Stewards of the Visual Exposition
Separating the wheat from the chaff
By: Beaufort Observer Editorial Team ( More Entries )
Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.
High priced handlers are a threat to good government in Beaufort County
We'd like to think that "what you see (in a candidate) is what you get (if they are elected)."
Unfortunately we see trends in Beaufort that portend just the opposite. There is a trend by some candidates to try to camouflage who they really are by the use of high priced handlers.
It's Labor Day as this is being written. Labor Day has traditionally been the beginning of the "home stretch" of the political season leading to the November election. Early voting begins October 23. The campaign for the Beaufort County Commission has thus far shown some troubling trends. Most notable among our concerns is the emergence of the Stealth Campaign. By stealth we mean campaigns and candidates who seem, rather than to make their positions clear on the issues, instead seem to obfuscate their positions and hide how their campaigns are operating.
There are a lot of ways people pick candidates for whom they will vote. Some will only vote for their party's candidates. That is a bit more difficult now that the strait party tickets are no longer on the ballot. Candidates will now have an R or a D or (L or U in some races) beside their name. Some people who do not know the candidates just pick names they like. Other voters only vote for the candidates they know something about and leave the rest of the ballot blank. However you do it the Observer wants to make information available so you can select a candidate that will represent your principles. We hope, and make no bones about it, that is a constitutionally conservative candidate. We also believe candidates who are slippery weasels need to be exposed. There are towering issues in every race and we will talk about them here and as the campaign progresses. It's up to the voter to discern which candidates best represent what each voter believes in but it is very difficult, and we would even suggest dangerous, when candidates run stealth campaigns designed to fool the voters. Is it too much to expect every candidate to be open and honest with us?
In the old days when wheat was manually harvested, separating wheat from chaff was done by throwing the thrashed wheat into the wind. The heavy wheat fell while the light chaff was blown away. Sounds almost like a political campaign doesn't it. Many voters get fooled because sometimes there are pieces of chaff that try to act like a grain of wheat.
There are two major issues in Beaufort County this year. One is the proposed new jail. The other is medical care which includes the Belhaven hospital and emergency medical services. If not handled properly, both issues involve potentially substantial increases in taxes. The tax increase could be a 15 percent increase in the tax rate for the jail. The cost of additional medical services is unknown.
A new influence on Beaufort County elections is the appearance of "slickster campaign consultants" who charge large sums of money to "almost certainly guarantee" the candidate will win. As nearly as we can tell three local men are providing these services using the name "Washington Strategic Group." We're not even sure which Washington they are trading on. The official address is in suburban Washington, DC! The interesting thing about the "WSG" is that nobody knows officially who is involved in it. They have chosen not to disclose their true identities. But the 'word on the street' is that they are collectively known as the "Three Stooges." They influenced the Republican primary elections by sending negative post cards that degraded some opposing candidates. They never stated their candidates' positions firmly and decisively on the hospital and jail issues or any other issues for that matter. Two of their candidates, Meredith for Sheriff, and Cox for county commissioner, lost. A third candidate, Ron Buzzeo, survived the primary. One of their targets of disrespect, Stan Deatherage, lost in the primary. Deatherage had served five terms as a conservative commissioner and probably made the mistake of not campaigning very aggressively. That made him an easy target for the sleazy tactics. There are rumors the same group is handling other candidates but we'll wait for the campaign finance reports to delve into that.
We will see more of this unprofessional ilk in the up coming fall elections. People running for office who cannot directly address issues but rather base their campaign on cartoons do not deserve to hold public office. We would hope the voters reject such campaign tactics. The public wants to know what the candidate stands for, not how humorous his paid campaign consultant can be. Candidates who cannot decisively tell you what they stand for before election will not be reliable after election.
The ultimate RINO (Republican In Name Only) Al Klemm is an excellent example of such duplicity. He got himself elected two times running as a "conservative Republican" and then voted with the Democrats on most of the important votes. Once he decided he was not running for a third time, mainly because the public realized he is a phony Republican, he started voting 100 percent of the time with the Democrats. Actions always speak louder than words.
Those who have acted strongly and decisively on the jail issue are Keith Kidwell and Frankie Waters. They both came out against the proposed jail and the process the Gang of Four was using to cram it down the taxpayers' throats. We knew early on where they stood. Both have signed two letters to different government financing authorities clearly stating they are against the new jail and will vote to cancel the project if elected in November. With sitting Commissioners Brinn and Richardson signing the same letters, the election of Kidwell and Waters means we will avoid a certain increase in taxes and the relocation of the county law enforcement complex to Chocowinity if Kidwell and Waters join Richardson and Brinn on the board. The same cannot be said for the other candidates.
