Conservative Club, Why? | Eastern NC Now

Conservative Club, Why?

BY: HOOD RICHARDSON

The Conservative Club is much disliked among the Beaufort County Republican Party elites and the RINOs (Republicans In Name Only). If it were not for the Beaufort County Republican Party elites and the RINOs there would be no need for the Conservative Club. The Beaufort County Republican Party goes out of their way to support RINOs and others who do not subscribe to the Party platform. This has allowed the liberals and Democrats to control the operations of governmental institutions in Beaufort County.

Two Democrats control the Board of County Commissioners. Five of the seven members are Republicans. Two are RINOs. At present our RINOs are Frankie Waters and Randy Walker. However, during the past 15 or 20 years there have always been at least two RINOs. The two RINOs formed a political coalition with the two Democrats. They vote together. This is why we have wasted so much money on education, grown the size of county government, paid millions to subsidize the internet and been overtaxed.

The public school system is run by and controlled by liberals who continue to be enamored with critical race theory, diversity, equity and inclusion, shutting down neighborhood schools (Snowden), failure to teach cursive writing, classical mathematics and the founding fathers.

The liberal Beaufort County Community College Board has installed and supports LGBTQ+ on campus.

The coalition Democrat/Republican commissioner board has been weak in protecting public money. During the past few years there have been four cases of the taking of public money for personal use because the majority of the Board is not aggressive in carrying out their fiduciary duties. Not being aggressive about stealing invites more stealing.

The roots of the Conservative Club go to the late 1990’s when Republicans began being elected to the Board of County Commissioners. The local newspaper was run by Democrats and would not adequately cover most of the controversies that arose in County Government. Some of us were saying that we were not at the same meeting the newspaper reported about. The Beaufort County Republican Men’s Club was formed to inform people about local politics. In those days it was not unusual to have more than 60 and up to 90 people at monthly club meetings. The name was soon changed to the Republican Club because there were numerous women who had a keen interest in politics.

There was friction with Beaufort County Republican Party leadership from the beginning. For some reason, the local Republican Party leadership has never understood democracy. To this day they believe they have dictatorial control of every single Republican. On occasion they have implied that Republicans cannot run for office without their approval. They continue to oppose conservative Republicans running for office. At the same time, they support and campaign for liberals and RINO’s to hold office. An example of this is their support of Fake Frankie Waters who refused to sign the Republican pledge when he first ran for office, wrote checks to Democrat candidates while he sat on the Beaufort County Republican Executive Committee and votes for Democrats in exchange for their vote to make him Chairman of the Board of County Commissioners. While this was going on, Conservative Tandy Dunn picked his wife up at a fund raiser for her nephew who was running for Sheriff and Carolyn Garris made charges against him for disloyalty.

The Republican Club shut down for a few years. It soon became obvious that we needed a club to further conservative Republican interests. We reopened the club. Because of the tarnish on the Republican Party, we called the new club the “Conservative Club”. Our purpose is to recruit and support conservative candidates for public office. Almost all of our candidates are vetted by the Club. We raise money and actively campaign for conservative candidates.

Our Club activities bother the Beaufort County Republican Party a great deal. If the Republican Party leadership were reasonably intelligent, they would realize that we could complement the efforts of each other. Actually, if the Republican Party would do its job and have honest leadership there would be no need for the Conservative Club. The simple fact that the Party is so antagonistic proves the need for the Conservative Club.

The recent municipal election fiasco was caused by the Beaufort County Republican Party. Carolyn Garris along with Keith Kidwell and her “Victory Committee” became enraged by the showing the Conservative Club was making supporting conservatives for City elections. They spent more than $10,000 taking us on. Their pretense was that the Conservative Club was another political party and they had to defeat it. At the end of the day they used corrupt politics, ran Ashley Woolard’s brother to dilute the vote and succeeded in causing two conservative Republicans, Sheri Clark and Tex Melton to lose the election. Their manipulations caused two Democrats to get elected.

The Conservative Club has a sample ballot for the March Primary with conservative Republicans identified. Copies are available at my office. We support only those of good character and standing.

The primary elections are immensely important. This is one of the few times us grassroots people get an opportunity to decide who we put up against the Democrats this fall.