Smith told the gathering at Country Club of North Carolina that it is essential for President Bush to carry the state in November. He urged the members to get to work to elect Patrick Ballantine as governor and Richard Burr as U. S. senator.
By so doing, he said, Republicans can take over the state Senate, which traditionally has been dominated by Democrats. That would place the governorship, both legislative chambers and the presidency all in Republican hands.
“We must win this battle,” Smith said. “We must win this election.”
Smith called the Nov. 2 general election “the most important election in my lifetime,” a time when the country is at the crossroads for change.
In particular, he urged support for fellow Sen. Harris Blake, a Pinehurst Republican, who, like Smith, was a Senate freshman in the 2003-04 term.
“It is important to re-elect Harris Blake,” Smith said. “He is a good businessman, and a man of principle.”
He said that Blake understands the significance of helping small businesses, because this is the place where most of the new jobs are being created.
Smith, a Johnston County senator, is in a position to understand the situation.
As co-chairman of the North Carolina Republican Senatorial Trust Senate Majority 2004, he has been instrumental in raising about a half-million dollars to help elect Republicans as first-time senators this year.
Because of redistricting, the Republicans ended up with 22 senators in 2003, he said. The Democrats started off with 28.
“One Democrat had a Damascus experience and changed his registration, so that number is now 27 to 23,” Smith said.
Smith said that 80 cents of every dollar spent on election campaigns in 2002 went to Democratic candidates.
“We didn’t have the money,” he said. “We did not have the ammunition, and without the ammunition you cannot win the battle.”
Smith said he is working with 18 Republican candidates throughout the state in a widespread effort to take control of the Senate.
“We can’t compete dollar for dollar,” he said. “The Democrats have been in power 133 years. That’s the reason Marc Basnight has such an advantage.”
Basnight, a Dare County Democrat, is majority leader in the Senate.
By closing the gap to 60-40 percent, rather than 80-20 percent, Smith said, the GOP could get the message across.
It is estimated that about 600,000 more people will vote this year than would normally vote in North Carolina, simply because it is the presidential election ballot, he said.
If Republicans want to be successful, Smith said they must have vision, passion and discipline.
The vision, he said, is not that of big government with central control but of a circle of prosperity where everyone has a chance to succeed.
“We have an optimistic vision for our state,” Smith said. “Government too often is bureaucratic and concentrates on yesterday’s problems.”
He quipped that the only place in Pinehurst without change is in the cemetery.
Smith was among the senators who introduced Senate Bill 256 calling for a constitutional amendment to put a cap on state spending equal to the present year’s receipts. A similar cap has already been adopted in Colorado.
Under this plan, he said that the state would not increase spending more than the average family will spend. However, he said, the “liberal Democratic leadership” did not allow his bill to get on the table.
Smith said there is an immediate need for North Carolina to deal with its tax system. He called North Carolina the state with the highest taxes in the Southeast. He said that the state needs an exemption for small businesses in order to become more competitive in a global economy.
Smith also said that North Carolina employs more people than any other state in the Southeast and should set goals based on thrift, making government more efficient and more effective. One way to achieve efficiency and attract jobs, he said, would be to reduce the tax burden and also reduce the regulations that are obstacles to expansion by small business.
North Carolinians need accessible and affordable health care, and he said that tort reform is needed to rid the state of “junk lawsuits.”
Smith said that there is a need to defend the family and the traditional concept of marriage, something that he said is under attack today because of insistence by homosexuals and other liberals that they are entitled to marry. He said that all Republican senators signed SB1047 calling for a constitutional amendment to define marriage as an institution between a man and a woman, but the Democratic leadership did not let the bill get out of committee.
He urged the group to support Blake and called Blake’s 22nd district “a key district” in the GOP strategy to gain control of the Senate.
During a question-and-answer period after his talk, Smith said he opposes offering incentives to large corporations to recruit industries. He compared such incentives to hunting for buffaloes when there is a need to tend the garden at home.
“Incentives are like cocaine,” he said. “States are hooked on it.”
Smith also took a swipe at “the liberal media.” He said that the reason John Kerry did not emerge with a “big bounce” from the Democratic National Convention and Bush did make it after the GOP convention is because “the liberal media was not able to filter what happened at the conventions and the viewers could see for themselves.”
Asked his view on GOP prospects to take over the governor’s mansion, Smith said that Patrick Ballantine has been leading “a charmed life” with good things happening. First, primary finalist Richard Vinroot bowed out, leaving Ballantine without the necessity of facing a runoff election, then the State Employees Association gave Ballantine its endorsement.
In a brief review of the GOP national convention, Smith said that the president delivered the best speech of the dozens heard that week. He also praised addresses by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Gen. Tommy Franks and Sen. Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina.
He said that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger delivered the most entertaining address.
However, when he returned home, Smith said he found that the folks weren’t talking about any speaker other than Democratic Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia, who delivered the keynote address endorsing Bush.
Bill Scott, program vice president of the Men’s Club, introduced the speaker.
Smith grew up in North Carolina and graduated from Wake Forest University with both undergraduate and law degrees. He served with the Judge Advocate General Corps as a captain in the U.S. Army and received an Army Commendation Medal with first oak leaf cluster.
He is president of the Fred Smith Company and managing partner with the SunBelt Golf Group.
He is a former member of the Johnston County Board of Commissioners. This is his first term in the Senate and he faces no opposition in November. His district includes all of Johnston County and part of Wayne County.
Smith lives in Clayton, where he is an active member of the First Baptist Church. He and his wife, Ginny, have five children and five grandchildren.
