My thoughts

Be still my heart.

This is what I am thinking as I sit across a plastic picnic table from a write-in candidate on the Nov. 4 ballot for the U.S. Senate.

My heart palpitations are not due to a romantic interest, but rather from listening to a new candidate who has emerged in the highly politicized race for Kay Hagan’s Senate seat.

The picnic table is under a shelter on the grounds of a church on the far side of Charlotte, N.C. The church is buzzing from a week-long camp meeting with Andrew Wommack, so it seemed like a safe place to meet a total stranger in a city four hours away from where I knew anyone.

I have come to interview former two-term state representative John Rhodes, from northern Mecklenburg County. Rhodes, then a registered Republican, served from 2002-07 in the House of Representatives. He is a former commissioner of the town of Cornelius.

Rhodes says he wasn’t on Jones Street long before he saw how dirty it was behind the curtain. Wanting no part of the prostitution of the system he says he witnessed, in March 2005 he called for corruption investigations of the three most powerful men in Raleigh: then co-speakers of the House, Jim Black, a Mecklenburg Democrat; and Richard T. Morgan, a Moore County Republican; plus Senate President Pro Tempore Marc Basnight, a Democrat from the first district, which includes the counties of the Outer Banks.

The attorney general’s investigation led to convictions and prison time for Black and former Forsyth County Rep. Michael Decker, media and public relations consultant Kevin L. Geddings and political aide Meredith Norris.

Decker testified under oath Black paid him $50,000 to switch to the Democratic Party to aid Black in retaining power in an evenly divided House.

Black pleaded guilty to a federal charge of bribery and obstruction of justice in 2007, and was sentenced to 63 months. He was also sentenced in state court in 2007 and 2009, but was allowed to serve his state sentences concurrently with his federal prison time. He admitted to accepting funds from chiropractors, while their professional group had legislation pending in the North Carolina General Assembly. He paid a $1 million fine.  He resigned from the GA Feb. 14, 2007.

In March 2014, John Rhodes again called for an investigation into corruption by the Speaker of the House. This time it was the man who was recruited by the retaliative Republican Party to oust him in the 2006 primary from the House: none other than Thom Tillis. Backed by the Republican war chest, Tillis won the primary easily, then was elected to the House with no Democratic opponent. He was elected Speaker in 2011.

Rhodes called for state probes of whether Tillis’s support of campaign donors to the University of North Carolina Board of Governors violated ethics rules. He also alleges legislators who spoke out against, or opposed Tillis-backed legislation were bullied and intimidated, something pretty hard to hide during the 2013 and 2014 legislative sessions.

He says we were then, and are now, selling the state to the highest bidder.

Rhodes asserts that Thom Tillis and Kay Hagan are cut from the same political ruling class and do not represent the people. He says they care nothing about us, the only two things they care about are power and money and they will do anything to get it. He describes them as owned by corporations and deep pockets. In fact, he says there is no difference between the Republicans and the Democrats. Calling them Republican Incorporated and Democrat Incorporated, he describes both political parties as two companies huckstering the public for cash and votes, turning out cheap product that gets us no further ahead as a country regardless of which party is in charge. After the election, they stop trying to huckster for cash and votes and simply take money from us by force through taxation.

He says we don’t have to settle for what they are trying to force feed us. He says the notion that elected officials have to go along to get along is an absolute lie.

Rhodes quit the Republican Party in 2007, changing his voter registration to Unaffiliated.  He met the requirements and was certified by the N.C. Board of Elections in September 2014 as a write-in candidate for the U.S. Senate.

Voter dissatisfaction in the county is on the rise, as is dissatisfaction with the current political parties, so much so, that nearly one-third of North Carolina voters are registered as Unaffiliated.

As of September 20, there were 1,787,072 unaffiliated registered voters in North Carolina, which is 27 percent of the approximately 6.6 million registered voters. The number of unaffiliated voters is just 11 percent less than the state’s 2 million registered Republicans.

Voters choosing not to register as a Democrat, Republican or Libertarian may register as, or as in Rhodes’ case, change their voter registration to Unaffiliated. This designation is often used synonymously with independent, but independent is not a political party recognized by the state. Unaffiliated voters can vote in the Democratic, Republican or Libertarian primary election.

So what about this whistle blower with a track record for going to the mat with corrupt politicians? Is Rhodes just a malcontent? Is his write-in campaign merely sour grapes as the Tillis camp labels it?

Rhodes, a real estate broker for more than two decades, also has two decades behind him as a firefighter and EMS medic, including having served on the Winter Park Fire Department during the time he attended UNCW. He is married to a former public and private educator, has three children and describes himself as a part-time gentleman farmer. He attends church and from our conversation, I gleaned that he has done some prison ministry.

He hasn’t a huge campaign; there is no multi-million or even million dollar media budget, no aides. You probably won’t see him in political ads. His campaign is word of mouth and by phone, Skype meetings and a Write-in John Rhodes website.

Rhodes says one voice that speaks out is louder than 10,000. Isn’t that refreshing?