Republicans take care of business, behead 'King Ben'...for now

Neither Dodge nor Ford nor Chevrolet could have engineered a more dramatic shift of power in Caldwell County than that produced by Republicans in their May 8 primary election for county commissioner. Political power moved like an earthquake, but the GOP will maintain its same 5-0 hold on the commission.

Republicans elected two new commissioners—retired Lenoir Fire Chief Randy Church and Sawmills hunting-and-fishing shop owner Jeff Branch. That election effectively breaks the stranglehold that real estate developers Ben Griffin, who was voted out, and Clay Bollinger, who was reelected, have had on county policy the last four years.


Griffin and Bollinger operated as partners, from their 2008 run to their roles on the board as chairman and vice chairman, respectively. They were elected with a third team member, Rob Bratcher of Lenoir, manager of a textile plant in Valdese. Personally fed up with behind-the-scenes intimidation and manipulation, Bratcher chose to let his term expire this fall without running again.

I’d like to be among the first to publicly thank all three for their willingness to serve four years in a job that most people wouldn’t want to begin with. They did a lot of good things together, even if “King” Ben was never quite able to rule without his contentious air of arrogance, real or imagined by many people.

Tyranny has always worried Americans—from England’s King George III to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s four terms as president to assassinated Louisiana Sen. Huey “Kingfish” Long to modern “political bosses” of all stripes, like Griffin, at every level of government.

While I would have probably decided many issues the same as Griffin/Bollinger, there were many questions in four years that I believe should have had different answers. For me, selling the county’s 400 acres in Happy Valley, with its pure water resources, was unforgivable. That’s the moment I decided to work for their defeat.

I never challenged the purity of their intentions, but there were other decisions that also crossed the line. Most Republicans surely had pet issues that they felt Griffin/Bollinger mishandled, but were at least partially satisfied by the more conservative trend in county management. Many voters also wondered why the 22-percent tax increase of 2007 wasn’t at least partially negated.
That frustration and dissatisfaction was plainly evident in the numbers which came in on election night.

Come December, Mike LaBrose, an insurance agent who’s in his second year on the board, will likely become the new chairman with Church as his vice chairman. Seven months from now, a good starting point for the new power structure would be to assemble a budget for next year that cuts property taxes at least a little bit.

I don’t care to speculate about what the former two-headed monster will do. It won’t be on the agenda at the next meeting.

Some think May 8 was a political “beheading” for King Ben, just as the guillotining of King Louis XVI in January 1793 was the key moment in the French Revolution. Louis had another problem as serious as the blood-thirty mob, though; he was married to Marie “Let them eat cake!” Antoinette.

But the orderly transfer of power in a republic, while still dramatic and complete, is not the same. Griffin may possibly be back in two years to run against LaBrose or Chris Barlowe, who was elected two years ago. It’s not likely Bollinger will be happy on the board without his partner, but will he resign or just sit there and be outvoted on many issues?

The problem now is how much mischief or real public policy can this board deliver in the next seven months?

Dennis A. Benfield                                                                                                                                      Hudson