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BY FLORENCE GILKESON: Senior Writer

Mecklenburg County Repub-licans passed a resolution Saturday calling for the ouster of Co-Speaker of the House Richard Morgan from the state Republican Executive Committee.

The action came during the Mecklenburg County Republican Convention and the vote was unanimous, according to Charles Gregory, a vocal opponent of Morgan.

Morgan said the vote did not surprise him, He called it “regrettable.”

The Mecklenburg action comes on the heels of a similar resolution circulated among 13th Congressional District Republicans. Chris Farr, chairman of the 13th District GOP, and vice chairman Judy Keener said they were seeking names for a petition to place the issue on the agenda for the state convention this month.

“It doesn’t surprise me,” Morgan said when asked about the Mecklenburg resolution.

Morgan said Mecklenburg County contains a House district that is home to some “extremely vocal and very ineffective legislators.”

“It’s surely not anything I’m concerned about,” Morgan said.

Morgan, a Moore County Republican, said both Rep. John Rhodes and Rep. Ed McMahan live in Charlotte and represent districts in and around Mecklenburg County. He said they “tried to give the speaker’s gavel entirely away and tried (unsuccessfully) to broker that deal.”

Morgan was referring to the criticism leveled at him by some Republicans that he cooperated too closely with Democrats to win election as co-speaker.

House members finally worked out a compromise providing for co-speakers after it was determined that the House was evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans. One group in the Republican Party did not want a compromise and held out instead for election of one speaker, this person to be a Republican. Morgan, on the other hand, saw that the Democrats would not vote for a Republican and persuaded other party members to work toward a compromise that produced one co-speaker from each party. He won the co-speakership for the Republicans.

But along the way he made enemies.

The resolution passed by the Mecklenburg County Republicans says, in part, that Morgan “has stated publicly his intention as speaker to defeat his political enemies within the Republican House Caucus.”

As for others in Mecklenburg County who voted for the resolution, Morgan said, “They are good and well-meaning people. It was not a very unifying thing, and it’s regrettable that it happened.” He said Gregory is a member of “a group of extremists” in Mecklenburg County, including Blust and Rhodes.

In an e-mail, Gregory said the anti-Morgan resolution passed “loudly — unanimously” and adds that it “passed unanimously with folks taking the floor to speak in favor.”