CRYSTAL COAST TEA PARTY PATRIOTS
MEETING MINUTES OF
1 MAY 2012

Meeting was held at Golden Corral, Morehead City, NC
Meeting was called to order at 6:05 pm by Chairman BOB CAVANAUGH
Pledge of Allegiance was led by TOM AUSTIN
Invocation was given by LYN BAKER
Attendance – 37

BOB recognized a long time member who now lives in Jacksonville, TOM AUSTIN.  It was great to see him.

HOWARD said he wanted to steal some of SCOTT (Carpenter)’s thunder.  He realized that it was SCOTT who talked our guests into coming here tonight but he was sure many of you here have heard him (HOWARD) speak of the old man in Wildwood that lectured him on what was right and what was going to happen – that was our guest (Gerald Murdoch’s) daddy.  His daddy had a whole lot to do with forming HOWARD’s beliefs.  HOWARD said, ‘When he first started talking to me I was probably about 20 and pretty liberal at the time and he’d say such and such is happening and it is going to cause such and such and I would just chuckle because I thought the old man was crazy.  But you know what, in two or three years I found out he knew what he was talking about.  He was a pretty smart old man.’  PEGGY asked Mr. Gerald to introduce the lovely lady he had with him.  Mr. Gerald said she was Grace Madden, a good friend.  He said he didn’t know very many there tonight, but he was interested in what we were doing and that is why he was with us tonight.

BOB called on NANCY BOCK for a treasurer’s report.  She said we have $1,700.00 in the bank but she had not received a bill for the ads yet.  HOWARD asked what that was going to be approximately.  BOB said $l,100 or so, just under $1,200.  NANCY said we would have about $500.00 after the bill is paid.  BOB said we had about $100 or so in the donation jar also.  BOB asked if NANCY had given Sam a check for the We Care Project (for sales of shirts).  She said yes she had sent it to him and we already had a thank you note back.

BOB said we have another distinguished guest with us tonight – Ken Jones, who is running for State Senate (Jean Preston’s old position).  His rivals are Randy Ramsey (whom we all love) -
Boos from the audience – and Norm Sanderson, who has spoken to us a couple of times.  Ken is the mayor of Pine Knoll Shores and has spoken to us previously.  BOB asked him if he would like to give us one last pitch.

