The politics of local legislative races | Eastern North Carolina Now

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

First in a series that looks at how it is determined who will represent us

    This is the first in a series we are doing on the politics of legislative races in Beaufort County.

    The Beaufort County Republican Executive Committee, at its regular monthly meeting on February 21, voted unanimously that: "The Beaufort County Executive Committee views with grave concern the involvement of the North Carolina GOP Senate Caucus in the candidate recruitment and selection process prior to the Primary election without the appropriate consultation with the local GOP leadership."

    And we further advise the Senate Caucus and State GOP Executive Committee that we do not intend to work for any candidates so selected without the appropriate involvement of the local GOP leadership."

    County Chairman Greg Dority, who is also running for State Auditor, said: "my reading of the discussion was that the Executive Committee was very disturbed about what they perceive as inappropriate meddling in local matters by some in the Senate GOP caucus. Apparently members or staff of the caucus recruited one or more candidates to run in local races and the leadership of the county GOP feels that it is inappropriate for Raleigh to decide who is going to run for what at the local level. They do not feel there is a problem of Raleigh getting involved after the primary but they do not think state officials should get involved in primaries at the local level." When asked to identify specific instances of such involvement Dority declined to elaborate. "All I know is that as County Chairman, I was not consulted."

    Two local candidates have said publically that they were contacted by Raleigh officials and encouraged to run. Arthur Williams, a long-time Democrat, switched parties recently and scheduled a news conference at which Republican Congressman Walter Jones was scheduled to appear. But the press conference was called off after criticism was expressed to Jones about his getting involved in a local primary. Jones too was a party switcher.

    Jerry Evans was another switcher. He ran in 2010 as a Democrat for county commission. He then announced he was filing for the House seat being vacated by Republican Bill Cook. Then shortly afterwards Evans announced that he was not going to run against Williams for the House nomination but rather against Cook for the Senate District 1 nomination. At the time he told local media outlets that he had been contacted by unnamed Raleigh officials and encouraged to switch to the Senate race.
Democrat Candidate Jerry Evans filing for his unsuccessful bid for Beaufort County Commissioner in February, 2010. photo by Stan Deatherage
    Sources tell us that what was going on was that Williams felt that with him and Evans running together in the same race against Mattie Lawson, a long-time conservative Republican from Dare County, that he and Evans would split the Beaufort vote and Lawson would win. So it was decided that Evans would pull out of the House race and run instead for the Senate.

    Cook told us that he did not object to Evans running for the Senate and did not seek to get Raleigh officials to intercede. "I don't really care who runs. Anyone who wants to run should do so. I will run on my record and let the people decide who to nominate and elect," he said. He said he did not try to get the "blessings" of anyone in Raleigh. "I don't operate like that. I just do what I think is right in representing the people and I have never felt I needed to play political games. I have great faith in the voters to decide for themselves," he said.

    We have been told that the way Cook describes it is not how the "game is played in Raleigh." In years past it was common knowledge that top leaders in both the House and Senate were very effective in controlling who got elected at the local level. They did so by building a machine that selected certain candidates while blacklisting others and then bankrolled those 'select' candidates with money from special interests who donated money to the leadership. The leadership then doled the money out to whomever they felt favorable towards.

    It is generally accepted among state political observers that both former House Speaker Jim Black and Beaufort's previous senator, Marc Basnight, honed the practice to the point that if you wanted to run and stand a reasonable chance of winning that you had to "visit the Wizard," as it was described to us, and get his blessings. Then when you got elected you knew who to listen to when the time came to vote and introduce bills. "It is Chicago-style politics...machine politics" as one former officials told us. The Top Guns in Raleigh controlled the show.

    Now that the Republicans have gained majorities in both the House and Senate some are wondering if they are doing the same thing that Black and Basnight did as Democrat leaders.

    Indications are that the Williams/Evans maneuverings are not the only examples of the emerging GOP Machine. In neighboring Pamlico, Craven and Carteret a veteran senator, Jean Preston, just announced her retirement from Senate District 2. Current House member Norm Sanderson announced he would give up his House seat to run for the Senate seat, as Bill Cook did in District 1.

    Then, we have been told, the Raleigh Machine stepped in and reportedly "anointed" Randy Ramsey to run for Preston's seat. Ramsey, though registered as a Republican, unlike Williams and Evans, was a heavy contributor to Democrats in the past, including Bev. Perdue and Mike Easley. So it was a mystery to some why "Raleigh" (GOP) would have picked a Democrat supporter to run as a Republican. "Well, it's not a mystery to me," one Carteret County GOP activist told us. "Senate 2 is a strong Republican district and if you want to get elected you stand a much better chance as a Republican than as a Democrat. You've got some politicians who will go with whichever way the prevailing winds are blowing. Add money to it and you've got your story in Senate 2."

    But that did not explain why Raleigh GOP leaders would get involved in a local Republican primary. So we went to work on that. What we learned took us back to the 'Chicago-style Machine politics.'

    A well respected lobbyist with over thirty years of experience working in the Legislature explained it this way:

    The number one objective is to keep a majority for your party. But if you've got that sewed up then you want to have as many members as possible in your caucus who you can control. So if they get their job because of your help they owe you. They will "follow the leadership." The nice way to say it is not to talk about puppets but team players. The Big Money flows to the leaders. The leaders use the money to pick and choose and control the troops. You don't buy votes, you buy loyalty. With loyalty comes power. With power comes money, and around and around you go. Lobbyists like it because you don't have to spread your money around. You just feed the leadership.

    Apparently Arthur Williams and Jerry Evans know how to play this game. And Bill Cook and Norm Sanderson choose not to. But the advantage Cook and Sanderson have is that they have a record they can put before the voters. The question becomes whether the Machine's money trumps the voters casting their votes on the basis of the candidates' record or whether the slick ad campaigns the money buys will drive the vote.

    In the subsequent installments of this series we will take a look at how that plays out and how it appears to be evolving with the new leaders in Raleigh.

    Meanwhile, the "worker bees" at the local level on the GOP Executive Committee don't believe the candidates they are going to be working to elect should be chosen in a backroom in Raleigh. "I voted for the motion (to express concern about the Senate GOP caucus getting into the local primary) because I believe anybody who wants to run should be free to go file. You then have a primary and the voters determine who is going to be nominated. In the General Election I believe the state party officials should definitely get involved. That's why the parties can raise money to support their candidates. Then all the voters decide which candidate to elect. The voters should control who runs and who get elected, not a small handful of people in Raleigh," said Tony Keech, the county's GOP Vice Chairman who is running for Beaufort County commissioner.

    In the next installment we will hear more from the local leaders and why they voted for the motion Tuesday night. We will then follow the money in more detail.