Candidate Ed Booth has voted many times to build a larger jail for some unexplained purpose. We guess he wants to lock more of us up. If the jail population ratio stays the same, a lot more blacks than whites will be locked up, so Ed's position is not very popular in the black community and one has to wonder about how he has chosen to represent the people who elected him. But at least we know where he stands on the issue. He also voted against helping keep the Belhaven Hospital open, knowing full well that a predominant portion of its patients are his constituents. So one has to wonder about his commitment to represent the people who elected him.
Candidate Robert Cayton was offered the opportunity to sign the letters with Kidwell and Waters but he failed to sign. It looks like Cayton is supporting his fellow Democrats in raising taxes and building a larger jail. Click here if you missed that story.
Then there is candidate Ron Buzzeo. He is a retired Federal bureaucrat with a limited knowledge of Beaufort County's traditions. Perhaps that is why he felt a need to hire an "out of state" group to manage his campaign. For whatever reason, he was given the opportunity to sign the two letters opposing the new jail. He failed to sign either. Buzzeo paid the Three Stooges almost $20,000 to handle his primary campaign. We do not know what he is for or against based on the weasel words he used on his post card mailers and newspaper advertisements. The Stooges managed to make him look like a grain of wheat. We have received numerous reports of Buzzeo telling one person or group one thing and another person the exact opposite.
The Beaufort Observer Political Team invited Mr. Buzzeo to sit for an interview to answer some of these questions. He didn't have time to do so. Make of that what you will.
The question still remains: Why would campaign consultants use a "cover-up name" and refuse to disclose who they are and how they spend the money given to them? Does Buzzeo have a reason to hide who is working for/calling his shots for him? Why the cloak and dagger charade?
Al Klemm went to the meeting with the Local Government Commission and told them that Ron Buzzeo supports the building of the jail at Chocowinity. Buzzeo has denied Klemm's statement. That is the first time we knew for certain Buzzeo supports the new jail, if Klemm is being honest. You sure could not tell based on the Stooges political advertising they did for Buzzeo in the primary. Buzzeo has run some other advertising that indicates he is "For the Children", whatever that means. A billboard proclaims "The future is now." What is that supposed to mean? Word is that the "Republican Club" dealmakers have endorsed Buzzeo. Apparently there is some truth to that rumor because the Klemm/Britt Republican group had a float in the Belhaven July Fourth parade with Buzzeo's signs on it but none supporting any other Republican commissioner candidate. Get that now...the Republican Club was supporting one, but not all Republican candidates, something the leaders of that club have criticized others for doing. Thus, it would appear that Buzzeo has been ordained to be the next Al Klemm.
Another instance of this sneaky campaigning came in the Republican Sheriff primary. The "Republican Club" ran a newspaper ad that confused people into thinking the Republican Party was supporting Harry Meredith. Just more subterfuge.
But here's the thing. In all of this it is hard to find very many voters who can tell you where Buzzeo and Cayton stand on hardly any issue. That is not true with Kidwell and Waters. So it appears that the Three Stooges not only think running stealth campaigns involve hiding the people who are involved is the thing to do, but also hiding where their candidates stand on the real issues the county faces. One might note it has not worked very effectively for them, just as the Republican Club has more losers in their stable than winners.
Let us make our position on all this very clear. We believe the voters have a right to full disclosure from all candidates. Every candidate has a duty to the public to disclose who they have hired, what they are paying them for and most importantly where the candidate stands on the issues. It is just wrong for these stealth campaigners to try to deceive the voters.
The Beaufort Observer Team waited until Labor Day to speak out on this, hoping things would change. It appears it will only get worse. We will do our best to expose these stealth candidates and campaigns between now and Election Day. We trust that the voters in Beaufort County will send these sneaky politicians a loud and clear message that we do not want sleazy, hidden agenda campaigns in this county. Our reason is simple. If a candidate is not forthright and open before being elected they will surely be more deceptive after getting elected. Beaufort County deserves better than that.
Go Back
High priced handlers are a threat to good government in Beaufort County
We'd like to think that "what you see (in a candidate) is what you get (if they are elected)."
Unfortunately we see trends in Beaufort that portend just the opposite. There is a trend by some candidates to try to camouflage who they really are by the use of high priced handlers.
It's Labor Day as this is being written. Labor Day has traditionally been the beginning of the "home stretch" of the political season leading to the November election. Early voting begins October 23. The campaign for the Beaufort County Commission has thus far shown some troubling trends. Most notable among our concerns is the emergence of the Stealth Campaign. By stealth we mean campaigns and candidates who seem, rather than to make their positions clear on the issues, instead seem to obfuscate their positions and hide how their campaigns are operating.
