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Allen Mitchell continues to lead the party to nowhere because he is not political savvy, have no skills to run a meeting and no skills when it comes to technology.
When it comes to the county officers of the Edgecombe County Democratic Party it continues to be the party of do nothing. It is sad that I have to agree with all of what Roosevelt Higgs had to say about the county chair Allen Mitchell. But if Allen Mitchell had done what he should have done, Higgs would not be a member of the Democratic Party.
I told Mitchell last year that I received some calls from Pitt County that Higgs was down there campaigning for Republican C.B. Daughtridge who was running against Democratic Senator Clark Jenkins. Mitchell told me he believed it because he took pictures of Higgs putting up signs for Republican Daughtridge at Edgecombe Community College in Rocky Mount. So why didn’t Mitchell produce the pictures and let the county party deal with Higgs? Because he is scared of Higgs like some others within the party especially Shelton.
I received a letter from Mitchell on Friday asking to support him for the county chair position. I was hoping when I got to the meeting there would be someone else running but when I arrived I was approached and asked did I want to run and I said no. The person said Higgs is going to nominate himself. Well that was nothing new Higgs does it every election but then he backs out after he does his speech for office. He does that just to get to speak on the floor and boy did he let the chair Mitchell have it. It was funny as hell to me.
I went to work at 5:00 am and when I arrived at the meeting Senator Clark Jenkins had already given his address and Mitchell was at the approval of the minutes on the agenda.
Stephanie Hunter treasurer was not present and this is the 3rd meeting that I have attended and she was not present. Higgs gave the treasurer’s report. Why him he lives in Tarboro with his mother but serves as 1st chair of a precinct out of Speed. He has not lived in Speed since the flood after his mother’s property was bought out by the county. He lived in a camper trailer on the lot until the county made him move.
Back to the treasurer’s report Higgs did it because he asked Nellie Hunter Stephanie’s mother to run for precinct chair years ago and then by Stephanie being the youngest person to attend the meetings he also asked her to serve since she met the 36 age criteria that one of the county officers should be. Nellie have not attended the meetings regularly since she was ousted as precinct chair.
Hunter told me years ago she felt obligated to Higgs because he asked her to serve as precinct chair. Higgs uses that leverage against Nellie and Stephanie so he is able to manipulate them.
Stephanie lives around the corner from the chair Mitchell they are neighboring precincts. So why didn’t she give the report to the chair?
During the treasurer’s report I asked Higgs what did he say about the check that I turned back in that I received from the party because he said something about it was for poll workers. I said I want the record to show that I do not get paid to do anything in the party but if I was to get paid they could pay me for my video taping something that comes out of my pocket. Higgs said it was listed under poll workers. Gladys Shelton 1st vice chair went on to say that I did some work at the polls with computers. Mitchell said it was said the party would pay anyone who did some work on the computers. Well what he is referring to is the Edgecombe County Democratic Party FaceBook page in which Christopher Kent and James Knight Jr. were suppose to work that. Kent set up the page and I just happen to stop by the office on the day he did it. He put me down as an administrator so that I could post information on the page and I have done that. I have asked the Mitchell for email addresses so that I could send the party an invite to join the page. I have yet to receive any addresses.
And then it was drama time election of county officers. Mitchell attempted to give some ground rules for the voting process. Higgs challenged him on the rules but see video for further details. Mitchell turned this part of the meeting over to Shelton 1st vice chair to carry out the election.
Robert Byrd 2nd vice chair nominated Allen Mitchell for chair.
Roosevelt Higgs nominated himself.
Mitchell were given 3 minutes to address the delegates. Mitchell thanked Byrd for nominating him and for the 2nds that he received. He thanked those who have served for the past 2 years. Mitchell said as we look today to elect leaders for our party for the next 2 years as we hear the questions what went wrong, we know why we lost. The question is what are we going to do about it. That which is gone is gone. As we sit here today in the county and as we look at the books, Mitchell said we have over 2800 registered voters on the books. (He meant 28,000.) Mitchell said he will try to go around to the precincts to work with chairs and vice chairs to hold workshops to come up with an educational strategy to try to get people to the polls. (As a precinct chair I have heard nothing from Mitchell over the 2 years about education and/or other.) Numbers will do no good if people don’t vote.
Mitchell said 2nd point he is a true Democrat and a true Democrat and will only work to get Democrats elected. He said you are not going to catch him doing anything else for any other party. He said if he can’t work to elect Democrats he is certainly not going to support the opposition and you could take that to the bank.
Mitchell said his 3rd step we are working on young people and we hear this a lot and we do need to get our young people involved. He said right now we are trying to re-organize our young Democrats to bring them back in the fold and it looked favorable. (Attorney William Solomon former chair Young Democrats Of Edgecombe County showed up again since he spoke at the convention during the last county convention. He did nothing and I never heard anything from him after continuously telling him I would work with him.)
Mitchell asked for our support.
Higgs said he didn’t write out a speech. He said in times like these you don’t need a speech. He said our country, nation, state and county is hurting. He said one reason why we are hurting is because we don’t connect with each other. He said he don’t worry about what is going on in other counties not even in Raleigh and that he feel obligated to reach out and do what he can for Edgecombe County.
Higgs said we have witnessed 2 years of nothing happening in the Edgecombe County Democratic Party. He said he says this without reservations. In the last election if it had not been for Dr. Thomas L. Walker and the Edgecombe Nash Black Political Caucus and the candidates themselves getting out in the community and worked to make things happen you would have a better understanding today. He said because of their efforts it makes it look like the party did more over on main street than they really did. It was a waste of money and a waste of time what the party did. If you look at the treasurer’s report, Higgs said he thank God for our Democratic Party treasurer Stephanie Hunter had not alerted us (he and the ENBPC) we would be standing here today with less than $200.00 in the county party treasurer. But due to her being willing to share with the ENBPC what was going on with the county party treasurer the ENBPC made a contribution to our party. He said they were beginning to cancel the check to the party when they saw people who were suppose to be volunteering getting paid for their services. Higgs said when the ENBPC (as if he is not on Walker’s payroll) was over in Rocky Mount doing the same thing the party was doing and not getting paid and they had a staff. He said while the party had a chair and a Get-Out-The-Vote Coordinator John Wooten who didn’t know anything getting paid.
Higgs said so he is running today to bring some real leadership to the party. He said Mitchell and Wooten were not solely responsible because we as the executive committee of the party allowed some of this to happen when they were doing things on their own and we not holding them accountable. He said we didn’t report back to them what they were doing. He said they called a meeting and if it had not been for Shelton 1st vice chair they would have gotten more of the money.
Higgs then asked for our vote.
After the precincts caucused for 2 minutes to decide how they would vote, Higgs as usual backed out of the race. And then he talks about a waste of time. But not really. He does what he does so he can address the party. He knows his days as a county officer has been long over and the only reason he is on the executive committee is because he continues to lie that he lives in Speed.
During the county meetings leading up to the past election, Mitchell allowed Higgs to promote the Edgecombe Nash Black Political Caucus and I told him that that should not be happening. I told Mitchell Higgs was going to use that against him. Higgs have said many times in the meetings over the years that the work was done outside of the party.
So why is our treasurer reporting to the Edgecombe Nash Black Political Caucus? So is she a member now?
There need to be a call meeting to recall the chair Allen Mitchell and the treasurer Stephanie Hunter positions on the county executive committee because it is obvious that they do not have the best interest of the party at stake.
See related:
Edgecombe County Democratic Party
