The Human Touch Revealing All that is Real
The campaign comes down to this
By: Beaufort Observer Editorial Team ( More Entries )
Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.
We don't believe the national polls that say that a large number of people are still undecided who they will vote for Tuesday. But just in case there are any such folks out there we will review how we see the electoral landscape in this election at this point.
We think Mitt Romney and Pat McCrory will win by a landslide. We simply don't believe the national polls that show a close Obama/Romney race. We base that on a solid belief that ultimately the people make good decisions. That dictates that they vote against Barack Obama, no matter how they feel about Mitt Romney. Obama has had four years and he has accomplished only one thing: He has put us, and our grandchildren in debt more than any president in history, and we got nothing from all his deficit spending. The economy is still bad and with him in office and there's no chance of it getting much better fast enough. During his first two years he had a rubber-stamp Congress controlled by Democrats and he accomplished nothing in terms of actually fixing "the mess he inherited," as he described it. The proof is in the way he has campaigned. He has not run on his record but has tried to blame everyone else and use every excuse, including Big Bird. Most people know he failed to act decisively in Libya and then lied about it. The cover-up continues. He has proven himself to not be fit to be Commander-in-Chief. The American people know this and Obama will be retired Tuesday.
In Raleigh the tide will shift to the Republicans to run state government for the next two years. They will have a majority in both houses of the Legislature and a Republican governor. Paul Newby will win overwhelmingly and insure a more conservative Supreme Court, as will happen on the Court of Appeals. We're not as confident the GOP will take over the Council of State simply because of weak candidates. But there may be enough residual disgust for the Perdue/Easley administrations to even give Republicans a chance at those positions. The real question will be whether the GOP can rise to the occasion and govern effectively. Early indications in the last session of the Legislature give us some concern about that, with it appearing that the GOP leadership in the House and Senate are more intent on simply substituting themselves for the political bosses of the Black/Basnight era. That will be a shame if they don't reform state government but we'll just have to wait and see. For sure the Tea Party folks will be watching them closely and will dump them as easily as they have the Democrats.
Bill Cook speaks his truth: Above. photo by Stan Deatherage
We think the Tea Party movement will sweep Mattie Lawson, Bill Cook, Michael Speciale along with other conservatives into office. The question will be whether they stick to their principles or get sucked into the Business As Usual, Good Ole Boy system.
Jerry Langley promises to do the "right thing:" Above. photo by Stan Deatherage
It is at the local level that we are most disappointed and concerned. The County Commissioner campaign has been disgustingly devoid of substance. The Democrats have filed the weakest slate of candidates in memory. Jerry Langley will win again simply because he will get the black vote. The jury is still out on whether Hood Richardson's attacks on Jay McRoy will unseat what is probably the most corrupt and incompetent politician in Beaufort County history. But McRoy appears to have the Zombie vote and may indeed hang on. If he does, the issue will be whether he gets the message that he cannot operate in the backroom like he has for eight years without the whistle being blown on him. Credit where credit is due: Hood Richardson has seen to that in this campaign.
Jay McRoy speaking about "pacific" issues: Above. photo by Stan Deatherage
Hood Richardson will again either lead the ticket or get enough votes even though he has tried to convince some of his followers to help get another conservative, Donald Dixon on the Commission. Dixon has run a low-key campaign, with little money. He is the most qualified candidate relative to one of the major issues facing the county...that of fixing the jail problem. He is the most highly educated law enforcement person currently active in county government and should be taken advantage of by the voters.
The big question is what will happen on the fourth seat. We suspect Gary Brinn will see to it that this seat goes to a Democrat. Brinn will split the Republican/unaffiliated vote but the question is whether he will siphon off enough to be the Spoiler or just the last place finisher.
Brinn is the most ignorant candidate we have seen in a long time. He knows so little about the issues facing the county that it is scary. We suspect that is because he is being manipulated by two even more ignorant handlers. He harps on an issue he can do absolutely nothing about--Limited voting--and his statements indicate they do not even understand that system and the alternatives, much less what it would take to get any kind of electoral change made as long as the Voting Rights Act remains in place. They propose a "hybrid alternate (6-3)" without even addressing retrogression and probably does not even know what it is and how it would control any electoral changes. He does not want to fix the jail problem, but doesn't say what he will do if the County is forced to act. He runs ads--wasting money--on issues that have nothing to do with the county and accuses others of being "puppets" while he is controlled by a couple of egomaniacs of questionable character with problems they are desperate to hide by slinging mud. Fine bunch of pots trying to call the kettle black.
