Political Seasons | Eastern North Carolina Now

Political Seasons

BY: HOOD RICHARDSON

Political seasons come as surely as the earth turns. Before we are rested from the one there is another. The earth turns and brings us annual seasons, one after the other, Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall. In North Carolina political seasons come every year.

At the moment we are in an active municipal election season campaign, with that election coming in November of 2025. Another two-year county, state and federal campaign season begins one month later during December of 2025. The December of 2025 registrations will be decided in the November of 2026 elections. There is a whole year between registering to run and the actual election in the statewide elections. Until recently these elections began as late as May with a November election in that same year. That took only seven months. I do not have an explanation as to why the legislature requires us to do elections this long, hard way. I prefer May to November elections. The primaries will probably be in May, so why do candidates have to sign up in December?

With four months between now and registration, the various political parties and splinter groups should be recruiting “their kind of candidates”. There are two major factions in the Republican Party. The Democrats seem to have a big tent in most states. They settle their differences during the primary election, then they all loyally support the winner no matter how bad he is.

Within the Republican Party there are the conservatives and the liberals who are usually identified as RINO’s (Republican In Name Only). The RINO’s take offense at being called RINO. However, they are anything but full-blooded Republicans. Democrats usually do what they promise but Republicans promise to be conservative then vote with the Democrats.

The split is easily seen on the Board of County Commissioners. During the past ten years the two Democrats on the Board (Jerry Langley and Ed Booth) have formed a coalition with two or three RINO’s (among them are or have been Frankie Waters, John Rebholz, Randy Walker, Ron Buzzeo and Gary Brinn) and voted as a liberal block. This coalition consistently votes for more spending and refuses to lower taxes even though Beaufort County has a surplus of tax money every year.

The same kind of split is now on the School Board. Efforts to remove the Democrat majority resulted in another split among Republicans. Now there is only one Democrat among the nine members of the School Board. However, the board is split into the conservative Republican and RINO factions. The RINO’s are Daniel Hudson, Donald Shreve, Carolyn Walker, Terry Williams and T. W.  Allen. These are the people who voted to close the Snowden School and build the consolidated grammar school. They prefer to use fewer textbooks and purchase more canned computer curriculums. The schools no longer teach cursive writing and have not set a strong policy against the teaching of DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) and CRT (Critical Race Theory). School population shrinks every year with the school board refusing to address why parents do not want their children in this system.

The only thing that Barack Obama ever said that I am in full agreement with is (sic) “Elections have consequences”. It is our American system of democracy with its Constitution calling for government rule by the majority of the people that provides us with the means to correct our school and county commissioner failures. We need to elect the right people to office, and these problems will be solved. There is no better proof of this than the election of Donald John Trump to the presidency of the United States, following the dismal failure of Joe Biden.

There are three commissioner seats to be filled during the 2026 elections. Those seats are now held by Ed Booth, Stan Deatherage and Frankie Waters. Ed Booth is a Democrat. Frankie Waters is a RINO and Stan Deatherage is a Republican. I can clearly state that Frankie Waters is a RINO because he refused to sign the pledge to support the Republican Party platform when he changed his registration from Democrat to Republican the first time he ran.

There are four school board seats to be filled during the 2026 elections. Those seats are now held by:  Charles Hickman, Terry Williams, Steve Rader and Donald Shreve. Terry Williams and Donald Shreve are RINOs. Both Shreve and Williams supported the closing of Snowden. Williams was for closing Snowden before his constituents let him know they were against it. He has the distinction of being for it before he was against it?

The Conservative Club is actively seeking candidates to replace these RINOs. The Conservative Club is not affiliated with the Republican Party. Our attendees consist of Democrats, Unaffiliated and Republicans. Our mission is to elect honorable, conservative candidates who subscribe to Christian principles. We meet on the third Thursday of each month at the King Chicken Restaurant at 6:00 PM. Those who are of like mind are invited to attend.

We are actively seeking candidates to run against RINOs and Democrats. We would like candidates who will run in the May 2026 Republican primary elections to replace Donald Shreve, Terry Williams, Frankie Waters and Ed Booth. If you have an interest, contact me or any member of the club.