What's going to happen at the Beaufort GOP Convention? | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

    It is expected that there will be a major fight at the Beaufort County Republican Convention Tuesday night (3-26-13). The current divisions in the Grand Ole Party will likely play out in the election of officers and Executive Committee members. Here's the background.

    The current Republican Party officials on the County Executive Committee did not support Arthur Williams, as individuals, in the House 6 race. They, for the most part on an individual basis, supported Republican Mattie Lawson. They also individually, for the most part supported Bill Cook in the primary (against Jerry Evans) as well as Mike Speciale in the House 3 race. The Committee formally endorsed Lawson, Speciale and Cook in the General Election.

    One might argue that the split is the classical one that results from a hard-fought primary. Ideally, the disparate sides come together in the General Election, but in this instance that did not happen. It is noteworthy that the losing candidates did not make much of a show about supporting the winners. Thus, the Arthur Williams/Jerry Evans segment of the party, and their supporters, are now seeking to throw out the current officers and Executive Committee members at Tuesday's convention.

    There are rumors that they have packed the convention voting delegates with their supporters and are going to run opposition candidates for chairman and vice chairman and will attempt to seize control of the Executive Committee. These rumors are exacerbated by the presence at recent precinct meetings of people who have traditionally not been active in local Republican politics. So it's not known how many of the delegates will end up voting for the conservative element currently in control or the insurgent element.

    Beyond that, it is not clear what the ultimate consequences will be for the local Republican Party.

    It is difficult to concisely and accurately describe the divisions because everyone does not agree either on the terms being used or on how those terms apply to specific actions or to specific individuals and to decisions the party organization makes. The divisions are also seen at the state and national levels, but manifest themselves in different ways, depending on the players and the specific issue being addressed. But we'll try to explain by characterizing it as a dichotomy of "beliefs."

    On one side, most of those members prefer to refer to themselves as "conservative" Republicans. Some describe their brand of conservatism as their being "Reagan Conservatives." Others align themselves with the libertarian oriented conservatism as championed by Ron and Rand Paul. There is even an organized "Liberty" arm of the Republican Party.

    How one views the Constitution also becomes a descriptor. Typically the adherents of the TEA Party (Taxed Enough Already) not only are fiscal conservatives but they tend to favor returning government to its founding principles as expressed in the original Constitution and Bill of Rights. They are usually "strict constructionists" of constitutional interpretation. For example, they oppose ObamaCare because they do not find the power to mandate the purchase of health insurance by individuals being a power granted the Federal government in the Constitution.

    On the other side of the nebulous dichotomy, which has no bright line distinctions, you find the "moderates;" as opposed to "conservatives." But many moderates claim the conservative mantra. They say their version of conservatism allows for different approaches to specific issues. The most typical conflict along these lines comes when moderates are more willing to compromise with liberals/Democrats to "get something done." Typically, moderates focus on issues, while conservatives tend to talk more about "principles." Included in the "issues" is often which particular candidate to support.

    It is from this way of looking at things that led Stan Deatherage, publisher of Beaufort County Now to label the left side of the dichotomy as "special interests," in contrast to the "principled" right side.

    The term of derision most favored by the conservatives in referring the moderates is "RINO" --Republican in Name Only. RINO's are said to sometimes be distinguishable from liberals and Democrats only by the name Republican. RINO's often vote with Democrats. We see that on the Beaufort County Commission where Jay McRoy and Al Klemm have voted in recent years more often with the Democrats than with the other Republican members on votes that split along party lines. The same dichotomy is often seen in Congress where RINO's "compromise" with Democrats to get bills passed. An example of course is the fiscal arena, where conservatives are more staunchly in favor of reducing the deficit while RINO's will more readily accept deficit spending in order to fund favored programs, often to seemingly avoid attacks that they are heartless.

    Yet another way to look at the segments within the party, more so in recent years, is expressed in how the Republican Party operates internally.

