The executive committee of the Beaufort County Republican Party has formed a four-person planning subcommittee to identify “conservative candidates” for the nonpartisan Washington City Council elections.
“We’re getting involved for two reasons,” said Greg Dority, county GOP chairman. “First, we feel it’s important to bring a conservative message and brand into the City of Washington elections. We want to have an opportunity to have a conservative message there.”
It’s unclear how or if the party will help its favored candidates beyond pledging moral and logistical support.
Dority and fellow Republicans involved in the candidate-seeking effort see the Nov. 8 election as a run-up to the 2012 main event, when the GOP is likely to field candidates for Beaufort County commissioner and other local seats.
“I think we’ve got some conservative leadership on the council, but what I hear from people in the city of Washington is, with the financial situation deteriorating, there needs to be an additional conservative wave on the council,” Dority said.
The subcommittee isn’t focusing on the seat currently held by Washington Mayor Archie Jennings, Dority confirmed.
“I think, generally speaking, the mayor is seen as having done a good job,” he commented.
One member of the subcommittee is Pamela Anderson Nuckols, a Washington resident who owns an advertising agency.
The subcommittee has been meeting for about a month, said Nuckols, who also serves as secretary of the Beaufort County GOP.
Nuckols acknowledged she’s thinking about entering the council race.
“I’ve been tossing that around a little, and I think that I’m almost certain that I will be running,” she said. “I’m not ready to announce my candidacy yet.”
Asked whether the subcommittee is eyeing Republican office-seekers exclusively, Nuckols replied, “I think we’re looking for conservative candidates. I don’t think you can label somebody, that they’re not conservative just because they’re a Democrat.”
This official party initiative mirrors an informal project taken on by independent conservative activists.
The informal project involves members of the Beaufort County Conservative Republican Club and the Beaufort Patriot Tea Party, said Beaufort County Commissioner Hood Richardson.
“The Conservative Republican Club is looking (for) conservative(s),” said Richardson, “and the party is looking for anybody that’s decent.”
The different entities involved could end up supporting opposing candidates, indicated Richardson, one of Beaufort County’s four Republican commissioners and a leader of the Conservative Republican Club.
“We want somebody that’s going to take a look at the amount of the money that the city is spending because the average person that lives in Washington can’t afford the exclusivity of the City Council,” he said.
The council doesn’t appear to be considering serious budget cuts and seems to have lost focus on expansive downtown projects, according to Richardson.
“We don’t believe that development on the waterfront is what the average people in Washington really want,” he asserted. “The elitists may want that.”
Like the party’s movement, the informal undertaking doesn’t make the mayor’s position part of the equation.
“We’re really looking at council candidates because the council is the one that makes these decisions, not the mayor,” Richardson said, adding the groups would support a strong mayoral candidate if one came forward.
The five council members are Gil Davis, Doug Mercer, Bobby Roberson, William Pitt and William Moultrie. All will be up for re-election this year, if each man chooses to run.
Mercer, a Democrat and self-described conservative, was asked for his input on the GOP’s maneuvers.
“I’d like to see more conservative members of the council,” he said. “Of course, I think we’ve got a start in that direction now. … We’ve got an election coming up, and if we get more people to run more power to them.”
Asked for examples of what he sees as conservative moves by the sitting council, Mercer pointed to a drift away from appropriating the city’s cash reserves and an up-front investment in electronic water-meter readers to reduce manpower costs over time.
“Certainly we’re beginning to realize that we cannot continue to spend more than we take in,” he said.
In a separate conversation, Jennings, the mayor, revealed he plans to seek re-election.
Told about the conservatives’ activity ahead of the filing period, Jennings said, “It’s about time for those rumors to start circulating. I haven’t had anybody confirm to me that they’re going to run. My response is we’ll find out in a couple of weeks.”
The filing period for the Washington municipal elections begins at noon July 1 and ends at noon July 15.
Jennings concluded, “I hope that we’ll have a broad slate of candidates. I think that’s the American way. That’s what makes the system work.”