Beaufort County Republican Party and the Secret Petition | Eastern North Carolina Now

Sometimes it's not what you want to get done, but rather how you are going about it that matters more.

There is no doubt there are two Republican Parties in Beaufort County. One is conservative and the other seems to exist only for the purpose of defeating the conservative Republicans. 

Much of the friction comes about because many party hacks seem to believe it is their job to tell elected officials how to behave and vote.  The sole purpose of the Republican Party and its Executive Committee is to serve all Republicans equally.  It is the duty of the Executive Committee to remain neutral in all matters during primary elections.  In the goal of remaining neutral they have failed miserably.  The insiders, the Super Executive Committee, have failed to remain neutral.  They actively take sides in primary elections. They believe they should control elected Republicans,

These party insiders, most of whom recently arrived in Beaufort County, gleefully undertake to mold us elected officials into their brand of liberalism.  I wonder if they were as pushy and self-important in the places they came from.  Things must not have been going well there or they would not be here.  Not all the insiders are from other places, they have plenty of locals helping them.

Speaking of recent arrivals, I never saw the present Party Chairwoman at an Executive Committee meeting until Paul Varco and the insiders presented her at the County Convention.  With zero experience she has to listen to the insiders.

Their most recent experiment in Republican affairs is to change the way Beaufort County Commissioners are elected.  They have been operating in secret.  They are circulating petitions to force a vote during the November of this year’s election.  They present petitions with a strong arm recommendation to “Just sign it, you can read the details later”.  The petition has been presented at voting places, the Republican forum held at the Community College during April, the Republican Head Quarters in Pamlico Plaza  and some other locations.

The creation of the petition and the maps that go with it was never approved by the Beaufort County Republican Executive Committee or the Democrat Party or given an opportunity for public comment.  But, all those soliciting signatures are Republicans.  This includes the Chairwoman of the Beaufort County Republican Party, Carolyn Garris, along with other members of  the Executive Committee.  I understand RINO,  zip code, Frankie Waters’ wife has been asking people to sign the petition.

The conservative Republicans were never asked or notified about the petition or the map showing how the districts would look.  They also serve on the Executive Committee.

This is the petition people are being asked to sign:  TO CHANGE THE METHOD OF ELECTING BEAFORT COUNTY NC COUNTY COMMISSIONES FROM AT-LARGE TO DISTRICTS: This petition is to change the method of electing county commissioner from limited at-large voting to seven single member districts with staggered four (4) year terms.  There shall be four (4) commissioners elected in presidential election years and three (3) commissioners elected in non-presidential election years.  5000 or 15 %, whichever is less, of registered voters in Beaufort County NC are required to sign this petition in order for a referendum to be placed on the 2022 general elections ballot.  If passed by a majority of  Beaufort County voters, the four commissioners elected in 2024 will be elected from a district in which they reside.  The three commissioners elected in 2026 will be elected from a district in which they reside.

It takes a lot of gaul in a democracy for anyone to make these decisions in secret. This is entirely in character with what has been going on within the Beaufort County Republican party during the past few years.  It was the Super Executive Committee with the ex-Senator Bill Cook in charge who used the Party machinery and Headquarters workers to defeat conservative Tandy Dunn and elect their favorite Buzzeo Republican, John Rebholz, only two years ago. 

Take a hard look at what these moronic Republicans are asking for.  Under their plan your vote will be cut in half.  You will be able to vote for only one commissioner every four years.  Even if everyone in the county gets to vote for one seat, can anyone explain what geography has to do with deciding the beliefs, principles. and character of anyone? 

There is presently a corruption on the Board of County Commissioners. That corruption is supported by the Beaufort County Republican Party.  The Party refused to vet candidates.  That is why we have Democrats running as Republicans and then forming alliances with elected Democrats to decide who the chairman of the Board will be.  At present the Republican party has taken no action to stop this.  Five of the seven commissioners are Republican, but the two Democrats decide who the chairman will be and with the backroom deals, many other major issues also.  This will not change when we vote by districts.  In fact history shows that dealmaking increases in a district system.  That is exactly how Southside High School was overbuilt and will never reach capacity utilization.  The Beaufort Observer reported that when it was built Southside was the most expensive school ever built in North Carolina, as measured on a per pupil basis.  Somebody cut a deal to get all that money for Southside while shortchanging other growing and overcrowded schools.

History shows us that the district system soon becomes corrupt in personnel decisions.  Many superintendents would not recommend a principal for a school in a district without getting the blessing of the board member from that district.  As a matter of fact, right here in Beaufort County principal candidates were sent to meet with the school board member from that district.  The same process came to be with terminations and school assignments for principals.  A person who was in a position to know told me that a young prospective teacher was told by a board member “when you get ready to apply to BCS let me know.  I’ll take care of it from there.”  Other board members seldom, if ever, challenged a recommendation that had the support of the board member from that district because they knew the day would come when they would expect the favor to be repaid.  Tales are told about the same corruption playing out in student discipline cases.  If your parents were buddies with the school board member from that district it was the board member, not the principal or superintendent who actually made the decision about who got punished and how harshly.  And of course this same system likely operates with businesses wanting to do business with the schools.  It is a sorry way to run a school system.

Of course such corruption can occur in an at large system, but it is easier to succumb to corruption when it is just one representative rather than four (majority) or seven as we have now.  Each commissioner now knows anybody in the county can vote against him/her.

Representative Keith Kidwell started this about three years ago.   I suggested to him that the Chairman and Vice Chairman be elected at-large if we went to districts.  Since that time no one in the Republican Party has spoken with me or the other conservatives on the board about going to the district system.  My concern is more with how this idea came to be and how the Republican Party handled it.  But I would still favor an at-large system which gave each voter as many votes as seats to be filled.

Secrecy in Government, secrecy in political parties, secrecy in circulating petitions, secrecy in setting up voting districts without input from the public are all corrupt practices.  The public should take care in voting for schemes put together in secrecy.  Honest people have no problem in being up front with the public.  Remember how secret Obama Care was.  How has that worked out?

There is more, tune in next week.