CRYSTAL COAST TEA PARTY PATRIOTS
MEETING MINUTES
OF
19 JUNE 2012
Meeting held at Golden Corral, Morehead City, NC
Meeting called to order at 6:07 pm by Chairman BOB CAVANAUGH
Pledge of Allegiance
Invocation by JERE GEURIN
Attendance – 22
BOB asked CATIE MCCABE to pass out the paper ballots prepared for voting tonight for the July 17th runoff.
DISCUSSION on Candidates:
HOWARD GARNER put in a plug for Ed Goodwin. “If you will look at his background, his experience, and where he has been, it’s hard to find any one person with the experience he has. He started out in a tobacco patch, which he has certainly paid his dues working in a tobacco patch. And then he served in the military, traveled the world as a federal agent, and now is back farming again. But what really caught my attention about him, was he (a Republican) got elected County Commission in a Democratic controlled county that was bankrupt. So he won the election; they picked him as chairman with the idea he would make a fool of himself or if things got worse, they could blame it on the ’Republican’. Instead, he pulled the county out of bankruptcy and now they have a surplus. So it looks to me like he has done a fantastic job as chairman of the County Commissioners. That is Chowan County and Edenton. I had read about the county and their bad financial shape before I ever heard of Ed Goodwin.”
BOB asked how many folks were here last week when Ed Goodwin spoke to us. The majority raised their hands. He was pretty impressed with him. Running against Mr. Goodwin is Kenn Gardner who also spoke to us a couple of weeks ago. Anybody want to speak for or against Mr. Gardner? LUKE KUKULINSKI said he thought either one of them were good. HOWARD said he thought Mr. Gardner was a good man, but he thought Ed Goodwin was more experienced and better qualified. BOB wanted to know if Gardner was the other one who was an architect. Answer was yes. PEGGY GARNER said another thing, in her opinion, was Ed Goodwin is from eastern North Carolina and is more aware of what goes on in our area. Gardner is not. He is an architect from Raleigh. BOB said he thought that we (HOWARD and PEGGY) just liked farmers. HOWARD and PEGGY said we do, they are smart, usually honest and hard working. HOWARD said he believed in the man.
FRED DECKER said he would like to put in a word against Richard Morgan. (Laughter) Comments: Now that’s a shocker….thought you were his campaign manager here in Carteret. FRED said for those of you who do not remember he was the one that “compromised” with Jim Black and became co-chair in the state congress. He was thrown out of the Republican Party for his shenanigans. BOB said another thing about Morgan he thinks that those west of I95 are paying for our hurricane insurance here. TOM HARMON said he liked “Mike (Causey). BOB said it sounds like Morgan plans to raise the rates on us here in the west, and he is selling us out to get votes in the west.
LUKE wanted to know what about this Superintendent for Public Instruction? He seems like a pretty good guy…John Tedesco.
BOB recognized WALTER BENNETT. He said, “I have had the privilege of coming and visiting with you folks numerous times. I am not a member but I am a huge fan of the TEA Party and I just want to thank this group here for what you have done. I don’t think you have any idea of the influence you have on this county. I did a little work at the polls like a lot of you did, and I was amazed at the number of people that would come up to get that TEA Party list and say that is who I am voting for. Even though they may never come here or you may never hear of them; they know you. So you have a chance to have a huge influence on what happens in this county and what happens in this state. I just want to thank you folks for doing this. Thank you for all the work you do.” (Members replied thank you for your kind words.) BOB said we are just ordinary folks like you; can’t make every meeting every time, strictly voluntary thing, none of us get paid. So whenever you can show up and join our group, we are glad to have your two cents or support. We appreciate any participation.
