CONFUSION, CORRUPTION AND COLLUSION AT THE BEAUFORT COUNTY REPUBLICAN CONVENTION | Eastern NC Now
Transparency remains out of reach in party matters.
CONFUSION, CORRUPTION AND COLLUSION AT THE BEAUFORT COUNTY REPUBLICAN CONVENTION
BY: HOOD RICHARDSON
You can always count on one thing with Queen Garris. The title of this article describes it all. I will not be able to present all the happenings at the convention in this article. It will take several more to do the job.
The entire meeting lasted about an hour and a half. It never, at any time, followed the rules of the Beaufort County Republican Party known as “The Plan of Organization”. The rules were made up as needed. The rules presented to the convention of about 60 delegates were taken from several sources. Somewhat like reading the Bible and looking for the verse that will allow one to cut your neighbors throat or steal his guns or beat him. Those sources are some of the various drafts of Plans of Organization that had been rejected by the 2025 State Republican Convention or are proposed for the 2026 State Republican Convention. The red flag warning is they were not passed by the 2025 State Convention. Some of those proposals are radical stuff. To my knowledge the only enforceable rules of the Party are those passed at the 2024 State Convention.
Queen Garris appointed Michelle Nix as Chairman of the Convention and Anthony Fucito as Sergeant of Arms. Michelle Nix is from Lenoir County and has been active in Republican affairs for several years. Supposedly, people are brought in from outside the county so all convention delegates will be treated fairly. I first realized she had a RINO side when she was Parliamentarian for the 2025 Beaufort County Republican Convention. She along with King Kidwell and Ashley Woolard fought long and hard to keep us from allowing volunteers to serve on the Beaufort County Republican Executive Committee. It took more than two hours of floor fight to get to the vote. The resistance ended when the Judge who was the Convention Chairman took Nix outside. I guess he explained to her how far in left field she was. As a result, Queen Garris does not have a rubber stamp Executive Committee and that is causing all of the problems we now have.
During the Convention Chairman Nix went far out of her way and made several statements vowing that she knew what she was talking about. None of these statements were true. There is no way someone in her position would not have known them to be false. Nix asserted with vigor that one could not attend this convention unless they personally attended the precinct meetings. The Beaufort County rules clearly state that it is not necessary to attend the precinct meeting in order to be a delegate to the County Convention. Nix and Queen Carolyn took this from the rules that have not been passed by the convention.
The only reason to lie about the rules I can come up with is to limit the participation in Republican Party affairs so the Victory Committee can remain in control. It is puzzling as to why Nix would swear to Queen Garris’s lie.
If I am wrong and these two are not lying, why has the Beaufort Plan of Organization not been brought up to date. The State Republican Party has the responsibility to review and make sure all plans are up to date and so does Queen Garris. Why are Beaufort County Republicans being fed two different stories. Queen Garris signed the Beaufort County Plan and sent it to the State Party the same day as the March of 2025 Convention. She did this so she could deliberately not include the change in the way the Executive Committee is elected. Why is Queen Garris deliberately working with two different sets of rules? Is she that incompetent or is she that manipulative. Either way this is not good.
I had a motion to require Queen Garris to identify the secret “Victory Committee” in writing to the Executive Committee. Queen Garris uses the Victory Committee to avoid ever bringing anything to the Executive Committee. She claims the Executive Committee allowed her to appoint the Victory Committee and turned their responsibility for the Republican Party over to the Victory Committee. This is a bare faced untruth. This Executive Committee elected during March of 2025 has never approved the appointment of the Victory Committee.
However, both Queen Garris and Chairman Nix ruled my motion moot because they said the members of the committee were named at the secret meeting of the Executive Committee held at King Keith Kidwell’s house earlier this month. Victory Committee names are to be in the minutes of the secret meeting. This was an illegal ruling because those minutes are not public and only voting members of the Executive Committee were allowed to attnd. The rules were violated when the public was denied access. The best information we have is the Victory Committee is composed of Queen Garris, Ashley Woolard, Scarlet Stokes, Steve Rader, Paul Varcoe and King Kidwell.
Who is authorizing the thousands of dollars raised from Republicans to be spent? The rules say only the Executive Committee can spend money. Who is David French, the Treasurer, getting his authority from to write checks? Do Republican donors expect their money to be spent to divide the Republican Party. This happens when their money is used to attack conservative Republicans and conversely is used to support RINOs and liberal Republicans. How can this kind of leadership hold the Republican Party together? They are using the good name of the Republican Party to raise money and also telling Republican voters at the poles not to vote for some of us because we are not real Republicans.
The convention keynote speaker was the defeated King Keith Kidwell. It is a puzzle that Kidwell was picked with the winner and future House of Representatives member, Darren Armstrong, sitting in the room. Armstrong is unopposed. The Victory Committee is still supporting their favorite candidates even though the Republican public has spoken.