There are a lot of ways people pick candidates for whom they will vote. Some will only vote for their party's candidates. That is a bit more difficult now that the strait party tickets are no longer on the ballot. Candidates will now have an R or a D or (L or U in some races) beside their name. Some people who do not know the candidates just pick names they like. Other voters only vote for the candidates they know something about and leave the rest of the ballot blank. However you do it the Observer wants to make information available so you can select a candidate that will represent your principles. We hope, and make no bones about it, that is a constitutionally conservative candidate. We also believe candidates who are slippery weasels need to be exposed. There are towering issues in every race and we will talk about them here and as the campaign progresses. It's up to the voter to discern which candidates best represent what each voter believes in but it is very difficult, and we would even suggest dangerous, when candidates run stealth campaigns designed to fool the voters. Is it too much to expect every candidate to be open and honest with us?
In the old days when wheat was manually harvested, separating wheat from chaff was done by throwing the thrashed wheat into the wind. The heavy wheat fell while the light chaff was blown away. Sounds almost like a political campaign doesn't it. Many voters get fooled because sometimes there are pieces of chaff that try to act like a grain of wheat.
There are two major issues in Beaufort County this year. One is the proposed new jail. The other is medical care which includes the Belhaven hospital and emergency medical services. If not handled properly, both issues involve potentially substantial increases in taxes. The tax increase could be a 15 percent increase in the tax rate for the jail. The cost of additional medical services is unknown.
A new influence on Beaufort County elections is the appearance of "slickster campaign consultants" who charge large sums of money to "almost certainly guarantee" the candidate will win. As nearly as we can tell three local men are providing these services using the name "Washington Strategic Group." We're not even sure which Washington they are trading on. The official address is in suburban Washington, DC! The interesting thing about the "WSG" is that nobody knows officially who is involved in it. They have chosen not to disclose their true identities. But the 'word on the street' is that they are collectively known as the "Three Stooges." They influenced the Republican primary elections by sending negative post cards that degraded some opposing candidates. They never stated their candidates' positions firmly and decisively on the hospital and jail issues or any other issues for that matter. Two of their candidates, Meredith for Sheriff, and Cox for county commissioner, lost. A third candidate, Ron Buzzeo, survived the primary. One of their targets of disrespect, Stan Deatherage, lost in the primary. Deatherage had served five terms as a conservative commissioner and probably made the mistake of not campaigning very aggressively. That made him an easy target for the sleazy tactics. There are rumors the same group is handling other candidates but we'll wait for the campaign finance reports to delve into that.
We will see more of this unprofessional ilk in the up coming fall elections. People running for office who cannot directly address issues but rather base their campaign on cartoons do not deserve to hold public office. We would hope the voters reject such campaign tactics. The public wants to know what the candidate stands for, not how humorous his paid campaign consultant can be. Candidates who cannot decisively tell you what they stand for before election will not be reliable after election.
The ultimate RINO (Republican In Name Only) Al Klemm is an excellent example of such duplicity. He got himself elected two times running as a "conservative Republican" and then voted with the Democrats on most of the important votes. Once he decided he was not running for a third time, mainly because the public realized he is a phony Republican, he started voting 100 percent of the time with the Democrats. Actions always speak louder than words.
Those who have acted strongly and decisively on the jail issue are Keith Kidwell and Frankie Waters. They both came out against the proposed jail and the process the Gang of Four was using to cram it down the taxpayers' throats. We knew early on where they stood. Both have signed two letters to different government financing authorities clearly stating they are against the new jail and will vote to cancel the project if elected in November. With sitting Commissioners Brinn and Richardson signing the same letters, the election of Kidwell and Waters means we will avoid a certain increase in taxes and the relocation of the county law enforcement complex to Chocowinity if Kidwell and Waters join Richardson and Brinn on the board. The same cannot be said for the other candidates.
Candidate Ed Booth has voted many times to build a larger jail for some unexplained purpose. We guess he wants to lock more of us up. If the jail population ratio stays the same, a lot more blacks than whites will be locked up, so Ed's position is not very popular in the black community and one has to wonder about how he has chosen to represent the people who elected him. But at least we know where he stands on the issue. He also voted against helping keep the Belhaven Hospital open, knowing full well that a predominant portion of its patients are his constituents. So one has to wonder about his commitment to represent the people who elected him.
Candidate Robert Cayton was offered the opportunity to sign the letters with Kidwell and Waters but he failed to sign. It looks like Cayton is supporting his fellow Democrats in raising taxes and building a larger jail. Click here if you missed that story.
