Cabarrus Cheap Seats

Alright, it’s been a solid two weeks since I’ve posted anything. I’ve been on the road and pretty busy with work. Apparently, Harold Smith has been busy too. Not writing posts on his site; but taking his new vehicle - The Republican Men’s Club - out for a spin. I’ll be including the entire, lengthy text of his post here. I realize that I tend to be pretty verbose. So, I will address various points over the next week or so…so, stay tuned.

Over the past 25 years, Cabarrus County has moved from being run by a local Democratic machine subject to large, local business interests to being run by Republicans of a more diverse makeup. Nearly 43% of the county’s registered voters are Republicans. While much of this has to do with changes in the region and the Democratic Party’s move to militant secular humanism, it’s my opinion that the Republican office holders over the past 20 years stretching from Ken Payne to Joni Juba have done this county a great service by both cultivating vision beyond that of a sleepy mill-town and exhibiting prudent and honest leadership.

The modern Cabarrus Republican Party doesn’t operate like a traditional political machine (Tammany Hall [New York] or Pendergast [Missouri]), but is pretty open to a wide variety of views as it selects its nominees popularly and publicly. It isn’t until after the primaries that the GOP really kicks into action by backing candidates. This rather open approach has lead to a strong party in Cabarrus County; but factions within the party have been in ideological and political struggles lately which are starting to come to a head.

The local media likes to separate the party into factions they refer to as “Moderate” and “Conservative”. However, if you took your average “Moderate” Cabarrus County Republican and put them into the national political spectrum you’d come up with a solidly Conservative label. If you took a sampling of “Conservative” Cabarrus County Republican and put them into the same spectrum you’d come up with a Paleo-Conservative label.

Cabarrus County has been a reliable source of votes for federal and state party Republican nominees. Those same voters aren’t too reluctant to split their tickets and vote for a Democrat, especially when the Republican nominee is from the Paleo-Conservative camp of the Republican Party.

However, those from the Conservative (labeled locally as “Moderate”) wing of the party tend to do very well in General Elections. For instance, NC State Senator Fletcher Hartsell usually gets 60% or more of the vote during an election.

The latest post by Harold Smith outlines a plan to turn the Cabarrus County Republican Men’s Club into a political machine to produce Paleo-Conservative Nominees. Over the next week, I will be examining the various points of his post; because I believe they have serious political and practical implications. Here’s the entire text of Harold Smith’s post:

LetÂ?s Talk About Cabarrus Politics

What is wrong in Cabarrus County?

In my opinion, we have serious political problems in Cabarrus County.

The first problem:

Cabarrus County has a bunch of professional administrative bureaucrats running the county and city local governments without proper oversight by elected officials. I am specifically referring to the following administrative bureaucrats:

City Managers, Superintendent of Cabarrus County Schools, County Manager and their staffs.

These administrative bureaucrats believe they are the experts and should be the final authority in our county. They believe the answers are more government, higher taxes, keeping the citizens in the dark with private meetings and spend-spend-spend solutions. They have no respect for private property or input from citizens. These administrative bureaucrats are professionals who have been trained to control and manipulate elected officials.

The elected officials are as follows: The majority of County Commissioners, the majority of Kannapolis City Council, the majority of Concord City Council and the majority of Cabarrus County School Board. These elected officials have no understanding of their responsibility, sound fiscal policies or taxpayer’s bill of rights. They rubber stamp whatever the administrative bureaucrats recommends.

The second problem:

The Chamber of Commerce is a co- conspirator with the administrative bureaucrats. The Chamber of Commerce through the EDC is milking the county and the cities for their financial support under the disguise of economic development. They have a well defined plan for the taxpayers to fund their projects without the proper oversight of qualified elected officials.

What are the solutions?

As I see it, the solutions are simple. First, we must examine each of our elected officials and hold them accountable. Second, we must find qualified candidates to run for office. Third, we must develop a long term plan to recruit and train qualified candidates.

The deadline for filing for the upcoming city elections is noon on August 5th . We do not have much time. Therefore, we can not afford to waste this opportunity by not having qualified candidates to run for public office. If qualified candidates do not run, there will always be others who will serve in their place and that has been our problem in Cabarrus County.

Develop an Action Plan:

The first action is to find qualified candidates for these upcoming city elections. Each person here needs to give urgent attention. If you know someone who you believe is qualified, please encourage them to run. Please consider running yourself. Exhibit A is a summary of offices available and who has filed as published in the Independent Tribune.

Action two is to select the candidates who meet our criteria. I will ask the Executive Committee to come up with the criteria and make the selections.

Action three is to support the selected candidates both financially and with campaign strategies. The Cabarrus Republican MenÂ?s Club now has the ability to give financial support to local and state candidates. We have followed the guidance of the General Council of NC Republican Party and are properly registered with the NC State Board of Elections.

Action four is to work to get these candidates elected.

Action five is to form partnerships with other groups to assist in training and educating the candidates on the issues and the qualifications for the job. Such groups are the John Locke Foundation and Americans for Prosperity in NC. Both organizations have expressed a willingness to assist us.

Action six is to develop a plan for the following elections in 2006:

NC Legislators

County Commissioners

School Board Members

Judges

With qualified elected officials and proper oversight, below is a sample of what we can accomplish:

- build twice the number of schools with the same money

- focus resources on improving teacher-student learning and eliminate administrative bureaucrats that currently sucks up too much of the school budgets.

- increase quality services to citizens and decrease taxes at the same time.

- focus on core services that local government can perform efficiently and effectively.

- build respect for citizensÂ? input and rights of private property.

The purpose of these comments is to begin a discussion of the problems and the solutions in Cabarrus County

I ask for your support, input and help in adopting this new initiative in Cabarrus County.

Harold Smith.

Check back over the course of next week for a full analysis of each of the major points here. This document could serve as a takeover declaration for the Republican Party in Cabarrus County, and it could also undermine the hard-earned successes of the Republican candidates of the last two decades.