Brinn represents the worst of conservatism. He is dogmatic about "not raising taxes." And while Beaufort County's finances are in the worst shape they have been in decades, Brinn does not offer a clue about what he would actually propose if elected to fix that problem. He only says what he will not do. Not raising taxes will require cutting spending. Hood Richardson and Stan Deatherage offered a plan to do that during the budget negotiations last spring, to the tune of two million dollars, but that has not been debated in the campaign, nor has Brinn or anyone else offered a more viable alternative for reducing spending. We've got news for Mr. Brinn...principled conservatives don't just oppose higher taxes, they propose specific ways to reduce expenditures. Brinn is not a conservative, he is an echo.
At a time when every family and business in Beaufort County has had to adjust to a poor economy, the county's government has continued to spend more and more without any real consideration of how to reduce spending.
The current Gang of Five controlling the Commission has wasted over ten million dollars on a fruitless crony capitalism of redistribution they call "economic development," but we have heard very little about how any of the candidates would propose to help businesses grow in Beaufort County. We think work force development is the soundest approach but we've heard no detailed plans for how to do that. The simple fact that one of the greatest resources the county now has--Mt. Olive College--has not even been mentioned is alarming. MOC offers Beaufort County residents who have to work fulltime a chance to get a four-year college degree in practical fields. Such degrees do not guarantee success but they sure offer greater hope than not having one does. But we're doing very little to support those people who are working to better themselves. Donald Dixon went that route and even he does not sell this resource.
And we are amazed that the loss of the county's health care system to a monopoly controlled by Elitists in Greenville has not generated more attention in the campaign. The simple fact that patients will have no choice about who provides their care and health care providers cannot bid their services to but one monopoly that has historically shown little regard for employees should, in our opinion, be one of the major issues in the campaign. The debacle with the hospital is simply an illustration of the lack of planning, oversight and forward thinking that has plagued Beaufort County in the Economic Development Commission and the atrocity that was the most poorly planned $40 million school construction program in the state in a century. And we have heard nothing in this campaign about how such abuses of the public trust are going to be overcome.
We've got two of the principle duds of that school construction catastrophe with the nerve to run for office again--Mac Hodges and Robert Belcher--and their abominable record has not even been an issue in the campaign. Hodges and Belcher were the ring leaders in wasting millions of dollars, suing the taxpayers for more money while they hid more in a slush fund than they were suing for, and hiring and keeping for too long what is probably the worst school superintendent in the state (Jeff Moss) and they have the nerve to ask to be elected again. They've been sued by teachers and students for abuse of fundamental rights and lost every case. If the people fall for that, then we fear we have little chance of ever breaking the cycle of bad government in Beaufort County.
Hopefully the people will clean up the incompetence and corruption in Beaufort County government. If Richardson and Dixon get elected and McRoy is sent on down the road, we have an immediate chance. Barring that, the job of getting a conservative majority on the Commission could be completed in 2014 by dumping Al Klemm and Beaufort would then be in the same category as the state and national governments with a chance to have principled-centered government for a change.
That is our hope, but if it happens it will be in spite of a miserable campaign in county government rather than because of it.
We actually believe the outcome of the commissioners' election will be decided by Democrats. It would take too much space here to explain that, but suffice it to say that most Republicans, except for a handful of weird RINO's will vote for conservative Republicans (Richardson, Dixon and some for Brinn). Whether Jay McRoy wins will be determined by whether he continues to pull a significant number of registered Democrats to homogenize with his Zombies. Langley will get 90%+ of the black Democrat vote and the outcome will be determined by how many Democrats desert McRoy and where they go. Republicans and unaffiliated can elect two of the four seats by themselves unless they split their vote. But electing a third seat will require some Democrats, likely many of those who have voted for Bob Cayton in the past. If they go to Sawyer and then Harding and Belcher split the other Democrat votes then we could see a sea change on the County Commission. Where the white, conservative Democrats go will determine whether that happens or not. Sawyer is the only Democrat that has run for that vote. Ironically, Brinn's best chance was to pull these Democrat votes from McRoy yet he attacked Richardson where he will pull almost none and probably even added to Richardson's totals. If he were going to attack, it is McRoy he should have tried to pull votes from.
We'll see. We'll hold our breath Tuesday and hope that Richardson, Dixon and Democrat Wayne Sawyer will join Stan Deatherage on a conservative county commission. But we're not going to count on it simply because of the exceedingly weak campaign that has been waged.
