Voting in an election is an honor and one’s duty and responsibility in the American form of government. Often, as the case may be, the best candidate may not be on the ballot and choices have to be made. Hopefully reasoned choices based on facts and the circumstances at hand. Such things as the economy, state of public finances and education, etc. must be considered. Sometimes the choices boil down to which of the candidates are the “best of the worst!!!” Then you mark your ballot with one hand and hold your nose with the other hand.
With the hope a better set of candidates will step up for the next election.
One thing wo don’t do here is automatically recommend the candidates that have spent the most money in their campaign. Also, we don’t solicit or accept cash or other donations for our coverage or recommendations. We just call it as we see it. And we look closely.
At the end of this article we have marked up a sample ballot of our recommendations. Note that if a candidate is running without opposition, we recommend leaving that vote blank.
That is the only automatic thing we do with our recommendations. Print off the recommendations and take them with you to vote as a reference.
2018 Cleveland County Ballot:
1. US House District 10. We recommend Patrick McHenry as he may be very necessary in maintaining a Republican Majority in support of the Trump Agenda. We would like a more conservative representative than McHenry, but one is not available on this ballot. Maybe next time.
2. State Office-NC State Senate District 44: We recommend Ted Alexander. A conservative homeboy that we will be able to see out and about in our district.
3. State Office-NC House District 111: We recommend Tim Moore who as Speaker of the House multiplies Cleveland County’s voice in Raleigh.
4. State Office-NC House District 110: This office is not shown on this particular marked up ballot as District 110 is mostly in Gaston County. We recommend Kelly Hastings as Kelly is also a homeboy that most of us already know and have already voted for in the past.
5. District Attorney-District 39: DA Mike Miller is running unopposed. We recommend leaving this vote blank as previously noted. Miller is undistinguished in his service in the name of justice and deserves to be removed from office. We recommend leaving this vote blank as an indication of our displeasure with Mike Miller. Also, consider that if DA Mike Miller had properly done his job seeking justice in Cleveland County, the office of Sheriff would probably also be Sheriff Alan Norman running unopposed. This situation is the subject of additional articles that will be coming out soon.
6. Cleveland County Commissioners-Four-year terms: We recommend voting for Democrat Chris Gash as well as Republican Deb Hardin. These candidates are fresh faces and untainted by the “good-ole-boy” politics of yesterday. The other candidates are incumbents Eddie Holbrook and Doug Bridges. Eddie Holbrook has spent tons of money on his campaign and expects to buy this election. Yet, he refuses to respond to public records requests. Our feeling is when you refuse to respond to public records requests, besides being a crook for breaking the public record laws of the state, you have something to hide. We don’t need commissioners who have something to hide. On the other hand, Doug Bridges was appointed by the Republicans to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of loser Jason Falls. Bridges was appointed with the expectation that he would support the things that were already going on in Cleveland County. That was a bad choice by Doug Bridges, who we believe otherwise would have made a good County Commissioner. We hope that Doug Bridges will try again in the 2020 elections and run as his own man; instead of an Eddie Holbrook copycat.
7. Cleveland County Commissioners-Two-year term: We recommend voting for Democrat Caroline Dedmon for this position. Basically, for similar issues with Ronnie Whetstine being appointed to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Commissioner Ronnie Hawkins. Commissioner Whetstine was also appointed by the Republican party under the expectation that he would follow the lead of Commissioner Holbrook.
And, as Bridges did so straight up and down the line. We believe that if Whetstine had not sold his political soul, as did Doug Bridges, he would make a fine Commissioner. But history is history and now both Bridges and Whetstine need a reset on what direction they would lead Cleveland County into.
8. Cleveland County Clerk of Court: Incumbent Mitzi Johnson has done this job well and will be re-elected as she is running unopposed. But as is our practice, we recommend leaving unopposed candidates vote blank, Mitzi will likely have this job as long as she wants it.
9. Sheriff of Cleveland County: We recommend voting for Clyde Ledbetter for this position. Clyde has no direct law enforcement job experience but is well qualified for this basic administrative and management position due to his exempla nary work record with the NC Department of Transportation. We recognize that incumbent Sheriff Alan Norman has started from the bottom in the Sheriff’s Department and worked his way to the top. Sheriff Norman took the department out of a chaotic situation and restored order. And made major improvements. But, Sheriff Norman made a tragic error in a case involving the family of his now opponent’s family that had its roots in a School Board cover-up of sexual relations between a teacher and a student that not only was covered up but has travelled from Cleveland County to South Carolina and back to Gaston county, NC. Putting children at risk all along the way. And the risk continues. If Sheriff Alan Norman had done his job at the appropriate time to do that job, justice would have been served and children at risk would not have been at risk. And his opponent Clyde Ledbetter would be pursuing other directions in his life. We believe an injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere. That injustice was done and followed up upon by the deceptive WBTV-3 news report last week that was simply a dirty political trick pulled off by Sheriff Alan Norman or one of his supporters on his behalf. There is no logical alternative than to recommend Clyde Ledbetter for the office of Cleveland County Sheriff.
10. Judicial Offices: We recommend the Conservative candidates running for the several judicial offices at every level as marked below. We recommend that the Office of Superior Court Judge be left blank as Superior Court Judge Don Bridges is running unopposed. Judge Bridges has done a fine job over the years, but it is our practice to recommend not marking positions that are not being opposed. Also, Judge Paksoy was involved in the terrible injustice done to the Clyde Ledbetter family with roots that involved putting school children at risk. Shame, Shame, Shame on everybody involved with that. We will name them all before this injustice is over.
11. Back Side of Ballot-NC Constitution Amendment Referenda: This is simple. We recommend voting YES for all six of the proposed amendments. No exceptions. Yes to all of the proposed amendments. This better puts government into the hands of citizens instead of politically appointed judges. Who could be against that???
Get out to vote the rest of this week and on Election Day, Tuesday, November 6, 2018.
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