HOWARD said he would also like to speak for John Tedesco, because he has been keeping up with his actions and the Board of Education in Wake County for a long time. I was impressed by the way he turned things around in Wake County on the Board of Education. We have an article here, you all may want to see it, ’as Chairman of the Board of Education in Wake County, he cut the office staff from 64 down to 8.’ That is what we have been yelling about that we want done here. We want that central office staff cut. We have a lot of wasted money in my opinion throughout North Carolina. They’ve got these regional educational centers with people employed by the Department of Public Instruction and I just think that is a waste of money. VERN THOMPSON said he seconded that motion about Tedesco. Up until a month or so ago (or maybe last year) I still had property in Wake County, so I spent a lot of time up there and followed all their shenanigans up there….the Board of Education…. I think he did a very good job sharing what he was up to. The deck was really stacked against him. I think he was over all a pretty impressive force and in addition I think he is a reformer at heart and he will do his best to do the same thing in whatever office he holds. I don’t know either one of these guys personally, never met either one of them, but that is my view of John Tedesco. FRED said they had talked to John Tedesco and he really impressed him. When he first started his speech, the first thing he said was “I am a Christian and I am going to run my campaign as a Christian.’
He was really impressive. BOB said, ’Last month KEN LANG, FRED DECKER and himself, went up to the Beaufort County TEA Party in Little Washington, and Tedesco was there; Dan Forest was there, Kenn Gardner was there and Tony Gurley (who showed up late) was there. John Tedesco is a little short, stocky guy, not that impressive to look at…..but then he starts to speak….and I have listened to a lot of campaign speeches ….but I am going to tell you what….John Tedesco was the only one that really, really, like lit my light bulb. I kept poking KEN. The more John spoke, the more I kept telling KEN….I like this guy a lot. He strikes me as a real human dynamo. He talked about the problems of going up against the Wake Board education system there and the things he was able to accomplish and just his tenacity to keep pounding away at a problem. Eventually he tears the wall down by not giving up.’
We have not heard from Richard Alexander, the other fellow running for NC Superintendent of Public Education. He said he was going to try to get out here sometime in July, but we have not heard back from him. John Tedesco might be here July 3rd. We do not have a firm commitment on that. But I guarantee, if he comes, you are going to be blown away by this guys force of presence…..a really dynamic guy.
On the race for Lt, Governor…Dan Forest and Tony Gurley. We supported Dan Forest in the May 8 primary and Dan has been down here and also been to the Republican Men’s Club and I think to the Women’s Club. He has a real nice power point presentation, very slick, smooth operator, well spoken. He’s an architect that sold out his business about two years ago and has been campaigning for this particular job ever since. Tony Gurley, a pharmacist by trade, is chairman of the Wake County Board of Commissioners, and on his third term. Around 1999 or 2000 he decided to change careers and went to law school, got a law license and opened up a law practice. HOWARD said he told us that he never practiced. BOB said he was talking from the web site. They opened up a law firm and in 2005, he opened up another pharmacy in Durham. This guy is no dummy, a very accomplished individual. The advantage I see of him over Dan Forest is he has some political experience. That whole Wake County group, Gurley, Debra Goldman, and John Tedesco, they were all part of the County Commissioners up there that did a lot of positive things with the Wake County school system and the Wake County budget up there. ERIC BROYLES asked if Gurley was ever invited to speak here. BOB said, ‘No, he came down and spoke to the Republican Club, and he spoke way early in the campaign, long before Dan Forest came down; and I like him. I would be satisfied with either one of those two guys. To me it is a win/win with those two. It is not like a Causey vs. a Morgan where we have ‘the devil’ running for office also.’