Then there is candidate Ron Buzzeo. He is a retired Federal bureaucrat with a limited knowledge of Beaufort County's traditions. Perhaps that is why he felt a need to hire an "out of state" group to manage his campaign. For whatever reason, he was given the opportunity to sign the two letters opposing the new jail. He failed to sign either. Buzzeo paid the Three Stooges almost $20,000 to handle his primary campaign. We do not know what he is for or against based on the weasel words he used on his post card mailers and newspaper advertisements. The Stooges managed to make him look like a grain of wheat. We have received numerous reports of Buzzeo telling one person or group one thing and another person the exact opposite.
The Beaufort Observer Political Team invited Mr. Buzzeo to sit for an interview to answer some of these questions. He didn't have time to do so. Make of that what you will.
The question still remains: Why would campaign consultants use a "cover-up name" and refuse to disclose who they are and how they spend the money given to them? Does Buzzeo have a reason to hide who is working for/calling his shots for him? Why the cloak and dagger charade?
Al Klemm went to the meeting with the Local Government Commission and told them that Ron Buzzeo supports the building of the jail at Chocowinity. Buzzeo has denied Klemm's statement. That is the first time we knew for certain Buzzeo supports the new jail, if Klemm is being honest. You sure could not tell based on the Stooges political advertising they did for Buzzeo in the primary. Buzzeo has run some other advertising that indicates he is "For the Children", whatever that means. A billboard proclaims "The future is now." What is that supposed to mean? Word is that the "Republican Club" dealmakers have endorsed Buzzeo. Apparently there is some truth to that rumor because the Klemm/Britt Republican group had a float in the Belhaven July Fourth parade with Buzzeo's signs on it but none supporting any other Republican commissioner candidate. Get that now...the Republican Club was supporting one, but not all Republican candidates, something the leaders of that club have criticized others for doing. Thus, it would appear that Buzzeo has been ordained to be the next Al Klemm.
Another instance of this sneaky campaigning came in the Republican Sheriff primary. The "Republican Club" ran a newspaper ad that confused people into thinking the Republican Party was supporting Harry Meredith. Just more subterfuge.
But here's the thing. In all of this it is hard to find very many voters who can tell you where Buzzeo and Cayton stand on hardly any issue. That is not true with Kidwell and Waters. So it appears that the Three Stooges not only think running stealth campaigns involve hiding the people who are involved is the thing to do, but also hiding where their candidates stand on the real issues the county faces. One might note it has not worked very effectively for them, just as the Republican Club has more losers in their stable than winners.
Let us make our position on all this very clear. We believe the voters have a right to full disclosure from all candidates. Every candidate has a duty to the public to disclose who they have hired, what they are paying them for and most importantly where the candidate stands on the issues. It is just wrong for these stealth campaigners to try to deceive the voters.
The Beaufort Observer Team waited until Labor Day to speak out on this, hoping things would change. It appears it will only get worse. We will do our best to expose these stealth candidates and campaigns between now and Election Day. We trust that the voters in Beaufort County will send these sneaky politicians a loud and clear message that we do not want sleazy, hidden agenda campaigns in this county. Our reason is simple. If a candidate is not forthright and open before being elected they will surely be more deceptive after getting elected. Beaufort County deserves better than that.
Which was a better expense for Beaufort County taxpayers' 2 million dollars?
91.07% Loan it to Belhaven government, as a first mortgage, to help them keep their hospital open.
6.43% Give it to consultants to plan a Southwest County jail with no financing in place.
2.5% Find another overpaid Economic Developer, who won't move to Beaufort County after he gets the job.
280 total vote(s) Voting has Ended!
Considering that Beaufort County may build a new jail /sheriff's office: What should be the best course?
7.51% Build a modern jail/S.O. in the southwest corner of the county
43.3% Build a modern jail/S.O. behind the courthouse in the county seat
49.2% Do not build a jail/S.O. anywhere
746 total vote(s) Voting has Ended!
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For me, Stan has been a sensible person asking sensible questions. In the August County Council meeting it was perfectly obvious this jail situation is a presentation without a reasonable plan nor way to finance it!
Until there is some concrete plan and drawings of the proposed facility along with concrete cost figures, there is no plan worth the trouble and heat surrounding it. The other issue of healthcare for Belhaven and Hyde Counties, a corporate bully is neglecting the needs of people there.
Both these issues are more than real. We must resolve them even if some more tax money is involved. Has anyone considered that our economy in this area is busted and continues to be such and government must join the citizens in tightening our belts and doing projects based on the reality of struggling citizens who can't even pay their Property Tax because it is inflated????
Forget the Madison Avenue slick ads. Just come up with your plan / present it to the voters / let us decide in November who can help us most rather than continue to fuss and fight over NOTHING!!!!