By By JONATHAN CLAYBORNE
Staff Writer
One Beaufort County group is on a mission to reinstall a Democratic majority on the county’s Board of Commissioners.
Members of the Progressive Democrats of Beaufort County indicated it was unclear how large a role they’ll be allowed to play in that mission, suggesting they have obstacles to overcome.
“Obviously, there are a lot of Democrats who vote Republican in our county,” said Ann Cherry, PDBC’s secretary-treasurer.
Cherry pointed to the 2008 presidential election, in which then-nominee Barack Obama narrowly won North Carolina on a night when Beaufort County went heavily for Republican John McCain.
The county fell to McCain despite its Democratic-majority status among voters, a phenomenon that leading area Democrats blamed largely on conservative Democrats who lean toward the GOP.
The progressives also implied they have work to do in bridging the gap between their organization and centrist members of the party they support.
“We’re the black sheep of the Democratic Party,” Cherry said, “and, if you don’t believe it, count how many times the chair has been to our meetings after invitations.”
Cherry was referring to Alice Mills Sadler, the county Democrats’ chairwoman.
Repeated attempts to reach Sadler for comment proved unsuccessful.
On a recent night, the progressives held their meeting-turned-strategy session in a grand-jury conference room at the Beaufort County Courthouse in Washington.
The session was attended by eight people.
“These are who we are, with one or two other people who couldn’t be there tonight,” said Mary Alsentzer, president.
The group has about 20 members, Cherry related.
Despite the low attendance, Alsentzer and others present said the local progressives have something of a statewide reputation.
One of the PDBC members authored a resolution that eventually made it into the state Democratic Party’s platform, Alsentzer pointed out.
The group also has worked in concert with the Beaufort County NAACP on social-justice and environmental issues, she said.
“I think the observation that we seem to be the activist group is probably true,” Alsentzer said the day after the meeting. “I guess my regret is why can’t we have people within the party itself allowed to be activists. Why do we have to be working aside from the Democratic Party as Democrats ourself?”
Much of the evening’s discussion was devoted to trying to get a place at the table at the county Democrats’ executive committee meeting, which PDBC members said is slated for next month.
The progressives want to hold a workshop for Democratic commissioner candidates, and they want this workshop to be held after the executive committee meets.
“We can offer them resources,” said Rick Zablocki, a PDBC committee member working on the issue. “Maybe they don’t want them.”
One issue is that the progressives are not officially tied to the Democratic Party, unlike other groups, including the Beaufort County Democratic Women, Alsentzer noted.
The PDBC is allied with the state Progressive Democrats, which, along with its local chapters, is open to unaffiliated voters, she said.
“It’s always a little bit complicated, but we always want to support the Democratic Party and work within it as much as we can,” Alsentzer explained.
In a post-meeting interview, Alsentzer took a softer line than some of her fellow PDBC members, asserting that the group doesn’t feel isolated from the Democratic Party and that Sadler is busy with her party and professional duties.
Alsentzer also rejected the notion that her organization’s plight somehow mirrors the internal struggles between liberal, moderate and conservative Democrats across the country.
She acknowledged that, during her time with the PDBC, no local, sitting Democratic county commissioner has attended a meeting of the progressives.
“We invite the chair and we invite several people who don’t come,” she said. “We would just be happy if (Sadler) would like to come sometimes.”