Subject: Sixth District convention report
    Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2004 19:00:12 -0400 (EDT)

    Charles G. wrote:

    > How did the 6th Convention go?
    >
    > 13th elected delegates (3 del+3alt), unanimously urged booting Perp#1
    > Morgan,
    > heard from candidates or their reps.


    At the 6th District Republican Convention in Carthage
    yesterday, they had 67 delegates in attendence, plus some
    candidates and guests.  31 of the 67 were from Moore County,
    making it the largest delegation by far.  (There are apparently
    two countines which are entirely in the sixth district, and
    four others that are partly in the sixth district.)

    Billy Miller presided, and did an exceptional job, as always.

    31 sounds like a good turnout for a small county, but I recall
    that at the Moore County convention they elected 75 delegates
    plus about a dozen alternates to the district and State
    conventions, which means that only about 35% their delegates
    showed up.  About 6 or 8 of them were diehard Morgan supporters.
    Richard Morgan didn't show, but Cindy Morgan did, along with
    Bill and Joan Thurman, Ina Keegan, Lee Settle, Kenny Kidd (from
    Randolph), and probably a few others that I didn't recognize.

    I commented to someone that Richard Morgan never seems to
    attend any Party events.  I was told, however, that he attended
    last year's 6th District convention.

    Each candidate or candidate's representative was given 3
    minutes to speak.  Howard Coble was the special guest of honor,
    and spoke briefly.  Peggy Crutchfield spoke, and alluded to the
    discontent within the party under her opponent's leadership,
    but never mentioned him by name.  John Blust got heavy applause
    when he announced that, because he didn't think that he had any
    constituents in the room, he wouldn't take up their time with
    a speech.  A few statewide candidates also spoke, the most
    impressive of which was easily Thomas Stith, candidate for Lt.
    Governor.

    Elizabeth Kelly was elected Presidential Elector, in a
    contested race against someone I had not heard of.  Her
    opponent was backed Morganistas Joan & Wm. Thurman.  Kelly
    won by about a 2-to-1 margin.

    The 3 National Convention delegates and 3 alternates were
    apportioned one per county according to the rules of the
    convention (there was an unsuccessful attempt by Kenny Kidd to
    amend the rules to delete that provision).  The six counties
    each caucused and chose a delegate or alternate.  Then the
    additional nominees were solicited from the floor.  Each county
    picked someone.  Moore County chose John Owen.  That was the
    only nominee who was challenged by a nomination from the
    floor.  A second person (male, whom I'd not heard of before)
    was nominated for Moore's delegate position.  He was backed by
    the Thurmans and about 3 or 4 other Moore county delegates,
    and most of Randolph County, and a few others.  There was a
    standing vote, and Owen won narrowly, 29-to-25.

    Three resolutions were considered: one praising Rep. Coble,
    one praising President Bush, and one praising our troops.
    All passed without discussion or opposition.

    I handed out the latest version of my "Open Letter to Kenny
    Kidd (and other supporters of Richard Morgan)."  I gave 'em to
    everyone who would take 'em, including Howard Coble.  (The only
    person there that I didn't at least try to give one to was
    Cindy Morgan.)  A few people refused to take them, but nobody
    tore it up and gave back the pieces this time, and nobody
    suggested where I could shove it (an improvement over the Moore
    County Convention).  This version is almost identical to the
    one that I passed out:
    http://www.mooregop.org/to_kenny_kidd4.rtf (best for editing)
    http://www.mooregop.org/to_kenny_kidd4.pdf (best for printing)

    Kenny Kidd attended, too, and I gave him a letter, too.  :-)
    He thanked me with what seemed like genuine good cheer, "for
    getting my name out across the State," he said.  I tried to
    talk to him about the issues, and why he needs to give up on
    Morgan, but he wouldn't budge and didn't want to discuss it.
    I like Kenny, but I sure wish he would give up his dogged
    loyalty to RINOs Morgan and Brubaker.

    -Dave