GOP candidates rally supporters By Rochelle Moore Times Staff Writer Republicans rallied for support in upcoming local, state and federal elections during the Wilson County Republican Party’s annual oyster roast fundraiser Saturday night. U.S. Rep. George Holding, R-N.C., was the keynote speaker for the event that drew hundreds of people to a hangar at the Wilson Industrial Air Center. Many candidates focused on the election of House Speaker Thom Tillis to the U.S. Senate, saying the race to beat incumbent Sen. Kay Hagan was pivotal to the future of the nation. Holding, who represents the 13th Congressional District, said Republicans have a good shot at taking congressional seats in Massachusetts, Maine and Hawaii. He also said he has high hopes in winning re-election in the Nov. 4 general election. “The problem is here, in North Carolina. We are in a tight race for Senate that should not be tight,” Holding said. “Kay Hagan has no record to run on, period. She has zero accomplishment in Washington. All she is trying to do is tear down our candidate and try to smear him with independent voters and the folks out there who are undecided. That’s the only thing she’s got going for her. We, as Republicans, cannot let that happen.” Holding said that the past two years have been difficult with U.S. House of Representatives passing close to 380 bills that were shelved by Democratic leadership in the Senate. “If we had a majority in the Senate, which may be decided in this Senate race in this state in a little over two weeks, we could make some accomplishments,” Holding said. “We could put (President) Barack Obama on his heels for two years. We could be passing bills, passing good creative bills, conservative bills, putting him on his heels for two years, if we win the Senate.” The annual oyster roast drew Republicans from across the county and other areas, including Johnston and Wayne counties. Steve Keen, director of the Eastern North Carolina Office of Gov. Pat McCrory, and Johnston County Sheriff Steve Bizzell were in attendance. Several judicial candidates attended including Bob Hunter, who is seeking re-election to the N.C. Supreme Court, Eric Levinson, a Superior Court judge, also seeking a seat on the N.C. Supreme Court, Wayne Boyette, a candidate for District Court judge in the 7th judicial district, and Richard Scott, who is challenging Sen. Angela Bryant for the District 4 seat. Joey Gardner, a Republican challenging Democrat Sheriff Calvin Woodard, said he would bring change to the Wilson County Sheriff’s Office. He also said he would take a reduction in pay, pointing out Woodard is the third highest paid sheriff in the state. Woodard’s salary was previously set when former sheriff Wayne Gay was in office. If elected, Gardner said he would reduce his salary by $72,680. “We’ve got to make a change in Wilson County, and I want to work for you each and every day to protect you,” Gardner said. “One of the ways I want to do this is we want to revitalize the sheriff’s office. We need to begin a new era of cooperation amongst the sheriff’s office as well as all the other local law enforcement agencies in Wilson County as well as the state and other federal agencies. “Another thing we want to do, we want to decrease the employee turnover rate. We cannot afford to keep losing personnel at that rate.” Rep. Susan Martin, R-Wilson, who is seeking re-election to House District 8, shared some of the accomplishments of Republican leadership. After two years in the legislature, Martin said she still doesn’t consider herself a politician but more as a public servant “We did a lot of great things in North Carolina,” Martin said. “We have the fastest growing economy in the Southeast. We are one of 10 states that have a AAA bond rating because we’ve paid off a lot of debt. Our unemployment is really being reduced so our economy is growing. We had the largest teacher pay raise, dollar wise, in our state history and percentage wise in a decade so were finally moving in the right direction there.” Wilson County Board of Commissioner candidates Glenn Blackwell, seeking to unseat Commissioner Rob Boyette, and Commissioner Chris Hill, seeking re-election, both asked for support in the upcoming election. Blackwell said if the two Republicans are elected, the county board would move to a Republican majority. Hill and Blackwell said the county needs a greater focus on economic development and a county capital improvement plan. “It’s an opportunity to return the county commissioners to a Republican majority,” Blackwell said. “It’s an opportunity for the county commissioner board that recognizes the importance of economic development, to help broaden our tax base, which allows us to help the public education, our public services and everything else. It’s about an opportunity to reinforce workforce development that is beneficial to our local economy. With your help, please help me turn this opportunity into a reality.” Hill said the county lacks a capital improvement plan that, if not addressed, could become a burden with the needs of public schools, the community college and county buildings. He said economic development would help increase the county tax base and help officials meet the needs of the community. “We’ve got revenues, which are taxes, and we’ve got services, which is spending and our budget,” Hill said. “Everybody in this race and in every county commissioner race is going to talk about economic development. The majority of our board does not understand what economic development does. The last four years, we have funded economic development at a shortfall of our commitment to a tune of $114,000.” N.C. Sen. Buck Newton, who faces no opposition in his re-election bid, also asked for voter support in several upcoming election races, including Tillis’ bid in the U.S. Senate. Newton attributed a lot of changes in the state to Tillis. He also thanked voters for sending Martin to the legislature in 2012. “We balanced our budget,” Newton said. “We cut your taxes, two, three times. We implemented major tax reform .... We’ve done tort reform, we’ve done education reform, and we’re not done. But I’ll remind you again, who was one of the engineers of this change? Thom Tillis. “Does anybody here like the idea of what’s going on in Washington? (U.S. Rep. George Holding) needs some help up there. We need somebody up there to help him put the handcuffs on (President) Barack Obama.”
Posted on: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 12:13:41 +0000
Trending Topics
© 2015