"I heartily endorse Chad Adams for NCGOP Chairman.  As a fellow county commissioner, I have known Chad for many years. He enjoyed respect among his colleagues and provided leadership in his county.  Getting elected locally is a tremendous honor, and we need more young representatives at all levels of our party.  Our state's future depends on the leadership that we choose.  With conservative ideas and timeless principles, Chad is the right leader for the 21st century world that we face."

Christine Mele, Commissioner

Pamlico County
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Dear Republicans,

When Linda Daves announced she would not seek reelection as state party chair, there was some mention of possible candidates to replace her. Among the names mentioned was Chad Adams, who I knew through his work with the Center for Local Innovation.

Among all the candidates listed at the time, I was elated to hear that Adams was considering running for the spot. Here in Rockingham County we have a long entrenched Democratic establishment that controls every municipal board, the school board and the county commissioners. When I first moved to the area in 2002 there was a small group of conservative activist who were focused on reducing the size of the county budget. I knew a few of the men involved and had heard them speak highly of the institutions that had helped them in their fight, namely, Citizens for a Sound Economy and the John Locke Foundation.

I was a back bencher, a lifelong Republican who had never become involved in party operations, but who would contribute time and money to congressional campaigns, since that was where the majority of my interest focused itself.

That all changed in early 2008 when I became aware that the local Democratic establishment intended to advocate for a quarter-cent local sales tax increase by way of a ballot referendum. I just decided that I was not going to sit by and watch the Democrats use their playbook of appealing to emotions to sell a tax increase to provide more money for education.

While this was a non-partisan ballot referendum, locally every elected Democrat began to advocate for the sales tax increase by claiming "it's for the children" and "it's only a penny on every four dollars".

Faced off against a socially and politically prominent campaign, I knew it would be tough to stand against the wind. But I began to send emails and developed a blog. At first the arguments were simple for me to come up with. But early in the effort, I knew I needed assistance to form a credible message that would appeal to the public.

I asked around and got assistance from one local conservative leader who helped me craft statements and gather talking points. Another local conservative suggested I contact Chad Adams with the Center for Local Innovation. I knew the name because I looked forward to CLI's reports on the Cost of Local

Government each year. I was somewhat hesitant to call, being a nobody from a rural county I figured those folks in Raleigh could care less about what I was doing.

I couldn't have been more wrong. When I called CLI and asked for Chad I was put through to his office, expecting voice mail. Instead Chad answered the phone and was immediately energized to speak with me. Without going into all the details of the conversation, I can say that it encouraged and inspired me to fight even harder to counter the sales tax effort after speaking with Chad. On the spot he gave me input, statistics and perspectives that I used immediately to craft messages that we used in emails, newspaper ads and on the weblog. The 10 minutes we talked on the phone took my effort from fledgling grassroots inertia to thrusting great ideas and counterarguments in front of the public.

My effort was basically a five-week, one-man campaign. I was able to raise $400 from a handful of concerned citizens. We used that money to buy three newspaper ads the week before the May primary. Those ads featured a line which Chad Adams gave me in an email exchange following our initial phone call.

On primary day, I took a stack of the fliers I had printed and spent my lunch hour and two hours after work manning a large polling place. It was clear that our message had been heard and embraced by the majority of voters. Despite huge turnout because of the Democratic presidential contest, we were still able to crush the sales tax, with voters rejecting it 70-30.

Chad Adams inspired me to keep working against what appeared to be a stacked deck. That's what Republicans in many rural counties across the state face, a deck stacked with Democrats in control of local, county and state elected offices. If Chad Adams can inspire me with his energy and talent in a 10 minute phone call, imagine what he can do with a bully pulpit such as the chairmanship of the North Carolina Republican Party.  I am a delegate to the state convention, having attended my county convention in March, at which Chad Adams was our guest speaker. He was already committed to the cause at that time, while some other candidates were still licking their wounds from previous electoral failures.

Please join me in electing Chad Adams as the chairman of the NCGOP. His energy and commitment can lead us to victory.

Sincerely,

Jeff Sykes
Rockingham County