BOB recognized JOEL FORTUNE. He said he concurred with his friend, BUTLER BENNETT…people do make a difference. ‘This is my first time here with you all. I would like to comment on two things: I am a commissioner on Indian Beach and a wrote an article in Sunday’s paper (letter to the editor). HOWARD said ‘Good article’. Mr. Fortune said, ‘Thank you sir. HOWARD said ‘I admire you taking a stand’. Mr. Fortune said he was a strong Christian and a devout Conservative. I think we need to be more accountable. It can start on the local level and move up to the national level; but we’ve got to start somewhere. I am willing to take that stand. Also, Dan Forest, when he was here, I met him and I took him to the ‘For Amendment’ rally and he took the stand. You have to admire him for that. Most politicians sort of veer away from anything controversial that might affect a vote. Dan is a man to be admired. He has a lot of integrity and is a strong Christian. He will make us a good Lt. Governor. Thank you for allowing me to speak.’ BUTLER said, ‘What is really interesting to me is, Dan believed he had a vision he felt was based on the Lord. He was an architect, and he said he felt like the Lord was telling him he ought to run for a state office and he wasn’t really sure what to do. He told me to get out of the architect business; so he made an agreement with his partners and they bought him out and he told me, I am not a wealthy man, and they did not make me wealthy when I sold, but retiring at the age he is, he said he really thought the Lord was telling him to do this. I really think that if we elect Dan that we will have a guy (most of you probably know this…his mom is Sue Myrick, who probably has one of the best records of any congress person in this state as far as being conservative. So I know what his real values are….and he has a background of political…knowing a lot of people with that; but Dan is his own man. I think we will be really proud of him and I really think, like many of you do, whoever wins this nomination is probably going to be the Lt. Governor. And I do know that Dan has a real soft spot for Carteret County because he comes down here a lot. We have his ear. I would like to see him be our candidate. I appreciate the TEA Party and the things you do. I, too, am hearing good things about Tony Gurley. We have good candidates.
HOWARD said, ‘This is a little off the subject, but it is near and dear to my heart…and I think it is near and dear to a lot of us….I read Mr. Fortunes’ letter to the editor Sunday, and I was real impressed, because he hit at a thing we have been hitting at in the Board of Education. They let the bureaucrats make the decisions and the Board of Education rubber stamps it. And he is saying that is going on in Indian Beach and he is taking a stand against it. And, apparently, he is standing alone. I respect him immensely for it. It is something we need to look at maybe here in Carteret County in certain places. (Comment….that’s the way it has always been here in Carteret County with the Board of Education). HOWARD said he realized that, but we need to stop it. BOB said we missed a real good opportunity this pass election but we were unable to come up with a candidate to run for the Board of Education. FRED said we tried to get two people to run, had some pretty good possibilities, but they fell through. In two years, we have another election coming up…Cathy Naegle….and hopefully we can get rid of some more people. But we have to get ready with a “good” candidate now. We also need to be thinking about candidates for County Commissioner also. We might want to talk to Larry Land again. Larry can raise the funds needed. BOB said Larry is kind of disgruntled with us because we did not support him in the last election. FRED said Larry told him he was not that upset. LUKE said he would not even talk to him. HOWARD said he talked to him on Saturday of the early voting and he was out there in that hot boiling sun and we invited him to come over and sit with us under our tent. We gave him a chair, and had a good conversation with him. He did not display any animosity we did not feel like. FRED said, we could run SCOTT CARPENTER, if he would, against Cathy Naegle or Grey Lewis. BOB said he would really like to get someone that understands budgets….actually read a budget, and not get steamrolled.
LUKE asked, ’What about this Mike Causey, Commissioner for Insurance. He seemed like he had it all together‘. BOB said, ’Mike Causey is the guy we want to support. Richard Morgan has been a back stabber of the Republican Party from way back. He was involved with Jim Black. He is a scoundrel.’ Most in attendance said as far as they were concerned there was only one name on the ballot and that was Mike Causey for Commissioner for Insurance.
