How Republican “Red Wave,” on Top of Plantation Politics, Drowned Democrat Commissioner Candidates!! Assisted by TEA Party!! Evaluation by Robert A. Williams

The consensus amongst the establishment politics watchers around Cleveland County was Republicans would win the NC State House and Senate races here. Republican Tim Moore spent plenty of money to pretty much guarantee his re-election. He had to because of all the outsider snooping and mudslinging trying to get rid of the Speaker of the House. Consensus was Sheriff Alan Norman would win big as he also spent plenty of money, although Sheriff Norman refused to answer questions about his record. We recommended his opponent for that very same reason, but knowing full well that Alan would most likely win the election for Sheriff. That issue is not over yet.

But the shocker for many was Commissioner Chairman Eddie Holbrook being thrown out of office. It is said that not only Holbrook, but others too are “distraught” about Holbrook’s dramatic loss after spending so much time and money on his re-election campaign. Maybe as much as all the other Commissioner candidates put together. I think Holbrook’s long list of big dollar supporters are indeed distraught over watching so much of their money go up I smoke or down the drain. I would bet that those same big dollar supporters are now, as we speak, burning up the telephone lines calling Doug Bridges, Ronnie Whetstine and Deb Hardin trying to curry favor with them so they can keep their secret stuff going. Hey, that’s what they do. But that will be the subject of another article. Stay tuned for that.

The real story about the defeat of Eddie Holbrook for County Commissioner is how Holbrook beat himself. And all the rest of the Democrat Candidates.

Holbrook wore too many hats. Head of the American Legion World Series and illegally running his campaign from there. Multiple violations of school policies and state election laws. Playing “Massa Eddie” to his Uncle Toms to pull off a squeaker in the Democrat Primary to split the black vote, which eliminated Todd McIntosh. All the while cozying up to Chris Gash in a secret deal to work together.

Then, after Holbrook slipped through the Democrat Primary waaay behind Gash, the Massa renigged on Gash about working together. Apparently figuring he didn’t need the black vote anymore. Massa’s fatal mistake was in his campaign processes and practices.

The details.

During the last part of Early Voting Holbrook had his Poll-side supporters carry two sets of sample ballots. One sample ballot was the Democrat marked up sample ballot that marked both Holbrook and Gash. This was given out to black voters who are 90% Democrat. The white voters were given TEA Party recommendations which only included Holbrook as the lone Democrat in the Four-Year Commissioner’s race. Basically, a request for a single shot vote for the Massa.

Normally such a single shot vote tactic is very effective with a high percentage of success. This time there were problems with such a shenanigan. The Trump Republican “Red Wave” backlash wasn’t about to single-shot vote for any Democrat when they had two Republicans to vote for. Doug Bridges AND Deb Hardin. But the real problem for Holbrook was that it was too successful. And Chris Gash supporters were going to single-shot vote too. The two sets of Democrat candidate supporters for the two four-year Commissioner terms were single-shot voting against each other and the both lost.

Look at the numbers:
The Cleveland County Board of Elections reported:
• Republican Doug Bridges got 17,328 votes for first place-a winner
• Republican Deb Hardin got 15,428 votes for second place-also a winner
• Democrat Eddie Holbrook got 14,412 votes for third place-a loser
• Chris Gash got 12,901 votes for fourth place-another loser

Now for the truth:
The Under-vote for that race was 6,600 votes.

Under vote is when, in this instance, you have two votes to cast and you only cast one vote. That is a Single Shot vote. 6,600 voters made single shot votes in that particular race and in no other race was there such a high level of under voting. So, it had to be mostly Democrat voters single shot voting against themselves. It is also apparent that if Eddie Holbrook had gotten close to half of the undervote, he would have been re-elected. That is the clear lesson from a close analysis of this particular race.

What is also abundantly clear is Eddie Holbrook, despite his massive campaign spending, just screwed himself out of office. His dirty tricks backfired and he has no one to blame but himself.

My opinion is that this is a major stroke of luck for Cleveland County. What to do now is another story.
But folks, all us citizens and voters need to make it clear to Doug Bridges, Deb Hardin and Ronnie Whetstine is that we want a change. A big change and in the right direction. I am working on my part and Eddie Holbrook big money supporters want to keep the secret things going and still keep them secret.

As for me, my number One Priority is finding out about that $1 million check the County wrote that they don’t want to admit that they wrote-but I have the record for. I will post that record soon as well as my other high priority items that need to be fixed in Cleveland County. Stay Tuned folks; you ain’t seen nothing yet.