Comments by John Steed | Eastern NC Now

Reports on violation of the Open Meetings Act in hiring the city manager behind closed doors and not making the official motion in open session is a big concern. While most elected officials attend seminars that instruct them on the Open Meetings Law, they should also have their own attorney for the body present to tell them that th3ey just cannot do it that way.

No one has come forward to contend that this action was taken in open session, so one must asssume that the reports are accurate.

But this is not the first occurrence of such a matter. When the outgoing city council met and voted on the golden parachute for the outgoing city manager, which was at huge expense to the taspayer, there was also no motion made in open session on those matters as required by the open meetings law. Where was the city attorney when that was done? In addition, the law does not allow a lame duck government body after an election and before its new members are sworn in to take personnel actions of that sort. Our new council should be trying to claw back that golden parachute, because it was not done in compliance with NC law. Perhaps the council members who voted to throw away that taxpayer money could be personally liable for it.

Not following the Open Meetings Law and other NC law seems to be a significant problem with our city council. Washington deserves better.

Commented: Friday, April 17th, 2026 @ 2:54 pm By: John Steed

Instead of a bureaucrat, if we want to clean up the mess in Washington, it would have been much better to bring in someone with private sector management experience. If they insisted on government management experience, then Virginia state government would have been a good place to look as there are certain to be lots of Youngkin administration officials being shown the door by the incoming radical Spanberger crowd.

Commented: Saturday, April 11th, 2026 @ 7:30 pm By: John Steed

What we need is a conservative team on the county commission that will 1) elect Republican leadership instead of a coalition with liberal Democrats, and 2) reduce our taxes. We have to elect two commissioners we can depend on this year if we are to do that. Since Edwards has Rebholz as his mentor, he is the one I trust least among the Republicans. Deatherage and Woolard are the two that can make it happen, and we do not need silly personality fights.

Remember, voters are much more concerned about actual issues than they are about internal workings of the Republican Party.

Because of the shacky limited voting system where all candidates are still running against each other in November, there is very little the party organization can do in the election, but conservative voters will have to make the choice in a way that gets us out from under the situation that has left Democrats calling the shots on a 5 to 2 "Republican" commission.

Commented: Tuesday, March 31st, 2026 @ 8:53 am By: John Steed

Democrats clearly do not care about the American people who are murdered, raped, robbed, etc. by illegal alien criminals, nor those who lose their jobs to illegal aliens. Nor do they care about American air travelers put through hell by their stupid shutdown.

Commented: Wednesday, March 25th, 2026 @ 8:09 pm By: John Steed

Stan, with Travis' support and some hard work, I think you are well positioned for the general election. Your record of never voting for a tax increase should also resonate with voters this year.

While party organizations have traditionally worked to turn out voters in a general election, as the local GOP did in the last city election, that is rarely done in primaries. However with Democrats being pushed to temporarily register Unaffiliated to interfere in Republican primaries, it may not be a bad idea for party organizations to take a harder look at turning out registered Republicans in Republican primaries. Of course, the best bet would be to close our primaries altogether.

Commented: Tuesday, March 17th, 2026 @ 8:11 pm By: John Steed

Our upcoming elections should be our top priority. We must, indeed, reelect our state seantor, Bob Brinson, and our sheriff, Scot Hammonds. They are doing great jobs.

The county commission is also critical. Right now we have a governing coalition of two actual Democrats and two ex-Democrats in Republican clothing. The opposition is three actual Republicans. We need to get to a governing majroity of four actual Republicans. The three seats not up for election are one actual Democrat, one ex-Democrat masquerading as a Republican, and two actual Republicans. That means we will need to elect two actual Republicans to get a real Republican majority whixh is four members.

Four candidates are seeking three seats in November. Looking at their commitments to lower taxes, the list from most to least pro=taxpayer would be as follows:
1) Stan Deatherage
2) Ashley Woolard
3) John (Rebholtz) Edwards
4) Ed Booth
That list would also be a good analysis of most Republican to least Republian. Indeed Booth is an actual Democrat. There is probably little differece between Deatherage and Woolard on loyalty to the Republican Party.

The order of finish, however, in the GOP primary was:
1) John (Rebholtz) Edwards
2) Ashley Woolard
3) Stan Deatherage
There was no Democrat primary, but with only one Democrat running and the way our crazy limited voting system works it will be hard to block Booth from winning one of the seats. A huge GOP turnout and a small Democrat turnout might do it, but even then it would probably require something that moves some usual Democrat votes over to one of the Republicans.