There is an Executive Committee meeting scheduled for 6:00 PM on Thursday April 9 at the Ag Center at the Airport. This meeting is open to all Republicans.
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I'm curious, what parts of our geography would be inviting to businesses?
Do we have a lot of vacant buildings where small businesses could locate with walking traffic? Where is the vacant land that large businesses would want to locate? It matters because current citizens will object to certain businesses locating too closely to their homes. But curious minds do want to know? Where? East side, west side, north side, south side?? However, if I had a choice, I would put my business outside the city so I wouldnt have to pay City taxes too!! I mean, what smart person wants to live under county AND City bureaucratic rules, if they can avoid it? Seems to me like the County Govt and our State Reps should be prodded to pick up the slack and do something besides just lazily place yea and nay vote on meeting day. I think City Govt just needs to cease treating WeTheCitizens like noisy & bothersome humans. Anyone afraid of transparency is hiding something. |
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Joe Davis is a business man and has some for site. Beaufort County is losing population. What could help? Our very mishandled and deteriorated School system could be corrected so that we could become the bedroom community for Greenville. Schools are the first thing that young couples look for to move into a community. As for retirees, we need GP's and convenience. Where are the jobs? Warren Field was to become the Drone development center for the East Coast. What an opportunity with the new demand for more war machinery and the interest in Drone development for law and private industries. What happened? Drumman came sniffing around after the air-port expansion. Who followed up? What a chance for jobs. We have 25 boat builders in a 35 mile radius of Washington. Are we taking advantage of this opportunity? Chocowinity has an industrial park with a rail track running through it. This is like water-front property for heavy industry. They can't get together on what to do with it.
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I hadnt thought much about our declining population until Councilman Joe Davis made an issue of it. Whatever is causing it began a Long time ago. The problem may be rooted in not just City failures, but also County failures? or even State Legislator failures. Or it may even come from citizens who are NOT recommending to friends that they move here.
Why would a young person move here? For Jobs and activities! Why would a retired person move here? For good doctors, safety and activities. Washington doesnt have specialized doctors. People must go to Greenville for that. Everyone wants an Honest, RESPONSIVE, Transparent Govt. Do we have that? |
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When Executive Committee members to this day are not entirely sure who is on their sub-committees and these sub-committees do not report to the overall committee, that is certainly a lack of transparency. Even more so when the sub-committee is taking actions that should be reserved for the overall committee.
Also, note the nastiness in the tone of many of the "establishment" members. What they attribute to Mr. Richardson regularly more often comes from them. That same trait was evident in the proceedings of the ridiculous court action Ms. Garris brought against Mr. Richardson that was dismissed after a comical display by the Garris faction. Leadership requires effort and hopefully ethics. There is not much on display from this group. What they are doing now is a doubling down on their Victory Committee plans for the County Commission general election. Working for the party itself is not something they are mature enough to do. |
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Regardless, "Van Zant," the members of the committee were made known to Executive Committee. There is nothing in the State, District, or County Plans that requires committee member information, to include executive committee members, to be publicly disclosed. The Republican Party is not subject to open meeting laws, so there is no obligation to make that information public. The requirement is simply to maintain a list, which must be made available upon request by a registered Republican in the county. Even then, the requestor should be required to sign a Confidentiality and Use Agreement.
What is evident, however, is not a lack of transparency, but a lack of understanding. The rules are not ambiguous, and the process is not new. Continually misrepresenting how the Party operates doesn't expose wrongdoing, it just exposes a willingness to manufacture division where none exists. |
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I have a feeling mister.Richerton may have either checked out mentally during the convention, or was that he wa at a completely different event.
I i don't even know where to begin with the inaccuracies.Here it's like he's gaslighting, everybody that actually attended the event. At no time did michelle knicks even once state that you had to be a precinct delegate to go to the state convention?She said that you had to be present at the county convention in order to go to the state convention, which is not a county role.It is a statewide rule, and Mr Richardson knows this, but just wants attention. Furthermore, everyone was pleasant at the convention.Except for Mr Richardson, as is par for the course. Buzz Cayton presented a sensible resolution which passed and I supported for a list of all Executive Committee members to be made public, which is not unreasonable. However, Mr Richardson was asking for a list of victory committee members which I obtained at the last executive committee |
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You have been drinking spiked coolaid. Your knowledge of how the convention is supposed to work consists of believing what Nix and the Queen told you. Read the Plan of Organization instead of doing what you are told. Motions properly presented to the convention are supposed to be heard by the convention. Not ruled out of order by those who only need your uninformed vote. Resolutions always stand or fall on their merit, not the opinion of a single person, a dictator.
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I have estimated a great increase traffic, and the electorate roles of registered voters, which suggest to me that between 57,000 and 64,000 humans, including Illegals, actually live in Beaufort County.
If a true census was performed, I believe that difference in population would shrink.