The Decline of Frank Williams and the Brunswick County Republican Party

Fake Republicans Take over the Brunswick Republican Party and Turn their backs on their voters --Part 1

Mar 18, 2024

I fell into this story the I found out that the Brunswick Republican Party sought to prevent fellow Republican candidates from challenging the narrative emanating from the county party. When I discovered that the surrogates of the party, in particular the former Vice-chair, Larry Blank, filed a flimsy complaint against a conservative Republican who was challenging incumbent county commissioner Frank Williams, I began to dig into the reasons why.

The country is going through much change. Political realignments in the country have made clear what was once not clear. The decline of legacy media and the rise of alt tech has exposed to us what was once hidden or too opaque. There really is no difference between the Democrats and the RINO Republicans. The story of Frank Williams demonstrates that on a fundamental level, this is true on the local level as well. The Republicans in this county—the elites who guards their gates—no longer represent their own voters. It would appear in numerous ways, they actually despise them.

Only the robust local MAGA Republicans in the county seek to return the authoritative voice of representative government back to the people who live here.

This will be a multi part accounting of events.

Here is Part 1.

The Background

The Brunswick Republican Party, led by Bill Moore, has for years been in a cold war with the more conservative North Brunswick Republicans. The problem? The latter are MAGA and the Brunswick Republicans are decidedly not. The latter have gone so far as to demand the North Brunswick MAGA Republicans cease and desist using the logo of the party in their promotional material, which they did. The North Brunswick Republicans have accurately accused Moore as being not really interested in winning, much like national chair Rona McDaniel, and more aligned with the Democrat Party. He has few principles that one might consider foundationally Republican, much less republican.

There is evidence for this assertion.

In 2022, Moore took a page out of the Democrat playbook and not only attacked former Leland Town Council Republican candidate Allison Dunlap for caring about voter integrity, he called many of his fellow Republicans “racist” for supporting her. Given the problems with accurate counts in voting, and the remedy being ID voting, Moore took the Democrat position. But worse, was his belief that any clean account of elections was racist—nothing speaks more about his political identity than this.

All of this is bemusing given that minority voters are more than since Nixon, are rejoining the Republican party under MAGA.

Fed Up with Frank Williams—Tax Hikes

Tired of the soft defense of republicanism from Moore and his surrogates at the county party, many Republicans chose to challenge what they believe has become a party of RINOS in the party leadership. They seem to support Democrats more than they do members in their own party.

One of those who challenged the status quo in the county was Erik Tammaru who took on Frank Williams for County Commissioner. Williams is a native of Brunswick County, but has most recently voted to increase property taxes, disregarding the long standing tradition Republican practice of “revenue neutral” budgeting. Williams praised his efforts by lauding the increase:

Tonight, the Brunswick County Board of Commissioners approved a fiscally responsible budget that focuses resources on our key priorities, including public safety, education, and water and sewer infrastructure, while meeting our unfunded state and federal mandates and dealing with cost increases due to inflation. In response to the increase in property values, we lowered the tax rate from .4850 to .3420, very close to revenue neutral. In alignment with our fiscally conservative philosophy and to ensure that this budget focuses on needs, not wants, our county manager cut approximately $16 million in staff requests to bring the budget down to this rate. This budget also maintains a healthy rainy-day fund, which is critical as we move into hurricane season. This is a fiscally responsible budget that meets critical needs for the fastest-growing county in North Carolina.1

Words are one thing. But actions matter more. The fact is, Williams voted for a tax increase no matter how he explains his vote. The budget passed for 2023-2024 meant that all property owners in the county would be facing higher taxes at a time when they are strapped by inflation.

In other words, Williams expected the people to tighten their belts while the county increased its coffers at their expense.

Not very conservative.

Fed Up With Frank Williams—The Malmo Loop Betrayal

Williams supports rapid development of the county. He has therefore been at the forefront of changing the nature of the county along with its character. In one such instance, and their are several, the Malmo Loop mass development was the last straw for many residents.

The development of Malmo loop is an expansive project bringing apartments some single family homes, and “build to rent homes” to the area. It would fundamentally change the lives of Williams’s voters who moved to the area, built their homes, and lived their lives in an area originally zoned rural residential. In March 2022, the BOC changed the zoning of the vacant property to high density residential. With alacrity, after the rezoning approval from the county, the land owners/developers appealed to Leland Town Council for annexation.2 Soon thereafter, Leland Town Council followed suit. The entire management of the development is not in the hands of the town, not the county, according to the town who spoke to this writer last week.

There are 2 things to note about this project:

No matter the back and forth between the land owner/developer and the county, the simple act of changing the zoning meant that the fix was in. The county would not change the zoning if the county did not intend for a development to be completed.
With the change in zoning, the county actively sought to change the character of the county by encouraging transient living—apartments and corporate build to rent homes discourage ownership and commitment to the community. The surrounding neighbors are home owners, not renters. The Malmo development meant decreasing home ownership pure and simple. This is the future Williams sees for Brunswick County. This development is one of numerous examples that want to push families to rent over owning. In the words of the World Economic Forum, “you will own nothing and love it.” This is squarely within that new policy ambition supported by the globalists. Frank Williams in this act, counted himself among them.