KEN said “Get out the vote is very important” and from what he understands it has been extremely light.  He doesn’t know what they are waiting for…but grab your neighbors by the hand.  (Several in the audience said it hadn’t been light they thought.  LYN BAKER said early voting has been far ahead of previous years.)  Ken said district wide he understands it has been low.  He knew that in Pamlico and Craven (he was there this morning) the numbers were low.  LYN said this is Carteret.  Ken said he was aware that this was Carteret.  (Laughter)  He lives here.  Anyway, it is lighter than he would like.  So, anyway, grab your neighbor by the hand if you have to, whatever, offer people a chance to get out and vote.  I always appreciate your vote, of course.  The reason I am running is I think we need strong leadership and we need somebody who is really experienced at this.  I have been the mayor of Pine Knoll Shores and I am on my second term right now.  I promise I will spend as much time in Raleigh as anybody but the fact is I am for smaller government, I’m for more efficient government and I have a proven track record that I am that way.  There are some people in here from Pine Knoll Shores and they know that is the way I see it.   Small government and more efficient.  I have promised people that, if elected, I want to have a town hall meeting somewhere in the district every month.  There is no reason not to, to communicate with folks and tell them what is going on in Raleigh and for you to tell me what is going on…the local problems, because I think communications is paramount.  It is not like anybody has to get on a horse and ride back from Raleigh.  We have all kinds of communications techniques and we have these 4 wheel vehicles (Jokingly asked Lyn if we have those things in Carteret County with laughter) so there is no excuse for not communicating.  It is not a long drive from here to Raleigh, everybody’s done it…so… HOWARD said “It is at my age.”  Ken said, ‘If he needed a driver to me know…but if he needed gas, don’t let me know.  (More laughter)  Ken said, “There is no doubt in my mind a lot of things need to get better.  When it comes to the economy, we need to change the tax rate, we need to change the corporate tax rate,  we need to cause an environment in this state whereby companies want to come here.  We shouldn’t be taking tax payers dollars and paying them out as incentives for companies to come here or for companies to stay here.  We need to get smarter about how to do things.  There is way too much overhead in our school system.  It is just incredible.  The money needs to be where the rubber meets the road, and that is where the teacher meets the student.  We need to provide a couple of avenues for the students as well.  Those that are definitely college-bound, and those that want to get into the job market that much sooner and learn a trade.  We definitely need to do that.  Do you realize we are the only industrialized nation where we think everybody has to go to college.  What I am saying is that causes our economy to be slow and cumbersome and people to be unemployed…which is more of a burden on us.  The other thing we need to pay attention to is infrastructure.  We have a port here that it is difficult to get to at best for anything that is going to be hauled out.  This is the deepest port in the state.  The port in Wilmington can’t be made any deeper.  It has a rock bottom.  So this is the best  port available, so we need to get roads, we need to get railroads that can come this way.  I am on the Eastern Region Economic Development Commission which means I represent 13 counties, so I am trying to bring businesses and jobs here.  I get so frustrated and I look toward Raleigh and I am like…what is going on up there?  We need to lower the taxes so we have some action.  That is why I say we need a leader.  We don’t need somebody to go to Raleigh to push a button.  We can get a monkey for that…right?  We need somebody to go to Raleigh that is going to stand up for eastern North Carolina…stand up for Carteret County (looks at Lyn and says ‘right … I’m relentless‘), Craven and Pamlico Counties.  We really need that.  We need that bad.  We need to fix our school systems.   We need to fix our economy.   We need to fix our state.  I know and you know the federal government is in trouble.  They need to get out of here and go fix their own problems.  If you are not tired of the federal government being in our business…then you are not paying attention.  That is a huge problem.  If the federal government has a problem, I’d like to think we have the answer here in North Carolina and we are going to take care of ourselves…take care of our state and take care of each other.  Thank you very much.  (Applause)

ERIC BROYLES said he had talked beautifully the other night about immigration.   Ken said he had been asked about how he felt about illegal immigrants…which I don’t even know what that means.  It’s illegal aliens.  Emphasis on the word ’illegal’.  Close the borders…declare a national language so that you don’t have to push 1 or 2 on your phone every time you make a phone call.  People who are born here shouldn’t just automatically get citizenship.  They are here illegally.  People say well my parents immigrated over here…so what?? These people came here illegally.  Let’s emphasize that word.  They shouldn’t  be here.  They shouldn’t get free school.  They shouldn’t get free benefits.  They shouldn’t get anything out of it.  They should get – back across the border, right?  I think we need to get harder on this.  When I hear about some of the things that happen in Raleigh, I’m always like, why didn’t you attack  that to the Attorney General to do something about it.  Why didn’t you say…hey let’s stand up against…what’s that guy’s name up there…oh yeah, Obama.  (Laughter)  He’s the guy that is living in public housing up in Washington, taking public transportation, big jet, all that stuff, yeah, also causing us to not have some jobs available, overfilling our schools, spending your tax money.  Again it is not efficient.  It is not right.  If they are illegal, let’s get rid of them.  That is the bottom line.

