To the Editor:

The disloyalty resolution article in the previous edition of The Smoky Mountain News (www.smokymountainnews.com/news/item/20275) was correct in that I said it would be inappropriate to comment on action taken in closed session. Why? Because it was a topic in a closed session of the Haywood GOP Executive Committee. (But that did not stop one executive committee member from violating that trust. By disseminating a false narrative, a gross disservice was done to the executive committee and to those that were named.)

The county commissioners frequently go into closed session to discuss issues not ready for public discussion. Since I was referenced in the article, I will comment on some of the inaccuracies in the article.

No one was charged with “political party disloyalty.” The article repeated a lie that a resolution was passed that would “bar individuals … from holding office ... for five years.”

The author should not have compared a non-story (which was not corroborated) to Russia in 1938, when it was known, as pointed out in the article, that: (a) any action would “require/allow all sides to present their case for judgement” and (b) give “opportunity to present a defense.” At this point there is no story because no charges have been made. But that did not stop the consummate purveyors of fact-free statements from trying to create a story. If the facts do not support their agenda, they manufacture their own “facts.” If and when a credible story develops, that information will be available from the appropriate state and/or district representative.

It is incorrect to state that the Haywood Republican Alliance is a conservative splinter group of the state-recognized county party. The Haywood Republican Alliance is simply a political action committee with no affiliation with either the Haywood County Republican Party or the North Carolina Republican Party.

To correct an irrelevant inaccuracy, I am the chairman of the Cecil Precinct. I have never been a county Party Chairman.

Ted Carr

Bethel