Will Dems play GOP for fools again on control of county commission?

Published: Monday, December 5th, 2022 @ 12:45 pm
By: John Steed ( More Entries )

In the past few years, we have witnessed the regular spectacle of the Democrats on the Beaufort County Commission picking who the "Republican" chairman would be, giving the Democrats effective control of the county commission in spite of having only 2 of the 7 seats. They have made a science of playing the Republicans off against each other so that the ultimate control is with the two Democrats. Will our Republican commissioners finally wise up to this charade when they elect new county commissioner officers tonight and get their act together? Or will we see liberal Democrat Jerry Langley continuing to sit in his kingpin position of vice chairman? We can only keep our fingers crossed that the Republcians grow up and learn to work together. Any nominal Republican who votes for Jerry Langley is no better than Adam Kinzinger or Liz Cheney and should be targeted for defeat in the primary.

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Concerned Taxpayer said:

( December 6th, 2022 @ 8:18 pm )

So the big spender anti-taxpayer coalition rides again. Disgusting. Frankie Waters is a puppet on a string to Jerry Langley and our liberal big-spending county manager. One could say they are spending like drunken sailors, but at least drunken sailors are spending their own money, not that of the taxpayers. Watch them try to mortgage our county to the hilt for their unneeded big new jail.

Stan Deatherage said:

( December 6th, 2022 @ 3:59 pm )

Yes he did.

The caucusing with Democratic Socialist commissioners, when there is a 5 to 2 Republican majority, to achieve his chairmanship (which he has done now for about 5 times without admonishment from the local nominal "Republican" friendly GOP) should be yet another facet of party disloyalty.

Bubba said:

( December 6th, 2022 @ 8:09 am )

It sure sounds like Waters and Rebholz are really Democrats in disguise. Didn't Waters just get kicked out of the Republican Party for supporting and giving money to the Democrat for sheriff? Rebholz seems to be the same breed of cat.

Stan Deatherage said:

( December 6th, 2022 @ 8:12 am )

The interesting part here is that it was seriously floated that Frankie would not stand for chairman.

The longstanding plan amongst myself and The Hood is that either he or I would stand for chairman, thereby representing the core of Beaufort County's strongest Republicans, but Randy Walker thought he had a shot of picking off enough votes, so we pulled behind Randy instead thinking that we might break the Center-left Coalition, and its longstanding Leftist damage to Beaufort County's taxpayers.

It was worth a try ... once.

Bubba said:

( December 6th, 2022 @ 7:38 am )

Stan Deatherage said:

( December 6th, 2022 @ 3:48 am )

John Steed: They did it again, and then Frankie Waters was elected to be chairman of the Center-left Coalition.

Remarkably, all Republican commissioners were in contention for chairman of the board; however oddly, all Republicans were in conversations with the Democrats to achieve some resolution here except for two - Stan Deatherage and Hood Richardson, who only conferred with Randy Walker; then John Rebholz ended any process of an effective caucus with the two venerable Conservatives - Deatherage and Richardson - by stating truthfully to Commissioner Richardson: "Frankie and I would never vote you or Stan for chairman."

Tonight, Democratic Socialist commissioners Booth and Langley joined Waters and Rebholz, ONCE AGAIN, to make Frankie Waters chairman of the Center-left Coalition; then Frankie Waters and John Rebholz joined Booth and Langley to make Jerry Langley vice chairman beating 7 term Conservative Republican Stan Deatherage for this vice chairmanship by a 3 (Republicans) to 4 (Center-left Coalition members) vote.

Steven P. Rader said:

( December 5th, 2022 @ 3:26 pm )

This has been going on for more than just the last few years. The Democrats have been poaching commissioners who ran as Republicans as long as the current election system has existed.

Even when Republicans were a minority on the county commission this was a problem. Of the first two sets of GOP commissioners, two of the four, Gene Hodges and Mickey Cochtan, not only got seduced into voting with the Democrats but to actually changing parties to Democrat while serving terms elected as Republicans. Neither succeeded in getting reelected after switching parties, however.

When we first elected a Republican majority, we got word that a group of Democrat party leaders were exploring whether they could peel off one of the Republicans to put their party back in control. Our two most senior GOP commissioners neither wanted the other to be chairman, so a former GOP legislator and I put together a caucus of the four Republican commissioners and commissoners-elect where they hashed out an agreement on one of the newly elected GOP commissioners being the chairman, and one of the senior GOP commissioners being vice chairmam. That first year of the GOP majority was the only time that our Republicans have been able to work together.

When a vacancy as county manager came up a year later, the Democrats on the commission used that to divide the Republican members, and they have been playing divide and conquer ever since. It is time real Republicans put a stop to that nonsense.

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