Guilford conservatives get campaign season underway with political picnic

Bill Randall (right) poses with fellow candidate Howard Coble and Conservatives for Guilford County activist Isabella Adkins.

Notwithstanding the efforts of Conservatives for Guilford County to establish a nonpartisan movement, the candidates that showed up for the group’s Take Back America Picnic at Bur-Mil Park yesterday evening were all Republicans, with the exception of one unaffiliated school board candidate.

A representative of the John Locke Foundation handed out “Tea Bags” – plastic bags containing the foundation’s publications and membership information – and told spectators that they have been working with dozens of candidates across the state, including the Republican nominee for the NC Senate District 28 seat in Guilford County. Hyde and NC House District 57 candidate Jon Hardister are both avowed fans of the Locke Foundation’s body of research and policy recommendations.

Estimated at upwards of 200 people by organizers, the crowd was fired up and energized. Guilford County Republican Party Chairman Bill Wright said he feels the party is fielding good candidates this year.

The star appearance may have been Bill Randall, who only three days earlier had trounced primary opponent Bernie Reeves in a runoff for US House District 13. Randall strolled around the grounds at the event early in the evening with 13-term Republican incumbent congressman Howard Coble, who introduced the new nominee from Raleigh to voters in his native Guilford County. Coble represents US House District 6. The two were a picture of old hand and young upstart, the seasoned incumbent who fended off a handful of primary contenders and the GOP challenger seeking to take on liberal Democrat Brad Miller.

Eating a hamburger under the shelter before the program of candidate remarks began, Randall reflected on Reeves’ sore-loser remark to the News & Observer that “it's sort of like anarchy out there.” The new nominee said his former opponent made some “strategic errors,” including disrespecting the Tea Party movement.

“One of the problems he had with that is his disparaging remarks were a matter of record,” Randall said. “And when confronted with it, he didn’t come clean. All he had to say is that ‘I did make remarks to that effect, although they may have been misconstrued or come across as more harsh than I intended,’” adding that Reeves should have then stated that he recognized the validity of sentiments held by Tea Party adherents.

“He has a lot to offer the Republican Party,” Randall continued. “He would do well to try to unify the base rather than divide the base. He missed a great opportunity because he didn’t concede with grace. The problem is that Bernie Reeves could not discern that there are some traditional Republicans who embrace the ideology of the Tea Party. And when you disparage the Tea Party you disparage those people who are rock-solid Republicans.”

Bill Randall, candidate for US House District 13

“Raise your hand if you’ve ever heard the argument that we need to get rid of illegal immigrants because they’re taking up welfare benefits and lining up in the emergency rooms – how many of you have ever heard that argument? Stop it. Stay with me. That’s not the argument. I say again, that’s not the argument.

“There are illegals in this country who’ve not once gone to emergency rooms, that are hardworking and industrious. But that’s not the argument. Because, see, if you argue from the standpoint of what they’re taking away in benefits, you’re disarmed when someone can prove that they’re not using them. Follow me. We need to learn how to craft our argument based on the US Constitution: And what’s at stake is the rule of law. Amen?

“Let’s say that you all went on a trip. Bill Randall comes to your neighborhood. I know you’re out of town. I break into your home. Inside your home I find everything in disarray. Some of you say, ‘Well, you see my teenagers at home’ – no, that’s… I’ve got kids, too. I find everything in disarray. Dishes stacked to the ceiling in the kitchen. Clothes in the laundry room, dirty, piled up. Windows dirty. Yard not cut. Everything is a mess. I go in there, wash all your dishes, sparkling clean, put ’em up in your cabinet, wash all the clothes, fold ’em, put ’em away, even iron your shirts, even clean the toilet bowl. Go into your refrigerator and I take things out and I cook a sumptuous meal. And that sumptuous meal is waiting on you when you get back home. Folks, you come in. You like what you see. But you get on the phone and you call the police. And I get carted away to jail. Is that the right thing to do or the wrong thing to do? It’s the right thing because I broke the rule of law. I don’t care what my intentions are; the rule of law is what prevails in this country.”


