NC GOP re-elects chair, ending fears of clash

Delegates' overwhelming vote for Ferrell Blount repels challenge from conservative

Delegates to the GOP's state convention overwhelmingly re-elected Pitt County farmer Ferrell Blount to a second term as chairman Saturday. The vote repelled a challenge from Vernon Robinson, a blunt-spoken conservative city councilman from Winston-Salem and self-described "black Jesse Helms."

Blount was winning by a 3-to-1 margin midway through the roll-call vote when Robinson interrupted and asked to elect Blount by acclamation. The delegates obliged.

Robinson said afterward he wanted to "end on a positive note that moves the party forward."

Some party delegates initially feared a fractious showdown, given the internal party grumbling -- 18 of Mecklenburg's 51 delegates voted for Robinson, for example -- and Robinson's history of hard-charging tactics.

He once erected a granite inscription of the Ten Commandments in city hall after a similar effort in Alabama drew national attention. And in his unsuccessful congressional primary race last year against Republican state Sen. Virginia Foxx, he bashed her as a "liberal feminist."

The chairman helps chart the future direction of the party and organizes party resources to support GOP candidates.

The internal battle came three months after Democrats elected an anti-establishment candidate as chairman, rejecting the candidate backed by Gov. Mike Easley and numerous party leaders.

The dissatisfaction among some Republicans was fueled, in part, by North Carolina's split political personality. The state tends to vote Republican in federal races and Democratic in state government elections.

Robinson, in a forceful speech to the 1,075 delegates and alternates, charged that the state party had failed to capture the momentum of the growing Republican wave in North Carolina and the South. Republicans, while gaining ground in other states, lost the N.C. governor's race and most of the top state offices and remain in the minority in the General Assembly.

"Now only Oregon has gone longer than North Carolina without a Republican governor," Robinson said. "We lost seats in the General Assembly, including (2004 nominee for governor) Patrick Ballantine's Senate seat to a lesbian," he said, referring to Sen. Julia Boseman, an openly gay Wilmington Democrat.

Robinson charged that party leaders had not fielded candidates in some races or pushed hard enough on issues such as deporting illegal immigrants and outlawing gay marriage. Such calls had potential to resonate in a convention hall where a vendor sold the children's book "Help! Mom! There Are Liberals Under My Bed!" by Katharine DeBrecht.

"I haven't seen the party make any inroads in the state," said Del Arrendale, a computer programmer and alternate from Mecklenburg County who supported Robinson. "This guy is for change."

"In 2004, we won seven statewide races in one election," Blount said, "That has only happened one other time in our history. And we did that in spite of the fact that the Democratic vice presidential nominee (John Edwards) was from our state."

President Bush won the state handily, as did U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, and Republicans won a record three seats on the Council of State: state auditor, labor commissioner and commissioner of agriculture.

"Every Republican won in our county," said Jim Lee, a Johnston County delegate who operates Four Brothers Auto, a repair shop in Raleigh.

Blount defended party campaign efforts on behalf of President Bush last year, even when it was clear he would win the state, saying a larger victory margin for Bush brought out more Republican voters and benefited the party's candidates further down the ballot.

"You're always going to have your detractors," said Bill Cobey, who preceded Blount as chairman before resigning to run for governor. "Because you'll have people who don't get their way."

I was at the convention. This was both my first time attending and my first time as a delegate.
Below are a few of my observations:

I didn’t get back from Asheville until almost 5 yesterday, so haven’t had time to comment on the NC board. I have, however, read the comments with great interest.

I didn't expect Robinson to win, but I thought he would have made a better showing. Since the vote tally was suspended (on a motion by Robinson) we will never know what the breadth of his support among GOP activists was.

I’m a bit uncomfortable with some of Robinson’s background and I see him as somewhat of an opportunist and maybe even a grifter. Is this a fair perception? I don’t know for sure, but I think it impacted the vote. I wish that Fern Shubert had run for chairman; I think she would have garnered a bit more support.

One thing I was struck by was how reticent and even afraid about discussing their personal feelings on the chairman’s race. Their seems to be payback going on from certain of the NCGOP higher-ups for anyone who bucks the party line. I am younger than many of the 1000+ delegates who were in attendance, and thought that those supposed ‘grown-ups’ knew how to act like adults, not vindictive children.
I was wrong.
On a positive note, I did meet those who were working behind the scenes on the county level to try and change things for the better. Those working at this level do include some Freepers.
Time will tell if that is successful.

Vernon Robinson tastes own medicine, as bid to unseat GOP chairman is a bust

By David Rice
JOURNAL REPORTER

ASHEVILLE

Vernon Robinson's tactics came back to bite him yesterday.

The lightning-rod conservative from Winston-Salem was soundly defeated in his effort to unseat Ferrell Blount as chairman of the N.C. Republican Party.

"It takes patience, not pontification," the former mayor of Raleigh, Tom Fetzer, told more than 1,000 delegates as he nominated Blount for a two-year term. "It takes a workhorse, not a show horse.... We need a party chairman who will never make a mistake of putting his own interests ahead of the party."

Robinson had hoped that Republicans would imitate Democrats, who this spring elected grass-roots activist Jerry Meek of Fayetteville as party chairman over party operative Ed Turlington, the choice of Gov. Mike Easley. Instead, the Republicans backed their existing party hierarchy.