The real question thus becomes: Will the people be wise enough to clean up Beaufort County government without a good campaign? We have confidence Beaufort County will do its part to fix Washington and Raleigh and we'll hope they do the same here at home.
Go Back
We don't believe the national polls that say that a large number of people are still undecided who they will vote for Tuesday. But just in case there are any such folks out there we will review how we see the electoral landscape in this election at this point.
We think Mitt Romney and Pat McCrory will win by a landslide. We simply don't believe the national polls that show a close Obama/Romney race. We base that on a solid belief that ultimately the people make good decisions. That dictates that they vote against Barack Obama, no matter how they feel about Mitt Romney. Obama has had four years and he has accomplished only one thing: He has put us, and our grandchildren in debt more than any president in history, and we got nothing from all his deficit spending. The economy is still bad and with him in office and there's no chance of it getting much better fast enough. During his first two years he had a rubber-stamp Congress controlled by Democrats and he accomplished nothing in terms of actually fixing "the mess he inherited," as he described it. The proof is in the way he has campaigned. He has not run on his record but has tried to blame everyone else and use every excuse, including Big Bird. Most people know he failed to act decisively in Libya and then lied about it. The cover-up continues. He has proven himself to not be fit to be Commander-in-Chief. The American people know this and Obama will be retired Tuesday.
In Raleigh the tide will shift to the Republicans to run state government for the next two years. They will have a majority in both houses of the Legislature and a Republican governor. Paul Newby will win overwhelmingly and insure a more conservative Supreme Court, as will happen on the Court of Appeals. We're not as confident the GOP will take over the Council of State simply because of weak candidates. But there may be enough residual disgust for the Perdue/Easley administrations to even give Republicans a chance at those positions. The real question will be whether the GOP can rise to the occasion and govern effectively. Early indications in the last session of the Legislature give us some concern about that, with it appearing that the GOP leadership in the House and Senate are more intent on simply substituting themselves for the political bosses of the Black/Basnight era. That will be a shame if they don't reform state government but we'll just have to wait and see. For sure the Tea Party folks will be watching them closely and will dump them as easily as they have the Democrats.
We think the Tea Party movement will sweep Mattie Lawson, Bill Cook, Michael Speciale along with other conservatives into office. The question will be whether they stick to their principles or get sucked into the Business As Usual, Good Ole Boy system.
It is at the local level that we are most disappointed and concerned. The County Commissioner campaign has been disgustingly devoid of substance. The Democrats have filed the weakest slate of candidates in memory. Jerry Langley will win again simply because he will get the black vote. The jury is still out on whether Hood Richardson's attacks on Jay McRoy will unseat what is probably the most corrupt and incompetent politician in Beaufort County history. But McRoy appears to have the Zombie vote and may indeed hang on. If he does, the issue will be whether he gets the message that he cannot operate in the backroom like he has for eight years without the whistle being blown on him. Credit where credit is due: Hood Richardson has seen to that in this campaign.
Hood Richardson will again either lead the ticket or get enough votes even though he has tried to convince some of his followers to help get another conservative, Donald Dixon on the Commission. Dixon has run a low-key campaign, with little money. He is the most qualified candidate relative to one of the major issues facing the county...that of fixing the jail problem. He is the most highly educated law enforcement person currently active in county government and should be taken advantage of by the voters.
The big question is what will happen on the fourth seat. We suspect Gary Brinn will see to it that this seat goes to a Democrat. Brinn will split the Republican/unaffiliated vote but the question is whether he will siphon off enough to be the Spoiler or just the last place finisher.
Brinn is the most ignorant candidate we have seen in a long time. He knows so little about the issues facing the county that it is scary. We suspect that is because he is being manipulated by two even more ignorant handlers. He harps on an issue he can do absolutely nothing about--Limited voting--and his statements indicate they do not even understand that system and the alternatives, much less what it would take to get any kind of electoral change made as long as the Voting Rights Act remains in place. They propose a "hybrid alternate (6-3)" without even addressing retrogression and probably does not even know what it is and how it would control any electoral changes. He does not want to fix the jail problem, but doesn't say what he will do if the County is forced to act. He runs ads--wasting money--on issues that have nothing to do with the county and accuses others of being "puppets" while he is controlled by a couple of egomaniacs of questionable character with problems they are desperate to hide by slinging mud. Fine bunch of pots trying to call the kettle black.
