By By JONATHAN CLAYBORNE
Staff Writer
A handful of candidates entered their pleas for support at the Beaufort County Republican Party’s county convention, held Thursday night in the Beaufort County Courthouse.
Among the speakers was Bill Cook, a Cypress Landing Republican running for state House in District 6.
The district covers all of Beaufort County and a portion of eastern Pitt County.
Cook, a retired electric-utility executive originally from Washington, D.C., joked that he launched his candidacy “because I got tired of yelling at the TV.”
He said there was “a lot of stupidity going on” at the state and federal levels.
The N.C. General Assembly raised taxes by $1.1 billion last year, Cook told the crowd.
“I’m a Christian, I’m a conservative and I’m a Republican, and about that order is the way I look at things,” he continued.
Cook said he had raised almost $2,000 for his election fund.
He told conventioneers that he needed monetary contributions, noting that his opponent, Rep. Arthur Williams, D-Beaufort, has a sizable campaign account.
“It costs money to market (a candidate),” he said. “I don’t like that, but it’s true.”
Cook said he’d been advised that money and marketing were key to an election effort.
The convention attendees also heard from John Carter, one of four Republicans seeking the GOP nomination to challenge U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., or his primary opponent, Chad Larkins of Macon.
Butterfield, a Wilson resident, represents the 1st Congressional District, which takes in about half of Beaufort County and a large swath of neighboring counties in the northeast.
Carter is a former deputy sheriff who worked in the computer industry before the Great Recession changed his circumstances, the candidate told the Washington Daily News early this year.
In January, Carter said he was working as a part-time sales associate at Belk in Wilson, and couldn’t find a full-time job due to the sour economy.
On Thursday night, he laid out his credentials for a new audience.
“I’m a conservative, and I believe in common-sense solutions to the problems that we face,” said Carter, who, like Butterfield, has a Wilson address.
The federal stimulus packages have failed to revive the economy, Carter argued.
“The private sector creates jobs,” he said. “Government is holding us back from creating jobs.”
Carter said he had proposed waiving the capital-gains tax for two years.
“If it works, get rid of it all together,” he stated, adding, “Tax cuts work for everybody.”
Bemoaning deficit spending, he said Congress should eliminate stimulus measures from its agenda.
“There are things I can do without, and it’s time for government to learn that same lesson,” he said.
Carter said he would vote against any legislation that raises taxes or creates a new tax. He also said he would vote against any congressional pay raise.
Carter will square off against the other three Republican candidates in the May 4 primary election.
The other three candidates are Ashley Woolard of Washington, Jim Miller of Kill Devil Hills and Jerry Grimes of Goldsboro.
Also speaking Thursday was Al Klemm, an incumbent seeking re-election to the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners.
Klemm, a Washington resident, is one of five people seeking the GOP’s nomination to run for three available seats on the board.
“It’s our time now,” Klemm said. “We must elect Republicans to every seat. … If we can do that, we’ll have the start of a movement. But once we do that, we cannot do what Republicans have done in the past. We cannot whimp out.”
If the party makes big gains this year, its officials will have to stick to their platform, Klemm said.
Next up was Buddy Harrell, who said that education was one of his main objectives.
“Our educational system has gone awry,” said Harrell, an Edward resident.
He suggested there should be more local control over schools.
In her turn out, Bath’s Cindy Baldwin indicated she was seeking office based on personal experience.
“That’s really the reason why I’m here,” Baldwin, a small businesswoman, said. “I found out what government regulation does to small business.”
She said she’s been in business for 17 years, and now serves as a business counselor.
The clients she talks to are “mad, they’re frustrated, they’re trying to hold on to a business that they’ve had for 40 years,” Baldwin said.
The last of the commissioner candidate-speakers was Stan Deatherage, an incumbent from Washington.
Deatherage said he recently traveled to Washington, D.C., to represent Beaufort County as a legislative liaison.
He said he found parallels between the agenda espoused by the Obama administration and the National Association of Counties.
He said the health-care-reform legislation, expected to be voted on by the U.S. House this weekend, was a tip toward socialism.
“Primarily, I say our children and our grandchildren will not be able to pay back our $900 billion of debt,” Deatherage declared.
Sheriff hopeful Donald Dixon came on near the end of the speeches. Dixon will confront Democratic Sheriff Alan Jordan in the Nov. 2 general election.