More on the two Republican Parties in Beaufort County | Eastern North Carolina Now

I recently wrote about the split in the Beaufort County Republican Party.  That split runs deeper and wider than I thought.  More like a political Grand Canyon.  There are always disagreements in any group.  However, the majority should rule.  With some of these people, you learn that they are perfectly willing to take votes away from duly authorized voters and even push changes in the way we elect commissioners which would take half of your vote in how the County Commission is elected.  Why?  Well, of course it is pure power…as long as they can get away with it.

Here’s the backstory:

I have personally observed secret operations by some members of the GOP Executive Committee that have never been presented to the Beaufort County Republican Executive Committee but are being carried out by executive committee members working in the headquarters located in the Pamlico Plaza Mall and at various Republican Party events.

A little background.  Every two years both of the major parties (Democrats and Republicans) hold a convention that elects the Chairman, other officers and members of the Executive Committee.  The current Chairman is Carolyn Garris.  The previous Republican Party Chairman was ex-Senator Bill Cook.

Bill set up a secret super executive committee which nominally consisted of the officers. That is himself, the Vice Chairman Paul Varco, the Secretary, the Treasurer, one or two of his good buddies and a couple of elected officials.  Their major achievement was to secretly use the Republican Party and the headquarters to campaign for John Rebholz and Frankie Waters for Commissioner and to defeat Tandy Dunn.  A lot went on that the full (real) Executive Committee never knew about.  Pure backroom politics of power. 

If you dig deep enough into the operations of the Beaufort County Republican Party you find that the apparent reason for this “Super Committee” was that these few people could control who was chosen for the positions that would become the Super Committee, while they could not as easily control the democrat process of majority rule at the biennial convention of all the delegates in selecting the full Executive Committee under the Plan of Organization.

Again, the local/county Executive Committee is elected by the Beaufort County Convention which is held every two years.  Delegates to the convention are picked by the county precincts.  Every county in the state does this according to some general rules laid down by the State Republican Party.   Each county has its own rules for the running of the party in accord with the Plan of Organization.

The purpose of the Executive Committee is to manage the affairs of the party between conventions.  The Beaufort County Executive Committee is supposed to manage the Republican party affairs to the best advantage of every Republican in the County to get Republicans elected according to the beliefs of  Republicans.  The State Party Platform, adopted by the delegates to the State Convention, lays out the parameters of the organization and includes rules about how the locals will operate.  The idea is that if a candidate files as a Republican then that candidate will support the party platform.  Thus, presumably you can read the Platform and have a pretty good idea how a Republican will vote once elected to office.  It is the duty of the Executive Committee to work to support all Republican nominees once the primary is over.  To obtain this goal one would expect the party to operate in the clear light of day and not to secretly back stab candidates and elected Republicans.

The fact that there are secret operations of the GOP Executive Committee gives some insight into what happens on the Board of County Commissioners.  There are five Republicans on the Board of County Commissioners.  But, two Republicans most always join with the two Democrats to decide who the Chairman is going to be, with the deal being that one of the Democrats will be elected Vice Chairman.  These four then vote like Democrats on the major issues that come up.  Currently the issue is taxes and spending, or more specifically the tax rate.  They County is flush with cash but the four (Waters, Rebholz, Langley and Booth) refuse to lower taxes and always vote to increase county payroll and expenses. They are the root of problems with the Sheriff’s Office and the more than 10 million dollars Ernie Coleman wasted during the past eight years.  I thank the voters for fixing that issue in the May 17 Primary Election.  The Republican Party Executive Committee had nothing to do with Scott Hammonds’ victory.  Ernie Coleman was supported by this little clique.  But when the People learned what Ernie was doing they voted him out.

Get the picture?  The Super Committee supported Coleman but could not get him re-elected.

The next issue is going to be whether to change the method Beaufort County uses to elect the County Commission.  Officers and operatives within the Executive Committee are circulating a petition to have the way we elect commissioners changed by popular vote during the November elections this year. 

It does not matter to me which side of this issue you are on.  My complaint is that the issue of circulating the petition was never voted on by this Beaufort County Executive Committee sitting in open session.  

I have attended every executive committee meeting during the past two years and I have never heard this discussed or voted on by this Committee.  This smacks of the corrupt practices we see going on in Washington D.C.  More secret backroom dealing.

But the Super Committee is not going to get away with pulling the wool over the People’s eyes on this electoral system if I can help it.  I will address what is really going on in the third installment in this series of “The Two Republican Parties in Beaufort County.”  The voters will determine this, but the group of Super Secret operatives will try to use any change to keep their control of county politics.  They have apparently decided already what is best for you and the rest of the People in Beaufort County…we must go to a district system.  

Stay tuned for the third edition of this series.

 


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Comments

( May 25th, 2022 @ 6:45 am )
 
Well said Stan.
There is a lot more to come on the Executive Committee issue.
( May 24th, 2022 @ 11:39 pm )
 
Great post Hood, all true as usual; however, if I could just interject this one additional truth: These Republican interlopers, who tend to coalesce around politicians of the inconsistent variety, also sought to marginalize me and my constituents ... possibly since I am far different than what they are use to supporting, or what they consider their nominal norm of what passes as a Republican.

I see this continual split, a chasm that divides us ever deeper, will never be closed, or the scar tissue dissolved until the principled Conservative wing of the Republican Party is insured that the Nominal Republican wing is removed from positions of total authority, which has far too long been the case here in Beaufort County.

It is that simple of a fix: Either one is serious about forming a team that can move as a cohesive Conservative unit of principled ideals, brimming with integrity, or they are just doing the usual lip-service-dance of fanciful fools, who will stand for nothing and will far too often fall for the lowest common denominator as the mean of their political momentum driving headlong toward a big bowl brimming full of immeasurable nothing.



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