Jeff Hyde, a member of Conservatives for Guilford County who is challenging one-term Democrat Don Vaughan for the NC Senate District 27 seat, was introduced by his friend Brett Riddleberger as a “hardcore conservative.”

Jeff Hyde, candidate for NC Senate District 27

“North Carolina is struggling with prosperity. A once great state – still is a great state – we have beautiful aesthetics all across our state. We’ve got a great talent base. We have natural resources, but we are on our way with our state government to becoming New Jersey, Massachusetts, California, New York or Michigan, and I don’t think North Carolinians want that. I know that I don’t want that. Unemployment in North Carolina has been for 15 straight months above 10 percent. Democrats have no idea how to change that. Our solution is to take North Carolina from being the worst business-climate state in the Southeast and make it competitive with our Southeastern neighbors by reducing the tax burden on individuals, the tax burden on corporations, reducing our state gasoline tax – all these things add up to make North Carolina the 10th least likely state for businesses to succeed. The states around us – there’s no surprise – the nine states with the most economic activity are the nine states that don’t have a personal income tax. There’s no surprise in that. If we want North Carolina to be prosperous again, if we want to reduce our unemployment, we’ll put our money back into the private sector where we can incubate jobs around the kitchen table and entice new businesses to form in North Carolina and put private citizens back to work.”


Trudy Wade, a two-term member of the Greensboro City Council, is running for the open seat vacated by Democrat Katie Dorsett against two opponents: Democrat Gladys Robinson and independent Bruce Davis.

Trudy Wade, candidate for NC Senate District 28

“I now have two opponents. If you haven’t heard the news, I now have an unaffiliated running against me. One thing I want to make very clear about the two candidates running against me in Senate District 28: Both will vote for a tax increase, I can assure you of that. One has a proven record of voting for tax increases, and the other has openly stated that she’d be in favor in tax increases. You don’t have to worry about that with me. You can look at my record on the Greensboro City Council, and I haven’t voted for any tax increases.

“The other thing I want to bring to your attention is I’m worried about jobs because there’s not a lot of jobs out there for us and we definitely need to do something about that. What do we need to do? I’m a small business owner. We need to give small businesses a break and let us put people back to work because it is the only way we’re going to get this economy going again. Give me a break, let me pay somebody a salary, let them go out and buy from you and everyone else that runs a small business. Let us all get back to work.

“The other thing is I want to take care of some of that corruption in Raleigh. We need to get out; we need to vote. I can’t change it without you. If you don’t go out and vote this time we won’t get a change in Raleigh. But I can assure you, if you go out and vote and I’m elected, you will have a change in Raleigh.”


John Blust, who faces a nominal challenge from Libertarian Jeffery Simon, has become something of a role model for GOP candidates seeking legislative office in Raleigh, especially with the retirement of fellow Republican Laura Wiley in NC House District 61. Although he faces no Democratic opponent in his race, he’s weathered adversity by virtue of the fact that his entire career in the General Assembly has been spent as part of the minority party. He recruited Theresa Yon to run in Democratic-leaning District 59, and his limited government philosophy is emulated by another Republican challenger, District 57 candidate Jon Hardister.

John Blust, candidate for NC House District 62

“If you want to know why this is so important, turn around and look at those children back there. The latest figures I have seen say that the federal government has an unfunded liability, if you know what that means in accounting. It’s bad enough that we have a national debt right now that just went over $13 trillion; it’s approaching the level of the gross national product. The unfunded liability, what are the promises made by the politicians all these years is numbered now at $130 trillion, and somehow those children back there are going to have to come up with this money. Now, the opposition likes to think that they are pro-child; they claim to be pro-education, pro-child. And one of the tasks we have to do is we have to take them off their moral high ground and capture it ourself, because you are not for the children in any way if you are willing to saddle them with $130 trillion in debt. Don’t tell me you’re for the children.

