By By GREG KATSKI
Community Editor
The Beaufort County Board of Commissioners is there for the Democrats taking, according to Alice Mills-Sadler, chairwoman of the Beaufort County Democratic Party.
Mills-Sadler said as much at the political organization’s county convention Saturday morning at the Beaufort County Courthouse.
“They have a four-man majority, and we need to do something about it,” she said, noting that commissioners Stan Deatherage, Hood Richardson, Al Klemm and Jay McRoy are registered Republicans. The commissioner seats held by Deatherage and Klemm are up for grabs this election year, as well as the seat currently held by Democratic commissioner Ed Booth.
Booth was one of three Democratic county commissioner candidates at the meeting. He was joined by Jerry Evans and Sonya Shamseldin. Candidate Darwin Woolard was absent due to personal reasons, Mills-Sadler said. The four candidates seeking the District Court seat being vacated by retiring District Court Judge Sam Grimes were also on-hand. Other elected officials in attendance included Washington councilman Doug Mercer, Beaufort County commissioner Jerry Langley and clerk of court Marty Paramore.
During her remarks, Mills-Sadler touched on two points: Republican “banter” and limited voting.
“Democrats listen to too much Republican banter,” she said, alluding to their recent outcry against healthcare reform. She implored her fellow Democrats to not be intimidated by “hot-button phrases.”
She said there are too many local problems, including the economy and high unemployment rate in the county, for local elected officials to be worried about what’s going on in the nation’s capital.
“Local Republicans don’t want to talk about local issues, like economic development. They want to talk about D.C.,” she said. “I wasn’t elected to promote or further advance their issues. I work for the people I serve.”
A “hot-button” issue in the county has been limited voting, and whether to scrap it for voting districts. Mills-Sadler said that if the county was divided into voting districts, some of the Republicans on the board of commissioners would lose their seats.
“They know they wouldn’t be sitting up there no more than an African-American,” she said.
In other news, Mills-Sadler said the democratic party’s headquarters, located at the corner of Main and Market streets in Washington, is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. She said the political organization’s Web site, www.beaufortcountydp.org will be up and running by Wednesday.
Mills-Sadler asked all of those in attendance at the meeting to volunteer at party headquarters.
“Work with the party that works for you,” she said, adding that the Democratic Party keeps its campaign promises, as opposed to Republicans, who “have no agenda.”
Mills-Sadler said that with so many seats for the taking at the local, state and national levels, Democrats need to go out and vote.
“If you don’t believe this year is important” then you don’t believe in President Barack Obama’s vision for America, she said. “Obama needs to keep people in place to fulfill his vision for the nation.”