifty and evasive answers. Those who are against the jail and the high taxes it would bring have eagerly said they are against it. Those who are for it have given evasive answers that sound like they are against the jail but have enough wiggle room to allow them to "change their mind."

    The problem with this shift in the political scene is both oblivious and troubling. First, when consultants "handle" candidates the voters can't really know what the candidate stands for. Is the position coming from the candidate or his handlers? Then there are the questions that are raised when phantom businesses collect thousands of dollars. This allow candidates to hide the specifics about what they spend campaign funds for. The intent of the campaign reporting laws is clear. The public has a right to know where the campaign money comes from and what it is used for. But when you see a large check to an out-of-county "business" it is not only impossible to know what the money actually went for, but it is also impossible to tell really who is calling the shots in the campaign. The public has a right to know this. Disclosure. That is what it is supposed to be about. But when you have phantom operatives pulling strings in back rooms it is not healthy for open government. The only real way to deal with this is for the voters to know what's happening and decide for themselves if they want political operatives manipulating local elections.