“Don’t tell me you’re for education when the only education model we’ve seen is the one we’ve seen. They won’t allow us to go to charter schools. They won’t allow us to go to money-follows-the-student. We have some of the worst public schools K-12, but we have some of the best universities. Now, what’s the difference there? The universities you choose where to go. The students, the parents choose where to go. The K-12 is a monopoly. We debated a bill not long ago on how to handle low-performing, non-performing schools. This is 2010. I couldn’t help but be struck that this is 2010, and two education governors ago we had an education governor named Jim Hunt that said that if you spent the money they wanted to spend and you enacted the very agenda they wanted and they got their way on everything, every initiative, every cent they wanted for education is what happened, Jim Hunt said you’d be number-one by 2010. And here 2010 came and we were having to debate ways to handle non-performing, low-performing schools. And that was with Jim Hunt, “the education governor” from 1992 to 2010, then Mike Easley, soon to be indicted, an “education governor” from 2000 to 2008. Now, what happened? Maybe their fundamental model was wrong. Maybe it’s not just the money. Maybe, instead of approaching every program as if it’s a matter of government programs, government money, we have now come to the cliff.”


Republican Theresa Yon is challenging veteran Democratic lawmaker Maggie Jeffus in NC House District 59.

Theresa Yon, candidate for NC House District 59

“Just last week, House Bill 1973, film tax credit… this is a bill that had a lot of different tax credits and spending that individually probably would not have been passed. They put it all under one bill, and you get the film tax credit. This gives up to $20 million in tax credits for people that come to North Carolina to film movies on our coast. That’s all well and good, but it doesn’t help Guilford County. Here’s the idea: There’s no way that our tax dollars should be paid to Hollywood actors and producers to come here and film movies. And our representative, John Blust, put out an amendment in which he said, ‘We need to cap that; we shouldn’t be paying actors or people that are paid, you know, millions of dollars to make movies.’ That amendment was voted down by the Democrats and my opponent. So if someone comes and films a movie for $80 million, you the taxpayers write them a check for $20 million regardless of how much they pay in taxes. If an actor gets paid $12 million, the taxpayers write a $3 million check to him – 25 percent of their production cost is going to be funded now by the taxpayers with House Bill 1973. I think that’s a bad decision.

“Yesterday – here’s a good example for government interfering in your lives a little bit too much. Just yesterday the House voted on a bill and it has to do with childcare. A lot of you work, and maybe in the summertime your children are in daycare. Well, they’ve decided on a couple things that they know better what your children need than you do. No child over 1 year old is allowed to have four to six ounces of juice per day in daycare. No children over 2 years old are allowed to drink any whole milk, reduced fat only. And you are not allowed to bring sugar-sweetened sodas to daycare anymore, or they’ll be confiscated. So if you give your child a Coke once in awhile to take to daycare, it will be taken away…. So, that’s a bit of a disappointment, government interfering in our lives.”


Jon Hardister’s reluctance to take a firm position on a piece of legislation proposed by his Democratic opponent, Pricey Harrison, that would eliminate the cap on liabilities for offshore oil spills off the coast of North Carolina has been the object of a fair amount of discussion. He said after this speech that he has now come to the conclusion that eliminating the cap is the right thing to do.

His stump speech was more of less boilerplate Republican agenda, with little attention to specifics.

Jon Hardister, candidate for NC House District 57

“A lot of people don’t realize how high our taxes are in North Carolina. We have the ninth highest income tax, and that’s both corporate and individual. I believe you create jobs through the private sector. The government can’t create jobs. If you look at Virginia, for example, their taxes are lower, [and] their unemployment rate is a lot lower than ours. We have an unemployment rate that’s just over 11 percent. In Virginia, it’s just over 6 percent. It’s much lower. I believe it all comes down to a simple question: Do you think that government is the solution to our problems or the cause of our problems? (Cause.) Exactly. And, uh, I gotta tell you: We have an opportunity, this year, to take back our government. Okay, I’m a Republican. I’m proud to be a Republican. But that’s not what it’s all about. It’s about principle. It’s about what you stand for. And we have a lot of work to do. Republicans have a great opportunity now to take the state House and take the state Senate, and get some work done. We need to eliminate wasteful spending and we need to go to zero-based budgeting. We need some spending-cap legislation and we need to eliminate the cap on charter schools. I’ll tell you what. Here’s how I look at it: When the economy started to get bad I had to tighten my belt, and I had to be careful about my expenditures. Government should do the same thing. It’s our money they’re spending. Politicians have a responsibility to be careful with spending policies.”