The ideal result would be electing all three Republicans, but given the numbers and the system that is not likely to happen. The important thing, then, is to get Deatherage and Woolard finishing as the top two Republicans. that is going to take some work, which needs to start now.

There are some positive signs for Deatherage. Many of his primary voters had spouses split their support with one voting for Deatheage and the other for Travis Martin. Deatherage should get most of the Marin vote in November. The mix of voters will be different in November as well, since some elements come out stronger in November than in the primary.

One also has to look at who might join a coalition with Democrats. Deatherage has stood strongly against such coalitions. Woolard has often been at loggerheads personallywith Hood Richardson, but he has openly denounced doing dealings with Democrats for board control, and could also be relied upon. However John Rebholtz 'major role in Edwards' campaign raise some real issues there, since as long as Rebholz was a commissioner himself, he did deals with Democrats for board control.

The tax issue is also critical. Ed Booth is an unapologetic tax and spend liberal. Stan Deatherage has never voted for a tax increase in 20 years on the county commission and often proposed tax ccuts. Woolard makes cutting tax the main issue of his campaign. Edwards, however, has not taken a clear stand on taxes, and his mentor Rebholts never supported tax cuts.

There is a lot of work to do between now and November. There is no time for intrigues within the local GOP organization.

Commented: Sunday, March 15th, 2026 @ 4:10 pm By: John Steed

China was systematically infiltrating military aged males into the US through BIden's open borders, so McConnell may well be working for Communist China in working against securing our elections against foreign citizens. The Chinese government set up McConnell's wife and father in law in a shipping company. The Chinese government provided the ships, the crews, and the cargoes and McConnell's family members got the profits.

Commented: Saturday, February 21st, 2026 @ 3:58 pm By: John Steed

This is an attempted job swap. Walz cannot get reelected so he defers to Klobucher. If Klobucher wins the governor's seat, she then appoints Walz to her then vacant senate seat.

Commented: Thursday, February 19th, 2026 @ 8:34 am By: John Steed

The fact that "Traitor Thom" Tillis is MIA on protecting election integrity is appalling. But then Tillis has always been a fake "Republican" Just like RINO Steve Traxler who is trying to monkey around in our legislative primary pushing another RINO. :Tillis and Troxler are two peas in a left wing pod.

Even Sen. Susan Collins (RINO-Maine) has now decided to support the SAVE America Act, but Traitor Thom Tillis remains MIA.
redstate.com

Commented: Saturday, February 14th, 2026 @ 8:53 am By: John Steed

"Win elections" not "get elections"

Commented: Wednesday, February 11th, 2026 @ 10:21 am By: John Steed

Darren Armstrong is evasive about where he stands on most anything, but it is interesting to see which issues he seems to concentrate on.

In response to questions at the BCCC meeting, Armstrong was fairly brief and general in response to questions on gun rights and the Green New Deal, indicating little interest in those subjects. Where he went into great detail, but without saying he was committed to that side was offering purported justification for shutting down the raw milk farmers, and in purported justification for prohibiting North Carolinians who get cancer from products of an out of state chemical company from being able to sue that company over their cancer. Those are key positions of his recruiter for this campaign, Raleigh RINO Jimmy Dixon. Dixon is also anti-gun, being the "hard no" in the GOP caucus against overriding the governor's veto of the Constitutional Carry bill.

Even though he claims not to have a position yet, it was clear that in reality he would vote with Dixon to put the small independent dairies which sell raw milk out of business and to deny North Carolinians who get cancer from the products of that out of state chemical company the right to sue them for their cancer. But on gun rights and Green New deal, who knows what he would do?

Commented: Monday, February 2nd, 2026 @ 11:16 am By: John Steed

Late term abortions and transing children!!! What GOP congressman would think their constituents would stand for that? This is absolutely sick. Murphy has some explaining to do.

Commented: Saturday, January 24th, 2026 @ 5:40 pm By: John Steed

JV, the hate is strong in you, isn't it? I don't vote on emotion. I rationally look at issues. The main job of a legislator is to represent us in Raleigh, and Kidwell has been a solid conservative there. I do not want to replace him with a Frankie Waters clone, even though I do wish that Kidwell would be less engaged in the local party. That seems to detract too much from his solid work in Raleigh. And who knows but that the Frankie Waters clone might not be also engaging in party activty locally, too.