BOB said Richard Alexander, for any of you paying attention to our Face Book page, has been posting on it for a long time and fairly frequently. He is trying to get the TEA Party support, but he is not doing any direct contact with any groups that I am aware of. So, I would definitely encourage folks to vote for John Tedesco. Does anybody here know of anything about Richard Alexander? Anybody heard him speak at any place?’ HOWARD said Alexander was a former school teacher. BOB said yes, he had had 17 years as a school teacher, which we decided early on, that we, here in Carteret County, did not want anybody out of the school system. HOWARD said, he didn’t know, but he might have gotten disgusted with the school system and left. BOB said, ‘this is a good example of why face to face meetings pays off. If I hadn’t heard John Tedesco speak, I wouldn’t have been so over the top enthusiastic about the guy.’
GRACE GILLIKIN said she told CLAY the other night that she was going to change from Gardner to Goodwin because a man who has worked for a living, knows how to do things, and from his experience appears to be better qualified. BOB said, ’You just like farmers, too’. PEGGY said there is nothing wrong with farmers. They know the value of hard work. And without farmers, you couldn’t eat….and you would miss all those cookies!’ HOWARD said Goodwin hit on two things he could relate to….farming and government regulations. BOB said he too as impressed with Ed Goodwin, he liked him a lot. So did KEN LANG. He took a copy of our minutes, where Mr. Goodwin spoke to us, to their meeting in Cape Carteret. He didn’t know if he planned to read the whole minutes to them or not (PEGGY said, why not, it was only 16 pages!!!). Another thing Bob liked was that Ed Goodwin had a 16 point plan about things that needed to be done, whereas Kenn Gardner only had…. we needed to go up there and pull some weeds. That is what I remember from his speech at the Beaufort TEA Party meeting.
BOB called on the attendees to please vote….give your ballot to CATIE MCCABE when finished….and she would tabulate them for us. He would then take our results to Cape Carteret to combine with their votes and send the final tally to PEGGY to begin running the handout ballots.
BOB said, ‘While we are waiting for the tally, there are a couple of other things to discuss. We are still on for the 4th of July parade. Remember bring your own candy. Our Treasurer is not here so I can’t get a report on our finances. TOM HARMON, were you going to check on the pocket constitutions?’ TOM said NANCY BOCK was going to do that. BOB said, ‘Oh yeah, and also the flags, trailer, fringe, etc.’
BOB said, ‘You all remember the deal we had here with Randy Ramsey trying to run for State Senate. We have a similar situation in the House in District 6 where Art Williams, who was a former Democrat until last October, also a former member of the House of Representatives as a Democrat…I think he held two terms. Anyway he was lobbying Beverly Perdue to appoint him to take Mark Basnight’s seat when Basnight retired, and he didn’t get the nod, so he got po’d and quit the Democrat Party and turned around and became a Republican. Now he is running for the House, District 6 seat (up in Dare, Hyde, Beaufort and part of Washington). He is running against Matty Lawson, who started the Outer Banks TEA Party group back in 2009. Neither one of them got enough votes in the Primary to win it outright, so they are having a runoff on July 17.
I have been in contact with some of her supporters and they are looking for volunteers to help with phone calls, so if anyone is interested, please let me know.
Discussion on the so called money people and politicians in Raleigh, trying to hand pick the candidates to run, financially backing their favorite and selected candidates, and controlling the elections. Time to bring this to a halt.
BOB discussed the Moore County TEA Party. They are the ones behind the billboards project. They are floating out the idea to other TEA Parties in North Carolina about having a really big rally with big name speakers sometime in September or October….somewhere in the central part of the state….possibly Sanford. What is everybody’s feeling about having a big rally that time of the year. They are just floating ideas to see what kind of feed back they get. Some wanted to know if we planned to have a rally here in Carteret. BOB said he was hoping to have one prior to election day, but if we get involved in a big rally with other TEA Parties, it could spread us too thin. My thing about rallies is you can only call the horses out of the stable so many times and then they quit coming. Think about what you all want to do and we will discuss it later. TOM said he thought we should have a rally, just to let people know we are alive and well. BOB said, ‘a local rally?’ TOM said he felt we need to let our people know we are still around. We have been fairly quiet recently and people have forgotten about us. BOB said he had been thinking about a motivational rally….a get out the vote rally. HOWARD said he heard that Ken Humphrey must think we have faded away, he wasn’t even writing letters to the editor any more blasting us. BOB wanted to know what, if anything, he should tell the Moore County folks. Consensus was we want to think on it a little more. HOWARD said he really thought we should have one here in October, a couple of weeks before the election to try to generate enthusiasm for getting people out to vote. If Moore County had their rally in September, he would be all for supporting them with their rally. Someone mentioned about having a rally during the Sea Food Festival. There would be a lot of people here during that time. BOB told ERIC to work on it and see about coordinating the events.
