|
Attendees at Saturday’s
Watauga County Democratic Party convention gave 65 percent of their votes to presidential
candidate Barack Obama, with rival candidate Hillary Clinton receiving just
under 35 percent in the first ever Democratic presidential straw poll. Some 121
convention delegates and guests voted.
The convention also heard
from 2008 candidates Cullie Tarleton, member of the N.C. House running for
reelection, from two candidates vying for the County Commission
(Dist. 1), Tim Futrelle and Doug McGuinn, and from three school board
candidates, Steve Combs, Joni Horine, and Marsha Walpole. Kelly Sechrist,
daughter of state Sen. Steve Goss, also spoke on behalf of her father’s
reelection.
Other national and state-wide
candidates were represented by surrogates.
The convention passed 12
resolutions including one praising local government for “green” and “zero-waste”
recycling programs and other environmental initiatives and another calling on
the county to establish an “eastern community center” similar to the Western
Watauga Community Center. Another resolution called on the State Department of
Transportation to reconsider its permit for a new digital billboard that faces
in-bound traffic on the Doc & Merle Watson Scenic Byway.
Other resolutions approved
by the convention addressed prescription drug advertising, national and North Carolina election
campaign reform, healthcare for members of the armed forces, health-care
equity, and other topics of local and national concern.
Members of Troop 109, Boy
Scouts of America, presented the colors and led the convention in the Pledge of
Allegiance, and the singing of the National Anthem was led by County Commission
Vice Chair William Ralph Winkler III and Laurie Nicholson.
All 17 organized precincts
in the county answered present to the roll-call.
Among other reports to the
convention, Barbara Daye, volunteer with the 1451st National Guard
Family Readiness Support Group, thanked delegates for all the support county
Democrats have given our soldiers and their families. Motion was made and
seconded to give an additional gift on behalf of the party to the support
group.
|
