Democrats Remain in Control of the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Many are finally questioning: After so many Republican (in name only) majorities, will there ever be a Republican chairman with a real Republican majority on the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners?

    Tonight, December 1, 2014 at about 5:10 pm, in Beaufort County, two Republican commissioners left the board of county commissioners, and two Republican county commissioners took their place, bringing the total to: 4 Republicans, 3 Democrats. As in the recent past, the Democrats took control of the board, and may well remain in control of the political agenda for the succeeding year. This situation, where the Republican majority on the board did not elect the chairman, is a well worn tale of woeful missed identification of loyalty to certain ideals shared as a group, and in this case that group are the elected Beaufort County Republicans.

    There has existed a Republican majority (in name only) on this board of county commissioners since 2002, yet there has never been a consensus among the Republican commissioners to elect a chairman, except in 2002, when Republican convert Earle Tetterton was elected Chairman (but that is another story to be told well, later in another post). Since 2004, the chairmanship has been in a state of flux, which originated the infamous 5-2 (remember the red stickers with white numbering 5-2).

    Tonight, after one decade of time and the space to know better, the Republican majority allowed the Democrats to take control of the board once again, by a vote of 4 to 3, as Gary Brinn was elected chairman, with Jerry Langley elected as vice chairman. During the voting process for chairman: New commissioner Ron Buzzeo - R, nominated new commissioner Frankie Waters - R for chairman, then new/old commissioner Ed Booth nominated Gary Brinn - R for chairman, thereby splitting the Republican vote for chairman, and vice chairman. The vote for chairman: 4 votes for Gary Brinn (Robert Belcher -D, Jerry Langley -D, Ed Booth -D, Gary Brinn -R); 3 votes for Frankie Waters (Ron Buzzeo -R, Hood Richardson -R, Frankie Waters - R). The Republicans lose once again, which has been fairly much the case for the last decade.
"There was no joy in Mudville" on this Monday night in Washington, NC. Just elected chairman Gary Brinn not feeling the joy of working, and winning, as a team player: Above.     photo by Stan Deatherage     Click image to expand.
    If one might consider: 'Hey, (recently former) Commissioner Deatherage, Gary Brinn is a registered Republican!"

    To answer, and then speak succinctly to the matter, one's registration has proved to make little difference in who is elected chairman of the commissioners in the county of Beaufort. Not to belabor the point, which I do intend to re-visit at a later date; deals are always struck, outside of the public's purview, between all parties, whenever a Democrat is made chairman without a Democrat majority in place, or whenever a Republican is made Chairman, without the support of the Republicans. An explanation, to a much finer point, will be forthcoming.

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