TOM AUSTIN said the something that sticks in his craw, that he has spoken about at other meetings, is this governor and the legislators up there haven’t done anything about.  The Mexican Consulate in Raleigh sets up this mobile Mexican truck that hands out illegal and false documentation and when he has written letters of protest about this thing and argued with them about it, they just say shut up, it is none of your business.  They are a foreign country; they can do as they wish.  This is North Carolina.  Is there anything that you know of that can put a stop to this garbage?  Ken said, “Absolutely.  Some of the very things I just said, but the other thing is, I don’t care what country you are from, if they are in the United States, they don’t follow constitutional rights.”  Tom said, the thing is the Consulate does.  Well they have diplomatic rights.  But they go down and do this in public school systems and at public venues at other places they set up and all the illegal aliens show up and if you protest against them, the cops show up and won’t let you take photographs, won’t let you do anything, won’t let you get involved…Ken said, “That is an indication of our liberal government”.  TOM said, ‘The question is:  Is there anything you can do to stop this?’  Ken said, ‘Absolutely.  It has happened in Arizona.  The first thing we need to do is identify the illegals and get them out of here.  Racial profiling…what?  Tom said, ‘He always thought a consulate was a building here with given property, not a truck running around’.  Ken said, ‘Right, exactly. And diplomatic immunity does have an ending to it.  It is not everything goes.’  SUSAN RYNAS said, “With Holder in Department of Justice, I don’t know of what chance we have of ever doing anything about immigration.  We have to get him out of there.’  Ken said, ‘Well, maybe at this point, but the clock is ticking.  I hope he is packing his bags along with the rest of them.  They need to go. We need people who will stand up for America and stand up for the real citizens of this country.  No two ways about it.  LYN said, ‘A little ray of hope, I understand that just as many are crossing back because there are no jobs and Mexico’s gross national product is higher than ours.’  Ken said, ‘I heard about a month ago that illegal crossings are at an all time low.  They should be at zero anyway.  An all time low because the job opportunities in Mexico are better now than here.  So we may have found a solution.  Although it is not the right one.

LUKE KUKUCINSKI said, ‘Speaking about immigration, last hurricane…we have a condo at Indian Beach.  They run us off there.  Nothing happens, so we come back the next day.  We drive down the road and here is the ‘Piney Knoll’ police department saying you guys can’t cross here.  LUKE said, what do you mean I can’t cross it…I live right over there.  He was told you have to go all the way around.  LUKE said he told them that was not Piney Knoll’s road, it is a state road.  Why can’t I go across the road to my house?’  Ken said, ‘I will gladly explain that situation.  I have the great opportunity, I am the one that declares a state of emergency for my town.  The four of us mayors sit down with our public safety folks and our town managers are usually with us, but we decide on a state of emergency.   We decide when to declare mandatory evacuation.  There is no such thing as non-mandatory evacuation.  And we decide when to authorize and when to enforce a curfew.  And in the end, we decide when to pull those things back.  We do it as a group, OK?  That is very important….we do it as a group because what happened this time, during what is normal, when the power comes back on its in Atlantic Beach first, this time it came around Emerald Isle first, because there were so many problems over here at the Exxon Station at Atlantic Beach.  So the power is coming around the other way from Progress Energy faster than they could get it this way.  So, we had a talk that morning, I think it was a Sunday, about 6:00 and us in Atlantic Beach said we are not opening the bridge…and Indian Beach gave me carte blanc and said Ken, whatever you decide to do, I’ll go along with you.  However, Emerald Isle said we are opening the bridge because we have tourists in here and we want them to spend their money.  So I said, they are not coming down here.  Atlantic Beach told me they could not do it, because they do not have water.   They did not have power so they could not pump water for their constituents, people who live there, and I said ‘Trace, I will stand by you until this is over…and I made that promise, I will not let them down.  So we kept that bridge closed for that reason.  When we opened the bridge on this end, (that’s where your question is) there was a problem in Emerald Isle and Indian Beach and so we had to stop it again.  The power was a major problem during this storm and getting it in to the right areas.  That is why we did what we did.’  LUKE said they made it all the way to the Sheraton and that is as far as they got.  Ken said, ‘I take that decision very seriously.  I don’t like to declare a state of emergency but I’ll tell you what, if your life is in danger, I’ll do it in a heart beat.  In an evacuation order, people get upset about that…if you have seen a category 3 hurricane hit land you know you need to be running anyway.  I get the biggest complaint about the curfew.  Actually the biggest complaint is about the sidewalks in Atlantic Beach.  About the curfew, people say you are treating us like a 3 year old or whatever….no that is not true.  If we order an evacuation, I order a curfew to protect the people’s property that left like I told them to.  Curfew, in case you don’t know, isn’t just at night, it is 24/7 so if we order a curfew, it is in place all the time….period.  BOB thanked Ken for taking our questions.

