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BY FLORENCE GILKESON: Senior Writer

Foes of state Rep. Richard Morgan of Moore County want the embattled House co-speaker removed from the North Carolina Republican Executive Committee.

Fellow members of the state GOP executive committee are circulating a resolution asking for his ouster as a member of the committee. The resolution is to be introduced at a March meeting of the state committee if enough signatures are obtained.

The proposed resolution says, in part, that the committee finds Morgan “culpable of disloyalty to the North Carolina Republican Party.”

Asked for a comment, Morgan said: “Bring ‘em on. I think it’s more of the same. This is outside intervention. These are the same people who want the speaker to come from Johnston County (referring to Rep. Leo Daughtry) instead of Moore County.”

Morgan said the people pushing the resolution are hiding behind the e-mail name of NC Right Stuff.

“There’s an appearance of something sinister when someone hides behind an e-mail name,” he said.

E-mail messages attached to copies of the resolution advise recipients to sign the resolution and send it to Judy Keener in Raleigh. Her name appears at the end of the introductory message, along with that of Chris Farr, chairman of the 13th Congressional District. Judy Keener is the vice chairwoman of the 13th District.

Keener said Monday that the petitioners have already secured a number of signatures, but they want more than the 50 names required to get the resolution added to the agenda for the March 20 meeting of the state committee. She declined to say how many people have signed the resolution.

“We’re in the middle of it,” she said of the campaign, described in the e-mail message as a grassroots endeavor.

Committee members are asked to sign the resolution and send it to Keener’s address in Raleigh by Feb. 20. She said this self-imposed deadline will give them time to verify signatures prior to the March meeting.

“We are asking legislators not to sign at this time (they can vote on March 20!!!), but they are thrilled that someone is finally doing something,” the e-mail said.

Keener said Monday that members from the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 7th, 12th and 13th congressional districts have already signed the petition.

Elizabeth Kelly, chairwoman of the Moore County Republican Party and also chairwoman of the 6th District Executive Committee, said Monday that she has not signed the petition and has not made up her mind one way or another.

“I really don’t know what I’m going to do,” Kelly said.

The query is an awkward one for Kelly, herself a target of criticism from within the Moore County party in recent weeks. A group wants her removed as county chairwoman.

“Signing just means that it would be on the agenda,” Kelly said. “Sometimes just signing means that it will be defeated.”

Disloyalty Charged

In the message attributed to NC Right Stuff is the disclaimer that the resolution “is not intended as a personal vendetta and no one likes doing this.” The message then lists six reasons for removing Morgan from the state executive committee.

The e-mail message says the resolution is “a grassroots effort but language was checked by attorneys familiar with the State Plan of Organization and the Party Disloyalty clause.”

Morgan dismissed charges of disloyalty and said he would “welcome any challenge on my GOP credentials.” He said he stands on his record of support for the Republican Party in North Carolina and the country.

Morgan said these opponents want to force him to “vote a line without regard to the truth, honesty and integrity.”

In addition to charging party disloyalty, the petitioners contend that Morgan is sending a message that “is not our message.”

“We must distance ourselves from his rhetoric and recapture the message if we want to mobilize the party to vote in November,” the group said in the e-mail. “His message is one of ‘coalition government’ and working closely with the Democrats to lead the state, higher taxes, bigger budget, hurting fellow Republicans so he can get his own brand of Republican elected.

“He joined with the Democrats to produce an unconstitutional redistricting plan knowing very well that a constitutional plan is the right thing to do and would favor the Republicans tremendously. A big Republican victory in the House would hurt Morgan and so he would rather hurt the party than hurt himself.”

Morgan said, “I think it ought to be pointed out that the big thing is keeping sight of the target when you prepare for political battle. The political fight in Raleigh between me and the Daughtry gang has little to do with truth, honesty and integrity. I wouldn’t let my party be corrupted.”

Coalition Defended

Daughtry, a Republican from Johnston County, is a former GOP leader in the House. Morgan defeated Daughtry in the battle for the House speakership. Daughtry also ran unsuccessfully for governor in the 1990s.

Morgan defended his coalition with the Democratic leadership as an effort to preserve the state Republican Party and said the alternative advanced by his GOP opponents would have given “the Republican gavel away and settled for speaker pro tem,” rather than the co-speakership in which he and Democratic Rep. Jim Black share equally in House leadership duties.

He said that the position of speaker pro tem is mostly ceremonial and lacks any real clout in the House.

“I was trying to forge a real coalition for my state and my party,” Morgan said. “I never compromised my character or my principles, not even one time.”

Among the reasons advanced by his foes in the e-mail message is the significance of the disloyalty clause. The message says the clause “is not a cavalier amendment” and adds: “It takes a real serious offense to put yourself in the disloyalty category. Morgan did not commit one offense but continues a pattern of ongoing offenses which hurt the party.”

The message also charges that the Republicans are losing the media war.

“The mainstream Republican voter does not have a clue what is going on because the media spins every issue,” it said. “Morgan uses the media to his full advantage. They love what he is doing because it favors the Democrats and he takes full advantage of that.”

The message continues with an expression of support for Morgan’s primary opponent but does not identify the candidate. Peggy Crutchfield has announced plans to oppose Morgan when the primary elections are held in July. However, the filing period does not open until late this month. So far, no Democrats have announced a candidacy.

“This action will send a loud message to that minority of House Republicans supporting Richard Morgan,” the message says. “Perhaps they will not be so eager to follow him blindly — and get themselves back into the good graces of the majority of Republicans in the House Caucus.”

And it closes by saying that “Morgan has created a situation where the majority of Republicans in the House are completely impotent. His alliance with the Democrats has stifled the Republican message completely, even though we supposedly won the House last November.”

The resolution itself cites such complaints as Morgan’s public statement of his “intention as speaker to defeat his political enemies within the Republican House Caucus” and his refusal “to vote for either of the Republican House Caucus nominees for speaker of the House” last year.

It also says that “the Executive Committee of the North Carolina Republican Party finds Richard Morgan’s political agenda and his position on the N.C. GOP State Executive Committee are in conflict and thus his service on the Executive Committee is therefore grossly inefficient under Article VII.A.7. of the NCGOP State Plan of Organization.”

In addition, the resolution “finds that Richard Morgan’s political agenda is different from and injurious to the North Carolina Republican Party.”

The State Executive Committee has more than 300 members, including all state Republican office holders, the chairmen and vice chairmen of all 100 county committee and congressional district committee members.

It would take a two-thirds vote of the state committee to remove Morgan from its membership.