As party officials called for county delegations to report their votes in alphabetical order, they made it through Moore County before Robinson stood to ask that the roll call be stopped and that Blount be elected by acclamation.

At the time, Blount had 479 votes to Robinson's 157, a margin of more than 3 to 1. Forsyth County, Robinson's home county, mirrored the votes tallied, with 36 votes for Blount and 12 for Robinson.

Blount, a farmer from Pitt County who became the party chairman in 2003, had the backing of U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Dole and Richard Burr and most of the party establishment.

He focused on how President Bush and Burr carried the state, pointing out that Republicans won seven statewide races - including state auditor and agriculture commissioner - in 2004.

"And we did that in spite of the fact that the Democratic vice-presidential nominee was from our state," he said.

"We decided the best way to affect the Democratic presidential nomination nationwide in '08 was to hand John Edwards his hat right here in North Carolina in '04," Blount said to hearty applause. "John Edwards, North Carolina will not support you!"

But Robinson focused his campaign on the Republican loss in the 2004 governor's race and the failure to recruit candidates for the N.C. House, where Republicans lost a majority in the fall and Democrats built a 63-57 majority.

Former state Sen. Fern Shubert nominated Robinson, saying that the party must do more to win state and local races, not just national campaigns.

"We're going to have to do some things differently if we want to win," Shubert said.

"When the voters can be fooled into believing that 'Tax Hike Mike' (Easley) is a conservative, what we have is a failure to communicate," she said. "If you keep doing the same thing and expect to get different results, you're probably crazy. I want to see us with the House, the Senate and the governor's mansion."

Robinson said that the party must emphasize such core issues as illegal immigration and the sanctity of marriage.

He complained that the staff at the state Republican headquarters turned its back on Patrick Ballantine, the Republican nominee in the governor's race, after former state Chairman Bill Cobey lost in the Republican primary.

"They ... left Patrick twisting in the wind. We had the worst performance in the governor's race in 30 years. Now only Oregon has gone longer without a Republican governor than North Carolina," he said. "We failed to recruit (for) six House seats - seats that everybody thought we could have won. The Democrats had a majority with the close of filing." As the rest of the South appears to be shifting into solidly Republican territory, Robinson said, "I don't want to have the rest of the South pass us by."

Blount, though, pointed to the party's growth in traditionally Democratic Eastern North Carolina. As he introduced Burr, Blount pointed out the delegation from Greene County.

"For a long, long time, those seats have been empty. The party has been resurrected! I believe in resurrection, and the Republican Party is on the move in North Carolina," he said.

"One year ago we had only one United States senator from North Carolina. Today we have two. One year ago we had only one member of the Council of State. Today we have three," he said.

Blount attributed the loss of N.C. House and Senate races to legislative districts drawn by Democrats.

Blount also announced yesterday that with the loss of the N.C. House, the state party has taken over candidate recruitment and has raised $50,000 so far to help Republican House candidates in 2006.

Others among the Republican delegates - some of them still smarting from Robinson's bruising campaign for the 5th District congressional nomination last year - said they don't like his tactics.

"I think Vernon has an agenda, and the agenda is one thing: to make Vernon look good," said Chuck Woolard, a delegate from Forsyth County. "He likes the publicity. He likes the controversy. And I think that hurts our party. That's the reason our party (in Forsyth County) voted not to support him," Woolard said, referring to a vote by the Forsyth GOP executive committee to endorse Blount.

"It hurts our party big-time," Woolard said, "Vernon has tried to divide the Forsyth County Republican Party ... and the whole state."

Nathan Tabor of Kernersville, who opposed Robinson in the 5th District in last year's primary, circulated an open letter to the 1,000 delegates.

"We desperately need someone who can UNITE our party to produce future victories - not someone who only specializes in 'divide and conquer' tactics at every turn," Tabor wrote.

"Vernon Robinson is a perpetual loser, as his own track record plainly shows," the four-page letter said. "Vernon has run for office at least 12 times. But he won only twice - and never a statewide office." Blount said after the vote that a race for state party chairman is typically a referendum on the incumbent.

"A contested chairman's race is always a healthy thing for the party. I appreciated that Vernon was willing to realize he didn't have the votes to win," he said.

Robinson said after the vote that he raised valid issues that Blount has begun to deal with, such as candidate recruitment for legislative races.

He said he has not decided whether to run for re-election to the Winston-Salem City Council this year.

"We're thinking about it," he said. "I've never been someone who thought I was the only person who could represent the South Ward."

Meanwhile, inside the Asheville Civic Center where the convention was held, an entire hall was reserved for vendors of flags, bumper stickers and other products designed to appeal to Republicans. Among the highlights:

>Displays of fetuses at various stages of development at an N.C. Right to Life booth.

>Bumper stickers including one that says, "Hey Hollywood, Fahrenheit This" - in reference to Michael Moore's movie Fahrenheit 9/11.

>Buttons, including one featuring Monica Lewinsky that says, "I voted Republican.... The Democrats left a bad taste in my mouth."

>Children's books, including one titled Help! Mom! There Are Liberals Under My Bed!

http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ/MGArticle/WSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031782859609

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