I ask you to come up with an issue, and you zoom off into outer space with a wild accusation of Kidwell being a "Christian Zionist", something I can see no basis for in his legislative record or his actions locally. Did you see MTG's "Jewish space lasers" while you were zooming around out there?

Commented: Sunday, January 18th, 2026 @ 9:42 am By: John Steed

"Perceived associations"???? Jimmy Dixon has openly bragged about recruiting Armstrong. Dixon, Waters, and Troxler were all front and center at Armstrong's fundraiser. NC Board of Elections reports show Armstrong was a four figure contributor to Marc Basnight. That he was a Democrat in Hyde County is also public record. It is also well known in Raleigh that Phil Berger is running candidates against all six top leaders of the Freedom Caucus. Shrimpgate and their role in blocking it is only one of the reasons. There are lots of others like blocking Berger's corrupt casino bill and stiffening the spine of overall House GOP leadership in saying NO to Berger's tax increase budget. Woe be unto North Carolina if Berger succeeds in stomping out the conservative leadership in the House.

Commented: Saturday, December 27th, 2025 @ 8:40 am By: John Steed

Darren Armstrong was recruited by ultra-RINO Jimmy Dixon of Duplin County on behalf of liberal RINO senate boss Phil Berger. Dixon is the liberal anti-gun legislator who blocked key gun rights legislation in this legislative session. Berger has been responsible for a long list of liberal legislation from letting men into womens restrooms to the NC Green New Deal to the Obamacare Medicaid expansion to trying to put out NC shrimpers out of business to trying to spread casinos across the state. Anyone who would align with Dixon and Berger is NO CONSERVATIVE. Armstrong also has a history of a big time Marc Basnight Democrat when he lived in Hyde County.

Both Dixon and Berger have sold their souls to the special interests. Dixon is a farmer himself but in this legislative session tried to screw farmers two ways. He tried to put raw milk farmers completely out of business. He also tried to protect a big out of state chemical company which put chemicals they knew caused cancer into farm chemicals from being sued by NC farmers who got cancer from those chemicals. Dixon was willing to stab his own people in the back to play up to the special interests. Beaufort County does NOT need our own version of Jimmy Dixon in the legislature.

Commented: Tuesday, December 23rd, 2025 @ 2:48 pm By: John Steed

Illegal aliens should not be allowed to get ANY drivers license, much less a CDL to drive an 18 wheeler.

Commented: Tuesday, December 2nd, 2025 @ 5:39 pm By: John Steed

For anyone who stands with Berger in ANY of his challenges to House conservatives, I have one thing to say - when you lie down with dogs, you get fleas. Berger has pushed leftwing policy in Raleigh as hard as Roy Cooper has, and indeed they were often pushing the same leftwing agenda. The only place they got pushback was in the House, which sometimes stopped Berger and sometimes he overcame their opposition. They have gotten better at stopping Berger's nonsense in the House like with Berger's casinos and Berger trying to do a solid for the radical environmentalists by putting our commercial fishermen out of business.
www.beaufortcountynow.com

If Berger takes any scalps among the 6, so far, conservatives in the House he is trying to replace with his yes men, then it will intimidate others in the House from standing up to him. Anyone who sides with Berger is working ABAINST conservatives. Berger is the worst establishment power bully in the state. He already has almost all of the Senate Republicans completely intimidated and now he is trying to push the same poison in the House. That simply must be stopped or conservatives will be totally screwed in Raleigh. Local politics are downright petty compared to the huge impact these Berger challenges can have in Raleigh.

Berger is having a serious primary challenge himself from a conservative and may get taken down, hopefully, but that does not make his challenge to this group of House conservative leaders any less dangerous. Berger has cleared out any meaningful conservative voices in the Senate, and the departure of stalwart conservative Bobby Hanig to run for Congress, they will all be gone. If Berger goes down in the primary, it will be a Berger 2.0 that takes his place, playing the same game with the Democrats and special interests. Any of Berger's lieutenants would be as bad as Berger and we do not need opposition to them in the House to be intimidated.

Incidentally, liberal Berger lap dog Jimmy Dixon has also recruited a Berger-friendly candidate for Hanig's state senate seat to run against conservative retired judge Jerry Tillet in the primary. There may also be a second conservative in that primary which would split the conservative vote and let Berger's poodle win the primary. The Berger machine MUST be stopped. It is as evil as evil as Thom Tillis and has a lot more power.

The most rotten politician one could send to Raleigh would be a Berger Boy.

Commented: Friday, November 21st, 2025 @ 11:32 am By: John Steed