Down East Republicans Get Report From Raleigh

Article and photo by Bill Tarpenning - September 28th, 2007

Washington, NC - The Down East Republican Club met Thursday, Sept. 27, in Washington. The featured speaker was Jeff Mixon, legislative analyst for the John William Pope Civitas Institute, a public policy organization that offers conservative solutions to the state’s pressing issues.




Mixon refers to himself as “a spy at the legislature along with conservative cousins the John Locke Foundation and Americans for Prosperity.” Mixing humor, irony and disgust he detailed instances in which the will of the majority of the legislature was thwarted by the actions of an “oligopoly of liberal leaders who are, in fact, dictators over the legislature.”

“The death penalty is a prime example,” he said. “The people of North Carolina overwhelmingly support the death penalty as do most members of the legislature. Unfortunately, the leadership opposes the death penalty, but were afraid to bring it before the legislature. Enter the Medical Society, whose leadership also opposes the death penalty and proposed to revoke the license of any doctor attending an execution. The governor and the leadership used this as a pretext for stopping all pending executions, calling it an issue for the courts. Fortunately the courts will soon decide and end the road block. Statistics show that murders rise at an alarming rate in states that abolish or set aside the death penalty.

“The Defense of Marriage Amendment had 90 sponsors in the House. It finally got out of committee and reached the floor where it was sure to pass overwhelmingly, Except that it was sent to another committee where it died.

“The Private Property Amendment that would prohibit the taking of private property and giving it to another non-government entity somehow got out of committee and passed the House with a sure majority in the Senate. That was before it was sent to the Ways and Means Committee of the Senate which hasn’t met for four or five years. Ways and Means is referred to as the ‘Bill Prison’ and its warden is Senator Mark Basnight.

“The Senate is the center for prodigious fund raising, so there’s lots of cash to dump into the election coffers of members who toe the line. The next election will see a big change in the Senate’s membership. A number of liberals are leaving and we don’t know yet who will replace them. There could be a flip in 2008. With only 50 senators it’s easier to make a change in majority. In the past, the Senate had a geographic make-up - that is one senator for every two counties. That was the way until the ‘one-man-one-vote’ court case in which demographics determined district boundaries. Somehow the court failed to take into consideration the U.S. Senate which still has geographic, i.e., state boundaries with two senators per state.”

Mixon spoke of the “parade of convicts” out of the legislature led by former Speaker Jim Black, “You hear the defense that he didn’t take the money for himself, to fatten his pocket book, just used it to keep his party in power. Well, that’s no defense. What he did was stage a coup. No guns, but a coup no less.

“There are a number of pressure groups at the legislature, not the least of which is the business lobby. When the land transfer tax idea came up, they went along with the wishes of the home builders and realtors, and pushed for a sales tax increase instead, figuring that would spread the burden and also get some tax money from illegal aliens. The leadership, liberals all, fought the hard ‘anti-business, punish the rich’ fight.

“The alliance of members of the left was never more evident than in support of the School Violence Act, known as the ‘bully bill’. No one likes a bully, but it seemed a kind of silly thing to turn into state law. The minority agreed to go along, and then, at the last minute, the liberals decided they needed to define just who might not be bullied. Sure enough the list had to include anything that had to do with sexual preference, sexual orientation or anything of that ilk. The gay community touted this as a tremendous achievement and the state provided an identity to a new victim group.

“Do you remember the governor’s veto of the $40 million handout to Goodyear to bribe them to stay in North Carolina? He really sounded sincere when he spoke about corporate welfare. We felt secure. No one had ever overridden a veto in North Carolina. Well, it turned out to be a three-card-monty game where the media and public were suckered in, and the $40 million turned into $60 million in a special session of the legislature, and we never knew what hit us. That sort of business is why the budget has increased 44 percent in the last five years.

Finally, Mixon outlined what was happening with elections; “We’ve gone from a time where you had to have a good reason to get an absentee ballot, to anyone could get an absentee ballot for any reason, to three weeks of early voting, to same day voting and registration. We already have public financing of judicial campaigns and now they have pushed though public financing of three Council of Government positions; Insurance Commissioner, Education Commissioner, and Auditor. These are called pilot programs. You know what pilot programs are, don’t you? They are little programs just waiting to get bigger.”

Mixon said that things look dark for conservatives because of a lack of unity: too many causes are not embraced across the conservative community. He encouraged cooperation and education of voters and community leaders. The Civitas Institute offers publications and programs for newly elected officials, community leaders, undergraduate and graduate students, and candidates. For more information, visit www.nccivitas.org.

Bill, Thanks for the article. If anyone has questions or reaction, they can reach Bill by email at btarpenning@gotricounty.com or by phone at (252) 944-5181.

As for things looking dark for conservatives, I wonder how many are listening to Fred Smith. When Super Patriot Lee Greenwood talks about what a great man Fred Smith is, and how steadfast he is in his views, I can't understand why anyone is worried about the conservative cause. It just seems to me they are not willing to believe anymore. That is sad. There are great conservative leaders out there if they would just listen.