BOB told us that we have one week…that next Tuesday is the day.  He hopes our efforts have made some impact in the trajectory of this election.  He had gotten disheartened early on.  STEVEN BEST had told him that while working the polls at Fort Benjamin Park, a lady, after voting, came out with one of Ramsey’s campaign folders and asked STEVEN if all that was true.  STEVEN told her no, it was all lies.  She said she wished he had told her before she voted, because she had just voted for the guy.  You know you kind of throw your hands up in the air..what more could we have done?  What with our onslaught of letters to the editors, radio stuff going on, and with all the talk in Carteret County about it, there are still people who have no idea.  HOWARD said ‘According to the Elon poll yesterday, 50% of the people in North Carolina does not even know who Pat McCrory is.  So there is probably no hope for half of us’. NANCY wanted to know who had put out the ‘Rino Ramsey’ signs…she had just seen them on the way to the meeting.  Someone held up one of the signs and asked if that was the sign she was talking about.  She said yes.

HOWARD said he had not seen it, but he talked to Norman Sanderson last night and Norm said he had made a new tape yesterday where he will be doing the talking, not sure if it will be TV or radio.  He told Howard he had a little bit of money to put it on the air with.  Norman estimates his average donation is $75.00 and Ramsey’s average donation is $500.00.  HOWARD said the little folks are standing up and sending what little bit of money they can and it is helping the cause.  Discussion on Ramsey’s negative commercials and ads.  ERIC BROYLES asked if anyone had seen the latest TV commercial about the loan sharks.  Everyone agreed that that was one of the most disgusting yet.  TOM AUSTIN said,  ‘The one that got to him first was when Ramsey said Sanderson had voted for Obamacare.  Excuse me, but Sanderson is not the federal government, how could he vote for when he is just a NC Legislator.  BOB said he didn’t see how they can just blatantly lie and get away with it.  SUSAN asked if anyone remembered that court ruling in California where both candidates lied about their background and the judge ruled that was their constitutional right.  So, if that’s the case, how can you trust what any of them say.
LYN said it was disheartening to see it come so local.

ERIC said we have what about $500.00 in the treasury?   Why don’t we buy a TEA Party fact check  section in the newspaper (¼ or ½  page) and put up the lies that have been stated with the true facts.  BOB said if the word is not out now, with all the letters to the editor that have been submitted, then another article in the paper won’t do it either.  Apparently some people just don’t read the paper.  And besides chances are that would cost more that the $500.

WAYNE WILLIS showed the cartoon he had submitted to the paper.  He is hoping it will be in Sunday’s paper.  He wanted to know if anyone there felt that he had gone too far with his idea.  All said no, they thought it was a good cartoon.  BOB described the drawing as a Norm Sanderson sign with a Jarrett Bay airplane shooting the sign to pieces.  He imagined that the dirigible flying behind the plane is carrying Ramsey to oversee the damage.

BOB said WAYNE was down in Florida when they were voting and asked when they count the votes and he was told they count the early votes in the event of a tie on election day.  BOB asked Ken if he knew what the law in North Carolina is.  Ken said they are counted separately, the absentee votes are counted separately and the day of the election votes are counted separately.   They are added all up the day of the election.  Actually they add the votes up daily during early voting, so if you think there is no one out there that knows what the numbers are that is not true.  HOWARD said he knew they know how many have voted because when you place your completed vote into the machine it tells you how many have voted to date at that polling place.  CLAYTON GILLIKIN said the way he understands it to work is they take the election day votes and count them.  They do not add any of the early vote or absentee vote in unless it is a close race on election day.  Like him, he has already voted early, and his vote may not count at all because if the majority of the people vote for more than what there might be an argument over…example if one gets 500 votes less than the other person and there are 600 early votes, then they will count those early votes.  BOB said you are saying that early voters could be disenfranchised.  Much discussion followed.  LYN said when the Secretary of State certifies all the votes are counted.  It is just when they give it out to the press the day of the election they do not need to count those then.  More discussion on the loss of ballots a few years ago when Secretary of Agriculture Troxler was running and the consequences.

