GOP rejects Dority bid to take over the local party | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

    Keith Kidwell is the new chairman of the Beaufort County Republican Party. He will guide the party through to the 2014 elections. Kidwell beat out perennial candidate Greg Dority by nearly two to one. Dick Denton was elected First Vice Chair. Zane Buckman was elected Second Vice Chair and Claudia Rodgers was elected Secretary. David Cox was re-elected Treasurer and Proctor Kidwell was elected Assistant Treasurer. Preliminary returns indicated approximately 25 people were elected to the Executive Committee after a change in the Plan of Organization was passed to allow "5 or more" members as opposed to the prescribed 18 members previously. Then anybody that someone wanted to nominate was elected to serve on the Executive Committee.

    The conservative element won a decisive victory in the selection of officers but it remains to be seen how the political segments of the party will be represented on the Executive Committee but the chair and first vice chair elections left little doubt about where the strength lies in the party at this point in time. The insurgent movement led by Dority, Ashley Woolard, Bill Tarpenning, Larry Britt and Sandy Hardy fell way short of making the "clean sweep" they had promised.

    Kidwell, in a brief acceptance speech, called for the various segments of the party to unite to defeat Democrats in the upcoming elections.

    Commentary

    We will have more commentary when it becomes clearer how the votes go on the initial Executive Committee. The effect of changing the number of members on the committee will be determined more by the level of commitment of the members, in that the Plan of Organization contains a "minimum attendance" requirement to remain on the committee and there is no provision for vacancies until/unless membership drops to below 5. That's true because there is no set number of seats on the committee. So the power game will be determined by who drops out.

    Keith Kidwell has his work cut out for him. The idea that the various segments of the party can come together will be severely tested, simply because of the wide variations in motivations of the members. We predict the real test will come in the Republican primary for the 2014 U. S. Senate race. It is most likely that the candidates who jump into that race will exacerbate, not close, the divisions within the party. There is no doubt that the Establishment will run one or more candidates in the Primary. There is already a conservative in the race. We predict that in spite of all the rhetoric from the speakers, it will be impossible for most of the Executive Committee to agree to support one candidate. There will be a dog fight in the Primary. (Actually it will be more of a dog and cat fight.) Then the test will come in whether the party, locally and statewide, can pull together behind the nominee to defeat Hagan in November of 2014.

    We will predict that much of what ultimately happens will be determined by how successful the Republican controlled General Assembly is in finishing the "long session" with strong support among the rank and file voters across the state, especially the unaffiliated. The people gave Republicans a chance to change the way things are done in Raleigh. If the GOP succeeds in showing they are simply not just replacing the Democrats and continuing "business as usual" with different names, then they may survive in control. But if the economy does not improve, and certainly if it gets worse (think Cyprus) the Democrats will have a real chance to regain control. In other words, Republicans will have to produce.

    If you simply count the number of references to Kay Hagan in Tuesday night's meeting you see what we mean. Gaining control of the U. S. Senate to reign in Obama, and perhaps even impeach him, was clearly not the focus of those assembled. Rather the focus was on internal squabbling. If that continues the GOP is road kill.

    Keith Kidwell's task, should he decide to accept it, is to keep the focus on getting rid of Harry Reid. And to do that will require a large turnout in support of the Republican nominee against Hagan. That nominee will be determined by a bruising fight. And the turnout for the Senate race will drive what happens in several local races. Last night gave no indication, yet, that such focus can be achieved. It is not there now, and it is not at all clear how or if it will be achieved.

    But one thing was very clear last night. Let me tell you Man, The Good Ole Boys did not do very well ... again.