SHAUBERGER SAYS YOU MUST BE FOR PATTERSON

Eddie Shauberger is predicting that big money, smarter politics, new revelations (election time) evidence of corruption” from his Outsider associates, and North/West Liberty County voters will make Henry Patterson a shoe-in to win re-election as Liberty County Sheriff.

Eddie, a former Liberty County resident, is confident that his experience in Liberty County politics makes him an expert at analyzing and influencing the potential sheriff’s race between current sheriff Henry Patterson and challenger Bobby Rader. When he talks about this race he boasts almost as if the votes have already been counted as he talks about several wealthy backers making sure Patterson will have all the money he needs to present his case for re-election and his campaigns opposition research of Bobby Rader.

Eddie’s confident expressions of a sure victory are almost always followed by alluding to investigations of Rader by part of Patterson’s re-election team (the infamous Outsiders). He has said they will unload on Bobby Rader as soon as Rader declares his candidacy. I have asked to see or hear about the damning information they imply they have, but no smoking gun has been presented. Rather than provide a reason for me to change my mind about Rader, they are holding it for election time.

For some reason Eddie has become very angry because I don’t support his choice for sheriff. In fact, since I failed to support Patterson, Eddie has admitted the Outsiders have “investigated” me and that I am now I am “dirty”. In fact, he has gone much further than that and ranted and raved and included what seems like an endless barrage of calling my wife all kinds of names. This man who when accused of multiple felonies turned around and found absolutely no one, BUT ME, willing to speak publicly in his defense is mad at me and attacking my family because of a sheriff’s race.

Ironically Eddie is on record saying that he and the Outsiders will use politics and public accusations to defame Rader and me. I say ironically because my public defense of Eddie has always been, and still is, that if it weren’t for politics, the case involving his company would never have been in a criminal court. Eddie’s business associates were stealing from the company and his actions were borne from their forging checks and sucking money out of the company and making it difficult for him to pay employees and other debts. I sympathized with his position and, along with Ray Akins, was drawn into taking some public condemnation on his behalf (Ray was drawn into much more than just public condemnation, but that is another story I won’t cover here and now). So it is ironic that Eddie is now going to use politics and spin and innuendo to try and do his own version of the same thing to me (because of a sheriff’s race I had little interest in until his crazy behavior).

I don’t really understand what is going on with him these days, but Eddie is making plenty of bold predictions. He seems sure that Patterson will be the first in a long line of Outsider political victories and includes defeating all three judges in the courthouse in the 2014 election cycle. His overconfidence is staggering. His big talk about Patterson is not just based on big money, he adds to his self assurance as he consistently declares that the north part of Liberty County will vote for his man Patterson. I never have been that confident that people will blindly vote for the person that lives nearest them, but he is.

Strangely absent from his analysis, Eddie really doesn’t refer much to Patterson’s accomplishments in his first three years. Nor does Eddie spend any time rebutting criticism that Patterson never seems to speak for himself and that many people say they never see or hear Patterson. Accusations that Patterson has long regular breakfasts with his buddies and that he not only gets off to late starts, he is known to head home early (around 3:00 PM) most days, seem unimportant to Eddie. He seems to have a deep abiding faith that people from the Cleveland area will always support anyone over someone from the South/East part of the county.

Eddie tops off his rationale of why Patterson is unbeatable by pointing out how much more he knows way more about politics than me. What a strange comment. I didn’t know we were in competition, but I guess he is. I really haven’t been involved in politics to get a position or make money or because I needed connections in the courthouse or to go around and say I was smarter than everyone else, like me or not, most people know I got involved to make sure that conservatives in the Republican party would one day be at least competitive. But, from what I can tell, I guess Eddie and his buddies have “investigated” me and right here before the election they say they are going to show how “dirty” I am and then “wrap me around Rader’s neck”. Funny thing about it, they also indicated all of the “investigating” would go away if Rader would “seek any job but the sheriff’s job”. (extortion?)

So who really cares about what Eddie says or what I say… no one, or next to no one. But I do care what he says, or his little friends say, about Bobby Rader. They may be able to take a few of the thousands of the decisions Rader has made as a judge or a lawman and twists them like many political campaigns do, but I think people know Rader and they will care about that kind of thing being done to one of our hardest working public servants. Unfortunately for these Outsiders, people know Rader and he is well liked and people know how he runs the people’s business and they keep electing him.

I not only care about what Eddie says about Rader in the future, I also care about what he has already said about my wife Tracy Pegues. I have stuck with my original goals despite some public criticism of my motivations or my views. I have worked with others for fifteen years to offer Liberty County voters options besides whoever the Democrats nominated. Some may hate me for something I have said or done along the way, but no one on the other side has attacked my family. No one but the man I have called friend and that I have sat next to in criminal court. As the sheriff’s race approached Eddie started unleashing all kinds of vile comments about my wife Tracy… that is over the top. Somebody may say Pegues deserves what he gets, but that should be Richard Pegues, not Tracy. It reminds me of when Eddie’s wife was attacked by people out in Hardin. The similarities are many including the attackers knew Cindy Shauberger was very sick when the attacks were being made – Ray Akins and myself fought the relentless attack by the democrats on Cindy Shauberger. Tracy has been facing life threatening physical problems and will undergo surgery soon. What’s Eddie’s comment about this? “Richard is just trying to get sympathy”. That was not his attitude when Cindy was attacked. Eddie! This is just a sheriff’s race; please leave my family out of it.

I don’t know where loud inappropriate cursing and calling my wife ugly names fits in their campaign strategy, but I am hoping Eddie and his team focus on helping Patterson and leaving Tracy’s name out of their mouths. Eddie has told his family and the church he pastors down in Oak Island to stop looking at Liberty Dispatch now that he sees his and the Outsider’s strategy of acting like they are the ones being attacked will not keep us from posting the truth. What has gone on in the background off of the internet has been merciless and we are preparing ourselves and our readers for their scorched earth election season revelations.

My apologies for so much talk about myself, but my friend Eddie decided weeks ago that he was going to make me either support Patterson or get out of politics. I will do neither Eddie. As several of us tried to tell you before your last state rep race, you should do the latter.

LD Contributor, Richard Pegues