    The terms now most commonly used to characterize the dichotomy in this arena are: "Grassroots" vs. "Establishment". The grassroots tend to favor control being more decentralized and stronger at the lower levels of the party hierarchy, while the Establishment gravitates toward tighter centralization and a more vertical hierarchy of organization with the top echelons exercising more power as opposed to it being vested in the local elements of the party structure. A notable example of this characterization is the recruitment and selection of candidates who will run in elections. Moreover, it played out at the 2012 National GOP convention in the issue of how much control the party's presidential nominee would have, versus how much would be determined by the locally elected delegates.

    But it is on the point of how candidates are selected that one might argue that we find the expression of differences within the Beaufort County Republican Party to be most pronounced and clearer. It is symbolized by Arthur Williams.

    Williams was a long-time Democrat, and had a long voting record of supporting Democrat initiatives and voting opposite of most Republicans in the House while he represented Beaufort County there. Williams boasted of his close ties to former Speaker Jim Black, before he went to prison for corruption, and Marc Basnight. He touted himself as being a member of the Democrat club. Then, Williams was defeated by conservative Republican Bill Cook. And when a vacancy came up in the Senate, Williams sought the appointment of the Democrat establishment in being appointed to fill the vacancy, but the Party insiders rejected him. So he switched parties and filed to run as a Republican. Thus he is now known as a RINO. A Democrat running as a Republican, but being a "Republican In Name Only."

    Williams was supported in his switch & run for the House, against conservative Republican Mattie Lawson, by several longtime Republicans in Beaufort County. Former party chair Ashley Woolard, perennial candidate-seldom-elected Greg Dority, and self-styled political guru Bill Tarpenning campaigned for Williams. Most conservatives supported Dare County resident Mattie Lawson in a three-way race that included Jeremy Adams, who fashioned himself as a "Liberty" Republican. But when Adams lost in the primary he switched his support to Williams and campaigned against Lawson. This announcement of his endorsement of Williams came coincidentally about the time Williams wrote Adams a check to work for him as a "campaign consultant." Williams also reportedly hired Tarpenning and Woolard, to help in his campaign, operating under the guise of a business name to disguise their real identity. In the run-off Republican primary Woolard attacked Lawson. When Lawson won the run-off primary, Woolard, Tarpenning and Williams failed to support her in the General Election. Many believe this led to Democrat Paul Tine's capturing the House seat that had been a Republican seat held by Bill Cook.

    At the same time, a similar conflict occurred in the Senate race. Former Democrat Jerry Evans ran against Bill Cook as a Republican. Cook eventually defeated Democrat incumbent Stan White in one of the closest races in memory. Some attribute that closeness to the fact that "RINO's" who had supported Tine, abandoned Cook in the General Election. Conservatives, working through the Beaufort Republican Party structure reportedly worked hard in support of Cook. None of the moderates were seen in that effort, either in fund-raising or in volunteering to work within the campaign structure.

    Of course there are an infinite number of variations in describing these events. But absent the nuances, it seems accurate to say that many of the divisions extant in the Beaufort Republican Party are rooted in these elections battles. One permutation is the State Auditor's race in which Greg Dority ran but dropped out before the Republican nominee was chosen. Dority fashions himself as a consummate political expert with connections to the insiders in Raleigh. During his tenure as county chairman much of the meeting time was consumed following his standard introduction of: "There's a lot going on that I can't tell you about..." and then proceeded to talk in coded language to convey the impression that he has inside connections, thus leading some to view him as the antithesis of a principled Republican rooted in conservative principles but rather as a wannabee Establishment-type.

    In a TEA Party meeting early in the campaign, while members were discussing organizing a grassroots effort, Woolard made an impassioned speech disdaining the grassroots approach and dogmatically declared that "the only way you are going to win (for Cook and Lawson) is to raise a lot of money." That thinking typifies the Establishment element of the party...i.e., that elections are bought with money. When Woolard's advice was rejected he failed to return to meetings since then.