There is another consideration here pertaining to the people living around Malmo: The action of the county commissioners essentially meant they engaged in a taking of property. While it is true that a man ought to generally be able to be free to do what he wants with his property, a portion of the Malmo property was not owned by one man—it was owned by a corporation who wanted to change the area of Malmo from an ownership to a renting society. Corporate interests do not care about their neighbors—they see money to be made at the expense of being neighborly. The Malmo proposal would not only take from the rural residents their ability to hunt and provide for their families, it would fundamentally make them less secure in their own property and decrease their privacy.

This might appear to be a weak argument. After all, we are regaled time and time again, that ANY development—”affordable” homes, apartments, renter dweallings—only “increase” property values. They say, “see we are improving your land by building 3+ story apartments.” However, the numerous studies done noting home values only increase is not longitudinal. They never revisit their “study” after 10-20-30 years.

A better gauge of what happens to communities would be to examine what happens to towns that build affordable or renter communities in long standing areas. What happens when politicians and their developers, change the character of a community by inviting in a totally new character into that community?

In places like Matteson, Olympia Fields, Homewood, Flosmoor, all in Illinois, are shells of what they once were—vibrant. As a new clientel was purposely brought into the area, the crime rose. The tight-nit community became estranged, until, property prices fell. People who had lived there all their lives, moved out. Now, these towns are run down, and have lost business. While anecdotal, these are facts, that are repeated in numerous places.

Property prices may rise initially, but over time, as govt subsidized housing is built, the transient people invited in, see a breakdown of the care for the land, crime increases, and the beauty of the landscape is ruined by the development. HOAs will not stem this progression.

Some of these issues have been discussed—See Steve Pontell, and Joel Kotkin here.

Kotkin writes:

Now, the numbers and influence of the yeomanry are declining. They still represent close to 50 percent of the population, notes Pew—a drop from 61 percent in 1971. Globalization has savaged many middle-class jobs, whether in factories or in services, transferring employment to China, India, and other developing countries. In many countries, immigration, much of it from poor countries, has undermined wage rates, particularly for lower-skilled workers, but now for professionals as well. Much of the global middle class is heavily in debt, mainly because of high housing costs.
The great social achievement of the mid- to late twentieth century lay in the movement of working-class, propertyless people, including minorities, into the ranks of business owners and homeowners. Today the flow runs in the opposite direction, as prospects for joining the middle class have declined and opportunities for advancement have dried up for everyone outside the professional and elite capitalist classes.

In other words, govt is encouraging apartments and rental homes, and therefore, discouraging home ownership. Kotkin believes that this new type of development will hollow out the middle class—most of those who own homes in the rural Malmo Loop area.

To put it another way: when the Malmo residents moved, built, and improved their land for themselves, they thought they were moving into a rural community. The change in zoning without their consent meant that the county took from them the land they thought they would live out their lives on. The rural residents of Malmo chose to live in a rural setting even with heavy construction business near them; they did not move into an area where high density living would essentially decrease their property values by cramming in high density renters who had no attachment to the land.

The owners of the property BOUGHT property zoned rural; the corporate interest then sought to change the rules in favor of their interests at the expense of the residents because they never intended to improve the property as zoned. THAT is buying land in bad faith. Williams and the Brunswick Republican Party always swim one way, if the Malmo Loop example may be generalized: The rich and powerful get their land rezoned in their pecuniary interest, but the residents who were there before, never get the land zoned in their favor to protect their way of life.

That, is a taking no matter how you dress it up in the name of “progress.”

This was a betrayal by the Republican County Commissioners.

As one resident near the area stated to this writer in 2022 after the Malmo vote: Frank Williams may be from Brunswick County, but he has turned his back on the people who have lived here all their lives. He does not care about his own people. He’s selling us out.

The Malmo Loop Payoff

Soon after the Malmo was rezoned, and the plan was submitted for development, one developer in question turned out to be one D. Isbell Logan. He is the president and owner of Logan Homes, and Malmo Ventures, among several other LLCs. In 2016, he was charged with hit and run and assaulting a female public safety officer.

Much of the property under the rezoning of the Malmo Loop property was purchased by Logan in 2021.

It is not in itself a problem that a man makes a living after making such an egregious mistake. But it is rather interesting that Logan’s name winds up in Frank Williams campaign reports after the vote to re-zone Malmo Loop property under consideration for a high density development contrary to the nature of the landscape.3

To recap: The late 2023 donation to Williams is the only time Logan has given money to Williams.4 That donation came after the vote approving the development of Malmo Loop.5

This is an increasingly relevant fact: Developers who want to change zoning and build anything other than single family homes, freqquently donate to politicians who support their cause after the fact. This should raise voter suspicions. It smells of an old boys network where the elites are running over the interests of the voters. The people of Malmo loop never consented to this development. The immense money involved personally for the players and the government treasury explains why.

As a curious aside: Legacy media in the area has never reported on these facts. Why?

Frank Williams, Bill Moore, and the Brunswick Republican Party have turned their backs on their voters.

Now we turn our backs on them.

American Savage

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