Posted on 06/03/2004 7:22:23 AM PDT by Constitution Day
Republican says party leader taking sidesBy LYNN BONNER AND ROB CHRISTENSEN, Staff Writers>
Charles Taylor, a Sanford Republican, had such an unpleasant experience at the state party convention last month that he resigned from its executive committee.
Taylor says GOP political director Bill Peaslee needlessly barred him from the committee's meeting. Now he wants Peaslee to resign from his job.
Taylor found that Peaslee registered two Internet sites, www.billcobey.com and www.billcobey.org, on July 16 -- five days before Cobey, who was state GOP chairman, announced he was running for governor. They are addresses for Cobey's campaign Web site.
The party is not supposed to help one primary candidate over others. But the Web registration shows Peaslee abandoned impartiality to help Cobey, Taylor said.
"I think that's a direct conflict of interest," said Taylor, who is backing former state Sen. Patrick Ballantine in the gubernatorial primary. "I don't think it's fair."
Peaslee said he registered those domain names on his own time and from his own computer, so he did not violate the impartiality dictate. A domain-names registry says the Cobey names were registered on a Wednesday at about 4:30 p.m.
Peaslee said he doesn't remember when he registered the names, but said he didn't know at the time that Cobey was going to run for governor.
The day after Peaslee registered the names, The News & Observer reported that Cobey was considering running. Peaslee hasn't registered domain names for any of the other five candidates in the primary, but won't say what other work he has done.
"I'm not going to state publicly what I've done and haven't done and who I've done it to," he said. "I have not used my office and position in an inappropriate way, nor have I used any party resources."
"Republicans are faithful servants of the US constitution--a document that protects individual freedoms,"
Oh man, you stepped in it there.
Yes, but not to the level I once was or to the level I probably will be in the future.
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