BOB said we really need to have a good turnout for the Beaufort July 4th parade and pass out our constitutions and ballots and encourage people to get out and vote. It is estimated that only 3% will show up to vote on the 17th, which means 3% of the voters are going to determine who our Lt. Governor, Commissioner of Insurance, NC Secretary of State and NC Superintendent of Public Instruction is going to be. We need to get this across to the people how important their vote is. HOWARD said we need to get as many voters out for this runoff primary as we can to uphold our reputation. SUSAN RYNAS wondered if we could get the Dairy Queen to post on their sign about early voting and urging people to get out and vote. BOB said any amount of publicity we can get will help. He asked SUSAN to check it out. We will be placing our list in the paper just prior to the runoff. Letters to the Editor will also be a great help. JERE said he was writing one right now. BOB said one of the areas that we are overlooking in the Crystal Coast is our church bulletins. This would be a great place for getting the word out for various events. ERIC said he thought another idea would be something like a walking sign or sandwich board, like they used to have, advertising special events. Maybe we could work something up and have a couple of people walk in the parade on the 4th encouraging people to vote on the 17th. He is going to see if he can come up with something. He thinks we need two walkers, one on each side of the float. PEGGY said she hoped to find time to paint another poster with the picture of campaign hat and balloons stating “VOTE….it is important”, frame it and have it on the float also. Discussion on the ‘Jim Ferrell billboards’. BOB said he knew Jim well…he used to be his neighbor. He thought Jim might owe him one….then he thought and said maybe not since he had almost burned Jim’s property. BOB had set a fire to burn the grass on his side of the fence and it was doing great until a big breeze came up and blew the fire through the fence to Jim’s side and around his son who was in the yard. HOWARD said it sounded like BOB was well qualified to become a forest ranger. He would fit right in with what we currently have.
FRED said that he would have the list of everybody that voted in the primary for our next meeting. He will have it broken down in precincts. We want to set up phone banks to call the people in your own precinct. BOB said we could call a lot of people if we just had a TEA Party meeting one night and everyone bring their cell phone and take a part of that list to call.
BOB once again asked who was in favor of having a local rally in October to raise their hands. Majority were in favor. Then he asked who wanted to be on the committee to plan and organize the rally. PEGGY said she would help any way she could. BOB appointed himself, PEGGY, HOWARD, FRED and STEVE to serve on the rally committee.
STEVE said he had heard from Terry Jones, who is running on the Independent ticket for President of the United States and he is scheduled to come and speak to us on the 31s of July. Please come out and hear what he has to say. He has a seven point program….stop overspending immediately….balance the budget….reduce military spending….deport all illegals….reduce corporate taxes….reduce bureaucracy….legalize hemp(?). We are a non-denominational group and we are open to hear anyone who wishes to speak to us. The more we hear people talk the better off we are.
BOB gave the results of the vote tonight of who we, the TEA Party, will be supporting in the runoff: NC Lt. Governor – Dan Forest
NC Commissioner of Insurance – Mike Causey
NC Secretary of State – Ed Goodwin
NC Superintendent of Public Instruction – John Tedesco.
He adjourned our meeting in order to get to Cape Carteret to combine their votes with ours to determine our final recommendations.
Meeting adjourned at 7:10pm
Minutes submitted by PEGGY GARNER, Secretary.