Brinn represents the worst of conservatism. He is dogmatic about "not raising taxes." And while Beaufort County's finances are in the worst shape they have been in decades, Brinn does not offer a clue about what he would actually propose if elected to fix that problem. He only says what he will not do. Not raising taxes will require cutting spending. Hood Richardson and Stan Deatherage offered a plan to do that during the budget negotiations last spring, to the tune of two million dollars, but that has not been debated in the campaign, nor has Brinn or anyone else offered a more viable alternative for reducing spending. We've got news for Mr. Brinn...principled conservatives don't just oppose higher taxes, they propose specific ways to reduce expenditures. Brinn is not a conservative, he is an echo.
At a time when every family and business in Beaufort County has had to adjust to a poor economy, the county's government has continued to spend more and more without any real consideration of how to reduce spending.
The current Gang of Five controlling the Commission has wasted over ten million dollars on a fruitless crony capitalism of redistribution they call "economic development," but we have heard very little about how any of the candidates would propose to help businesses grow in Beaufort County. We think work force development is the soundest approach but we've heard no detailed plans for how to do that. The simple fact that one of the greatest resources the county now has--Mt. Olive College--has not even been mentioned is alarming. MOC offers Beaufort County residents who have to work fulltime a chance to get a four-year college degree in practical fields. Such degrees do not guarantee success but they sure offer greater hope than not having one does. But we're doing very little to support those people who are working to better themselves. Donald Dixon went that route and even he does not sell this resource.
And we are amazed that the loss of the county's health care system to a monopoly controlled by Elitists in Greenville has not generated more attention in the campaign. The simple fact that patients will have no choice about who provides their care and health care providers cannot bid their services to but one monopoly that has historically shown little regard for employees should, in our opinion, be one of the major issues in the campaign. The debacle with the hospital is simply an illustration of the lack of planning, oversight and forward thinking that has plagued Beaufort County in the Economic Development Commission and the atrocity that was the most poorly planned $40 million school construction program in the state in a century. And we have heard nothing in this campaign about how such abuses of the public trust are going to be overcome.
We've got two of the principle duds of that school construction catastrophe with the nerve to run for office again--Mac Hodges and Robert Belcher--and their abominable record has not even been an issue in the campaign. Hodges and Belcher were the ring leaders in wasting millions of dollars, suing the taxpayers for more money while they hid more in a slush fund than they were suing for, and hiring and keeping for too long what is probably the worst school superintendent in the state (Jeff Moss) and they have the nerve to ask to be elected again. They've been sued by teachers and students for abuse of fundamental rights and lost every case. If the people fall for that, then we fear we have little chance of ever breaking the cycle of bad government in Beaufort County.
Hopefully the people will clean up the incompetence and corruption in Beaufort County government. If Richardson and Dixon get elected and McRoy is sent on down the road, we have an immediate chance. Barring that, the job of getting a conservative majority on the Commission could be completed in 2014 by dumping Al Klemm and Beaufort would then be in the same category as the state and national governments with a chance to have principled-centered government for a change.
That is our hope, but if it happens it will be in spite of a miserable campaign in county government rather than because of it.
We actually believe the outcome of the commissioners' election will be decided by Democrats. It would take too much space here to explain that, but suffice it to say that most Republicans, except for a handful of weird RINO's will vote for conservative Republicans (Richardson, Dixon and some for Brinn). Whether Jay McRoy wins will be determined by whether he continues to pull a significant number of registered Democrats to homogenize with his Zombies. Langley will get 90%+ of the black Democrat vote and the outcome will be determined by how many Democrats desert McRoy and where they go. Republicans and unaffiliated can elect two of the four seats by themselves unless they split their vote. But electing a third seat will require some Democrats, likely many of those who have voted for Bob Cayton in the past. If they go to Sawyer and then Harding and Belcher split the other Democrat votes then we could see a sea change on the County Commission. Where the white, conservative Democrats go will determine whether that happens or not. Sawyer is the only Democrat that has run for that vote. Ironically, Brinn's best chance was to pull these Democrat votes from McRoy yet he attacked Richardson where he will pull almost none and probably even added to Richardson's totals. If he were going to attack, it is McRoy he should have tried to pull votes from.
We'll see. We'll hold our breath Tuesday and hope that Richardson, Dixon and Democrat Wayne Sawyer will join Stan Deatherage on a conservative county commission. But we're not going to count on it simply because of the exceedingly weak campaign that has been waged.
The real question thus becomes: Will the people be wise enough to clean up Beaufort County government without a good campaign? We have confidence Beaufort County will do its part to fix Washington and Raleigh and we'll hope they do the same here at home.
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