Lisa Ingle Clapp, an unaffiliated challenger, faces two-term Democrat Nancy Routh in the nonpartisan contest for one of the at-large seats on the Guilford County School Board.

Lisa Ingle Clapp, candidate for Guilford County School Board at large

“I think it’s very important to vote for a candidate who has children coming in and out of their doors every day, not just my own boys but their friends and their friends’ parents. And you know how we parents network and talk about what’s going on at the school level. A couple of things I wanted to make a point about. One thing is in Guilford County I think we lack in the school system, accountability, on a couple of different levels. The first level is I think we need to hold the Guilford County School Board accountable for how their spending our hard-earned tax dollars. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m a hard-working – my husband is a hard-working person and we pay lots of taxes, as all of you do as well. When you study up on what’s going on with the school board, you never know where your money’s going. And I think the truth and transparency approach to that would be very applicable at this point, especially since our superintendant, Mo Green, speaks of that in his strategic plan of transparency. So I’m running on transparency. If you want truth and transparency, I’m your girl.

“The other thing I wanted to bring forward was parent accountability. We need to hold our parents accountable to stay involved enough with their children that they know what’s going on inside of their school doors everyday. A lot of things take place in our schools that we don’t ever know about as the general public. That’s one of my biggest, biggest pet peeves with the school board, and one of the main reasons I decided to run. And I’ll tell you briefly about that and then I’ll close. When we have convicted felons who are bringing loaded handguns into high schools and middle schools, folks we got a problem. We got a problem with a school board who wants to do away with our SRO officers in the middle of our middle and high schools, because we need ’em. We need ’em desperately. And we need a voice on that school board who is going to keep those SRO officers in their positions. I’m sick and tired of taking my own two children to school and having to worry about their safety when they’re not on my watch. In order for us to make a difference in that, you’ve got to have truth and transparency. I have numerous e-mails and phone calls every single week since I’ve decided to run for school board at large from parents, and from staff and from teachers who tell me over and over the things that go on behind closed doors that nobody knows about because their acts of violence and they’re pushed under the rug, so to speak. Because we don’t need to know about it, as parents and taxpayers. I’m here to tell you: It’s time for us to face the music. We got to know what’s going on so that we can restore safety, discipline and respect back into our schools. If that’s what you want in a candidate – a voice for the people, for the students, for the staff and for the teachers and the parents, then on Nov. 2, vote Lisa Clapp for school board.”


Becki Gray, John Locke Foundation

“The forefathers also gave us a gift. That gift was freedom. But that gift has been abused, it’s been misused, it is in danger and it is in peril. Our country is in trouble. We have a healthcare bill that no one wanted, that was shoved through Congress and shoved down our throats. Spending is out of control. National security is at risk. We finally have a state that has stepped up and done something about illegal immigration, and what’s our president doing? He’s going to sue that state. We have a government that wants to do everything for everybody with no concern for what it costs. And all of these things are taking away our freedom, chipping away at that.

“So are we safe here in North Carolina? Are our state leaders protecting our freedoms? They’re not. We have corrupt politicians that we can’t trust who are lining their pockets with our tax money. Just read the latest edition of Carolina Journal to find out who’s been indicted today. And the list keeps getting longer and longer. Unemployment is in double digits and has been for the last 15 months. North Carolina has one of the highest tax rates in the Southeast. Government is everywhere in our lives, telling us how, when and where we can live to the point of being ridiculous. Do you know that there are counties in North Carolina, there are places in North Carolina where plastic bags have been outlawed? There’s a smoking ban in effect in North Carolina where the government is telling us where we can smoke in businesses we own. Now I’m not a big smoker – I’m not a smoker at all, I don’t like to be around cigarette smoke – what I really don’t like is the government telling me what I can do and can’t do in establishments that I own. They want to tell us where we can water our lawns, even in the mountains what color to paint our house, what kind of light bulbs to use, and all the while they’re continuing to increase the entitlement programs that people get more dependent, more government and more government control. And the cost of all this government in North Carolina: Do you know that since 1980, North Carolina’s budget has increased 190 percent? And during that period population has only grown 62 percent. So keep that in mind.”