GOP to vote on replacing Baldwin in commissioner race | Eastern North Carolina Now

    A special meeting of the Beaufort County Republican Executive Committee has been called to vote on whether or not to appoint someone to replace former Republican candidate for Beaufort County commissioner Cindy Baldwin, who voluntarily withdrew from the race on Aug. 3.

    If Baldwin stayed in the race, she would have been trying to win one of the three commissioner seats available in November, along with the two Republican incumbents Stan Deatherage and Al Klemm, Democratic incumbent Ed Booth, Democratic hopefuls Jerry Evans and Sonya Shamseldin and Independent candidate (former Republican candidate) Bertie Arnhols. With Baldwin’s forfeiture, the remaining two Republican commissioner candidates, incumbents Stan Deatherage and Al Klemm, could expect to inherit her portion of the vote, thusly helping to secure their seats on the board.

    Republicans currently hold a 4-3 majority on the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners. It is uncertain why the Republican Party would want to reinstate a third Republican candidate, and jeopardize the position of its two incumbent candidates, unless it was naïve enough to believe that Republicans could take all three seats in November.

    This doesn’t seem logical, as Democrats have a very strong base in Beaufort County. In the primary, Deatherage was the top vote-getter on the Republican ballot, with 854 votes (288 votes more than second place holder Al Klemm's 566 votes); however, the top vote-getter on the Democratic ballot, Ed Booth, garnered 1,669 votes, nearly twice that amount. Even Democratic hopeful Sonya Shamseldinan got slightly more votes than Deatherage in the primary, with 868 votes.

    The meeting to consider appointing a third Republican candidate to the ballot was announced by Beaufort County Republican Party Chairman Larry Britt via e-mail yesterday afternoon:

    Due to the withdrawal of Cindy Baldwin from the Beaufort County Commissioners race for 2010, there will be a special meeting of the Beaufort County Republican Executive Committee Monday, 8-9-2010, 5:30 PM at the Republican Headquarters on Market Street.

    State election law says that the Republican Executive Committee has the authority to appoint someone to fill, or not fill, the position on the ballot vacated by Cindy.

    This question will be discussed and voted on at this meeting. Please make every effort to attend if possible.

    Deatherage, who said he did not encourage Baldwin to leave the race, rejects the potentiality of replacing her with someone who didn’t earn their candidacy through the primary, only to take votes away from himself and Klemm. He disagreed with this non-strategy in a quick reply to Britt’s e-mail, whence he questioned the fairness and reasonableness of such a decision.

    I am opposed to the Beaufort County Republican Party picking anyone to take Cindy Baldwin's place.

    With the limited voting conundrum such as it is in Beaufort County, and with a former Republican commissioner candidate running unaffiliated in this November General Election, running an additional Republican candidate would make the chance of retaining the two Republican seats, out of the three available in this election, extremely difficult.

    From a position of fairness, no one who did not run in the primary, and prevailed, should have the path cleared for them to try politics in a general election, when the rational outcome could be that their very presence may serve only to jeopardize the election for one, or possibly two of our incumbents. In the event that we lost one or both seats, the county party has set itself firmly in a position to take all the blame for an action (the appointment of a third candidate in a general election in this limited voting county), which would be considered a gross act of grand sophistry.

    From a point of historical perspective, the party has sought to limit the number of candidates in this off year, non-presidential general election, so that we could first get at least one seat. As more county residents have been willing to vote for strong Republican candidates, we have been able to elect two Republicans; when we only ran two candidates, which is what we have done in all the past off year elections.

    When Cindy dropped out, it enhanced our opportunities to continue in that tradition, even with a former Republican commissioner candidate running unaffiliated. The question you have to ask yourself is: Am I willing to shoot myself in the foot in this election, only to take the full blame for a possible negative outcome?

    We should agree that the County Party did not have the right to ask Cindy Baldwin, who ran a fair race and prevailed in the primary, to drop out of the race to enhance the chances of the two incumbents. Consequently, while the local party may have the right, by party policy, to pick a replacement; I submit they would prove to not have the political acumen to make such a decision, if they made such a decision.

    I just can't understand why the Beaufort County Republican Party would want to put itself in the position to reap so much potential blame for no potential benefit.

    Just as quickly Britt absolved himself of this mess in a reply e-mail to Deatherage:

    I agree with you and believe we have enough votes to NOT replace Cindy on the ballot.

    Deatherage replied that he would come to the special meeting and is planning to speak out against the vote.

    I respect your wisdom on this issue. I intend to show up Monday night to do my part to make sure the party benefits from it.