Will this election be the Year of the Chameleon? | Eastern North Carolina Now

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

    Chameleon politicians. You know, those lizards that change color to suit the environment at the time. Like the story Will Rogers is reported to have told. Seems a politician came up to Will one day and ask him for his vote. Will asked the man: "so tell me what kind of man you are." To which the politician responded: "tell me what kind of man you want me to be and that's what kind of man I am." But a less appropriate caricature is the story we read about recently of the prostitute who ran an add on one of the online dating websites that said: "devotedly yours...for an hour." And she probably should have said: "devotedly yours for as long as you want to pay."

    It seems to be the election year of the Chameleon politician. We've got our own dose of it in Beaufort County with scads (hope we got the spelling of that correct) of them claiming to be "conservative Republicans" but the same people were Democrats just a few weeks ago. Who knows what they will be after they get elected, if they do.

    In Beaufort County we've got noted politician Arthur Williams who is only a couple of terms away from collecting a lifetime legislative pension. He was a Democrat and bragged about his close relationships with convict Jim Black and the notorious Democrat Boss Marc Basnight...until they threw him under the bus so he now is running as a "conservative Republican" after amassing a long record of voting for a long list of liberal bills. But at least he didn't do as much liberal damage as he might have. He only got one major bill passed that anyone recalls and that was to allow wider boats on our highways. Wow. He wanted to be a Senator but abandoned that rather than run against Bill Cook. Now he's running for House 6.

    Then there's Jerry Evans. Jerry's been sending out slick, high dollar mailers made up by people who have no idea where Pantego, much less Ballard's Crossroads, are even located that tell us he is a "conservative Republican." Maybe, but he wasn't a Republican not too long ago when he ran for County Commissioner with support of a group who wanted to give away our Hospital in a single bid deal that cost us $50 million. He announced that he had decided that a Greenville bunch could run our hospital better than anyone in the world and he was able to determine that before he even saw their bid. But that's the way the political winds were blowing at the time.

    Chameleons are like that.

    But it's not just Beaufort County that is infested with Chameleons this season. They've got a guy next door in Carteret County who's pushing himself as a conservative Republican who has given boatloads of money to Democrats over the last few years. Money and airplane ride to the Honorable Bev. Perdue.

    It's interesting to note that not only are these Chamelons taking advantage of the conservative tide that is sweeping the nation but they all three claim they were anointed by the Power Brokers in Raleigh to run. So you know where their money is coming from and you have to wonder who they will feel obligated to if they get elected.

    Such is the life of a Chameleon.

    Now we learn that we may have yet another Chameleon running for State Auditor. That news comes from Caldwell County Republicans who wrote speaking of State Auditor candidate Debra Goldman:

   Unfortunately for conservatives Debra Goldman has a political spine of linguini. Her only previous successful run for political office was for the Wake County School Board in 2009. She ran with several other conservatives that promised to end the County's misguided busing policy in favor of neighborhood schools. These candidates were rewarded with a sweep of all the contested seats and it seemed like the busing policy was on its way to the graveyard of failed liberal social engineering schemes.

    Then the pistol packing momma got gun shy. A loud coalition of race baiting groups led by the NAACP ran to the N&O, WRAL, and anyone who would listen, calling the new board majority racists wanting to resegregate Wake County. When the time came to vote for the new school assignment plan Debra Goldman voted with the Democrats and demanded a new assignment plan that preserved a degree of busing in the Wake County school system. The ensuing months of drama allowed the NAACP to incite liberal Democrats and frighten moderates into rallying against the board conservatives. All of this could have been avoided had Debra Goldman kept her word to the voters, her Republican colleagues, and to the voters that elected her.
For those of you who may believe that our's is not a merciful God, please consider this - Jay McRoy has not been struck dead by lightning ... yet: Above.    photo by Stan Deatherage
   And finally, but certainly not least, we have our own RINO (Republican in Name Only) Jay McRoy running as a "Conservative Republican" (according to his signs) for County Commission. But the Beaufort County Good Government Committee is running an ad right here on this website that spotlights Jay's record. That information speaks for itself.

    Being a Chameleon is like telling a lie. You have to worry about who you told what. And it eventually catches up with you.

    We have confidence that this year we're going to see voters looking for genuine authentic candidates. This is not the Year of the Chameleon.