WAYNE gave a report on Davis Shore voting as of Monday…26 people had voted…a week of early voting.

SCOTT CARPENTER asked STEVEN (since he had been working the polls at Fort Benjamin Park in Newport) what his thought or feel on the voting there.  STEVEN said it was picking up.  At first it was slow, but the last couple of days there has been a lot of voters.  Almost everyone coming up is taking a handout.  BOB wanted to know if anyone working the polls had noticed voters showing up with our ballot that was in the paper.  Several said they had.  HOWARD said he had noticed a difference in attitude this Monday and Tuesday.  He had been helping out some, but had not been as faithful as STEVE.  We have been more favorably received this Monday and Tuesday than we were last week.  He can’t tell us why.  When you walk up to people, the way they smile, the way they act, their body language is totally different, more friendly.  BOB said maybe the weather had something to do with their attitude.  Last week on Monday it was hot, Tuesday, cold, and Wednesday, blowing a gale.  FRED DECKER said he could understand, that between he and HOWARD they knew ¾ of the people that came to vote.

SCOTT asked how Ms EULA PARKIN had done in Beaufort.  EULA said well the first day she almost burned up and sought shade and was told she couldn’t sit there, she had to move so she left and went home.  The second day she almost froze to death and the third day she almost got blown away.  Yesterday she went and was confronted by this young man and woman wanting her to vote against the Marriage Amendment, so they got into a little dispute.  They moved over into another section.  BOB said the first day EULA was there, so was Norm Sanderson.  They were standing around talking and EULA looked up at Norm and asked ’are you running for office’?  (lot of laughter)

BOB  said ’next Tuesday he would like as many precincts manned with a TEA Party table as possible.  We have 27 precincts in the County…was 34 but has been narrowed down to 27.  If you are willing to work a table/precinct on Election Day, either at your precinct or a neighboring precinct or any precinct, please raise your hand.  Does everybody know what precinct they are in.  Most did, so BOB passed around a sheet of paper for us to sign as to what precinct we would like to man.  STEVE went to his car and got the list of precincts and BOB read them off.  BOB said it would appear we had people here for about 9 precincts and when we finished here he was going to Cape Carteret to see how many he could get lined up there.  Since next Tuesday is Election Day THERE WILL BE NO TEA PARTY MEETING NEXT WEEK!!!!    HOWARD wanted to know what time the polls opened next Tuesday.  BOB said he was going to be at the Broad Creek polling spot at 7:00 to set up his table and he thought the polls opened at 8:00.  If your polling place has multiple teams, you can do shifts.  You will not be expected to work everyone all day long.  He passed out the TEA Party signs he wants us to place on our working tables.  PEGGY had some copies of the TEA Party candidate list and asked those who were manning the polls to please come and get some to get started with.  She would run more and BOB will get them out to the workers at the various polls.

BOB said  ‘Last week we talked about the death in the Cox Restaurant owners family and I asked RUTH to pick up a sympathy card.  We, the TEA Party got our start meeting at the Cox Restaurant for the first year or so until we outgrew their establishment and parking area and moved across the street to the Golden Corral.  Everyone please sign the card and if you would like to make a  donation to help defray Jennifer’s medical and funeral expenses (she left 3 small children) please place it in the card when you sign. She died of cancer and was only 37 years old.

BOB said for those who are going to be working the polls, bring your own table, chairs, and umbrella in case it rains.

There will be a meeting at the Sanitary this Thursday hosted by the Republican Men’s Club for a question and answer session with the candidates for County Commissioner.  Everyone is invited.

He reminded us again that there would be NO TEA PARTY MEETING NEXT TUESDAY, election day.  Our next meeting will be May 15, where we will either be celebrating or crying in our beer.

Meeting adjourned
Minutes submitted by PEGGY GARNER, Secretary.