    Many conservative Republicans of the TEA Party mode in Beaufort County see Dority, Woolard, Tarpenning and Williams as political operatives seeking spoils from deal-making. This tends to characterize them as the stereotypical "backroom politicians" of yesteryear. The "pay-for-support" Williams used with Adams and the questions surrounding who was actually involved in some entities he wrote checks to, but were not clearly identified, all add to this perception, that again, supporting Stan Deatherage's characterization of it being "special interests politics." Yet another example of this can be seen in Williams reportedly getting the benefit of a state grant to the Beaufort County Committee of 100 for economic development, which actually appears to have been to facilitate the purchase of real estate Williams owned.

    There are reports of a stealth campaign being conducted against the current county GOP leadership. We say "stealth" because no names have surfaced publically but sources tell us Woolard is recruiting delegate votes, accompanied by Tarpenning and Dority. But all of that is conjecture. There is no open campaign being conducted prior to the Convention, except by the conservative side. And this simply adds fodder to the claims that there are sneaky back room, under-the-table maneuverings going on. One source tells us "the insurgents can't allow an open campaign because they fear they will lose delegate votes for their effort if the delegates understand what is really going on." At this writing, just two days before the convention they had not announced who their candidates would be.

    What is not in doubt is that many of the delegates to Tuesday's convention will be voting without the benefit of an open debate on the issues and specifically the issue of which segment(s) of the dichotomies within the local Republican Party is best suited for managing the party's affairs for the next two years. As one long-time observer of Beaufort County politics put it:

    Delegates to the Beaufort County Convention may not be aware that Gregg Dority, Ashley Woolard and Bill Tarpenning tried to install Arthur Williams as the new Republican political leader this area. In order to gather support they made statements, printed in local newspapers, that the leadership in Raleigh had selected Williams to run for the House District 6 seat. He was supposedly handpicked by Tillis (House Speaker).

    Many Republicans believe that had Williams won the seat, the Republican Party in this area would have been controlled by the party hacks. Tarpenning, Dority and Woolard are not known for their conservative principles. They are known for jumping into opportunistic situations. Both Dority and Woolard served as Beaufort County Republican Party Chairmen without distinction. They never did the work of the party. Party work was done by frustrated volunteers. They used the chairmanship to try to embellish their personal resume. We can expect the same slack leadership from anyone they support for party chairman.

    It is interesting that the stealth campaign has not focused on the results the current leadership has achieved. Some of those leaders argue that the current party operation has been the most successful in recent history. It raised a record amount of money to support Republican efforts, most of which was spent on a get-out-the-vote campaign that proved to be relatively more successful than in past years. And the results were notable, leaders say. "We won more races by Republicans than ever before in the County's modern history. The Republican candidates for President, Governor, Lt. Governor and Supreme Court carried Beaufort County, in some cases by substantial margins. Several Council of State races saw the Republican candidates do better in Beaufort County than they did in similar counties in the state. The legislative seats would have been a sweep had it not been for Tine's defeat of Lawson, but Lawson carried Beaufort, losing in heavily Democrat Washington County. Lawson's grass-roots campaign trumped the "money interests" in both the primaries and the General Election. And one can argue that Cook would not have won had it not been for the grassroots campaign waged by the Beaufort GOP leadership," we were told.

    But those successes do not seem to be the issue in the campaign to determine the party's leadership for the next two years. It appears that other issues predominate...but precisely what those issues are, or rather how they will be framed with the convention delegates, remains foggy.

    To our knowledge, the only openly announced candidate for County Chairman is Keith Kidwell. In the interest of informing the public, we asked him where he stands on the dissension in the GOP. Here's his reply:

    It is my position that the Republican Party should work as one party, we should stand firmly on our traditional platform of supporting the Constitution, reducing the size of government, lowering taxes and eliminating waste in government. Every branch of government needs to realize they work for, and are accountable to the people. We have for too long been backing candidates that do not hold to these principals. True Republicans all too often do not turn out for elections because we do not run true Republican candidates. As a Republican, I am a Constitutional Conservative and stand firmly on the position of pro-life and pro 2nd amendment. If you believe in these traditional values then vote for me, join with us and let's get this party started.

    We'll let you know how it turns out Tuesday night and then how it plays out going forward (no pun intended, to use an Obamaism).
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