Tammany Hall comes to Washington on election day, political machine in full control | Eastern North Carolina Now

Washington's election went full Tammany Hall yesterday, with a political machine now in full control of city government for the first time since former Mayor Tom Stewart's more benign political machine in the 1960s.  We have had some powerful mayors since then, but for the first time since the Stewart days, we have a mayor who also has full and absolute control of the city council.  And unlike Stewart, Mayor Sadler is power-oriented, secretive, and a full blown tax and spend liberal.

Two years ago, Sadler put out a political slate for a three man council majority, but found that one of those William Pitt, had a mind of his own and could not be told what to do, so he always had to hunt for his third vote and did not always find it.  Sadler dumped Pitt this time from his slate and put out a slate of himself, and three council candidates, the semi-literate Richard Brooks, an incumbent, and two newcomers, Anthony Tyre, who apparently does not even really live in Washington, and Antwon Horton.  All won, and so now Sadler has his absolute lock on a council majority.  He can do anything he wants.

There is also a racial angst among this new machine, which could develop into a more sinister racial attitude toward city government.  We have had black mayors before and a black city council majority before, but those elected officials always looked out for the whole city and there was no racial division among the city's government or its citizens.  The danger is real that this time it may be different.  Some of the demeanor of Sadler's supporters election night at the Board of Elections gave a strong signal that such a situation may be upon us.

Sadler has already shown his appetite for big spending with his 12% tax increase last year and his push for another 8% tax increase this year, which he ultimately punted to a big increase in stormwater fees, instead.   He and his followers also have a big distain for the downtown business district and for the Historic District, both attitudes apparently racially motivated..  More low income housing scattered among middle class neighborhoods is also on his agenda, but not his own middle class neighborhood.  Sadler spent $147,000 of taxpayer money on lawyers and settlement costs to keep low income housing out of his own middle class neighborhood.  Sadler has his wife running the Washington Housing Authority and sees that as a source of power, as well as a source of junkets all over the country.

Taxpayers need to wake up.  While black churches churned out Sadler voters yesterday, many individual taxpayers could not get their act together to get to the polls.

Hold onto your wallets.  This is going to be a rough two years.