Elected Officials – Persons of Interest | Eastern North Carolina Now

BY: HOOD RICHARDSON

Conservative voting Beaufort County is in the clutches of liberal Republicans, RINOs (Republicans In Name Only).  Even worse, policy decisions in county government and the schools are based on Democrat philosophy.

More than 60 percent of the votes in general elections are made by voters who believe they are electing conservatives to public office.  Due to disinformation campaigns conducted by the Beaufort County Republican Party, many liberals are being elected.  The Democrats understand the split in the Republican Party better than rank and file Republicans.  Most voters look to the Republican Party to provide rock ribbed Republican candidates.  The local party, and to the same extent the State Republican Party, are led and run by liberals who are more concerned with their apparent positions of power than the Republican platform.

Neither the Beaufort County Republican Party nor the State Republican party vets candidates.  The Beaufort County Republican Party requires their candidates to provide an undying loyalty to the County leadership and a dislike of all conservative Republican candidates.  

Poor leadership is proven, in the case of the State Party, by their inability to elect a governor and to gain a majority on the Council of State since 1988.  Aside from not providing adequate support for Republican Governor candidates, they picked an obvious looser with no political experience in Mark Robinson.  They boosted him in the primary over a very well-qualified candidate, Dale Folwell, with a proven track record.  The situation on the State level smacks of gross, not simple, but gross incompetence.  There is no credit to be given on the state level for the Republican Party maintaining Republican control of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals because the majority of voters in North Carolina want conservative (Republican) judges anyway.

Political conditions in the Beaufort County Republican Party are equally as rancid.  Party leaders withheld information so they could capture elective office (Register of Deeds). During the past several years workers in the Party headquarters have advised voters not to vote for conservative county commissioner candidates by name (Stan Deatherage, Hood Richardson, Tandy Dunn).  During the 2024 election volunteers worked against Republican school board and commissioner candidates.  Headquarters workers recommended Republicans vote for Democrat Mac Hodges for school board.  Stacey Davis was the Republican candidate.

During the past ten years or so the Beaufort County Conservative Club has led the charge to provide and elect conservative Republicans to office.  For commissioner they have supported Tandy Dunn, Stan Deatherage, Steve Carawan and Hood Richardson. Considerable effort was made to elect Randy Walker in the 2020 elections.  Randy Walker got elected and promptly turned into a RINO.  

Until two years ago the Beaufort County School Board was dismally liberal.  They believed their job was to rubber stamp whatever the liberal superintendent wanted.  The school system is liberalized on the California pattern.  We no longer teach cursive writing, classical math, or patriotic history.  The use of textbooks has been minimized to the point that parents rarely know what is being taught.  LGBTQ and sexual orientation are being exposed to students.  Enrollment has been dropping with home and private schooling on the increase.

The Conservative Club recruited and supported three school board candidates during the 2022 elections.  All three were elected.  During the 2024 elections the Club recruited and supported five candidates.  There are 9 seats on the school board.  Four Republicans were elected.  Because not all Republicans are as conservative or politically astute as they should be, conservative Republicans are not a majority on the school board.  The liberal leadership is still in control with the superintendent continuing to promote liberal California education.  Their lawyer is Chairman of the Durham County Democrat Party. Hopefully we will elect a conservative Board of Education in 2026, while we pray for a miracle from the RINOs now sitting on the Board.

It is the blurring of the line between RINO and conservative Republican that confuses voters.  Republican voters, rightly so, expect their Republican leadership to be competent, honest and present them with good candidates.  Unfortunately, that is not the case. Finding the line between RINO and conservative is not made easier when elected officials on the level of Senators Budd and Tillis give awards to liberal Democrats when they are put out of office by the sacrifice and hard work of conservative Republicans.  Because of the behavior of Senators Tillis and Budd, it is necessary for me to inform you that they are both elected Republicans.

Usually elected officials do not make awards within their own party without the approval of local party leadership.  Therefore, the same Beaufort County Republican Party that worked against the Republican Candidate for School Board must have approved the Republican Senators Tillis and Budd making the award to the Democrat loser (Mac Hodges).  This is not all of the backstabbing going on in the Beaufort County Republican Party.  There are more things to come out.

In light of all of the above, I was not surprised to see Fake Frankie Waters installed again by RINO Randy Walker and the two Democrats, Jerry Langley and Ed Booth at the December Commissioners meeting.  Fake Frankie Waters and RINO Randy Walker returned the favor to the Democrats by electing Jerry Langley to the Vice Chairman seat. There are five Republicans and two Democrats on the Board.

Later during the meeting these four commissioners showed their loyalty to each other by voting to almost double the cost of food in the jail simply because the Sheriff asked them to.  Sheriff Hammonds decided he did not like the present food contractor from whom we got meals for $3.15 each.  Now we will be paying about $5.80 each.  This is at least a $120,000 annual increase in food cost.  The only reason given to commissioners was that an inmate had complained that he did not get the same amount of chicken as another inmate.  Now employees of the new contractor will enter the jail and serve the food. What about bringing in contraband and infectious diseases.  None of this makes any sense other than to show these four and maybe five officials are marching in lock step. We will be spending more money in an already bloated system.

Then the two RINOs and the two Democrats proceeded to approve a fifty-two-million-dollar budget for the building of the new elementary school.  This was a two-page document.  The Board of Commissioners has not seen plans, specifications, sizing or a parking plan for the new school.  All of this money is being approved by the commissioners with no oversight or knowledge of what is being built.  This was never intended; otherwise, why do the commissioners have the money and not the school board.  Every school board member and every commissioner who voted “for” this project has, in effect, sentenced the youngest students in the Washington Attendance Area to at least fifty years of crosstown busing.  They could have built the school on the western side of Washington and cut busing substantially and made better use of the Eastern campus.  

There is some good news.  The year 2025 is the year that leadership in the Republican Party can be changed.  This is the year that Republicans elect new leadership from the county to the state and on to nationally.  The Beaufort County precinct meetings and county convention will be held on March 22, 2025, at Southern Acres on Highway 92 near Bath.  Later, before Fall, there will be a district and a state convention.  We will elect new chairmen and executive committees during each convention.  Hopefully, new leadership. Hopefully, honest and competent leadership.  Those who want change need to show up at these conventions.