It has come to my attention that the NC State GOP has released several statements regarding an incident between the Bladen County Democratic Candidate, Tim Benton, and the GOP candidate, Brenden Jones, who are opposing candidates for the House District 46 Seat. Mr. Benton is a lifelong resident of Bladenboro, NC, who always attends the annual Beast Festival in his hometown. This year the festival was set for October 29, 2016. We believe that Mr. Jones came to Mr. Benton’s hometown with his entourage of family and loyal Jones supporters knowing that Mr. Benton would be in attendance at his local festival the very next day. I spoke with Mr. Benton for three hours about this incident and other campaign related issues between he and Mr. Brenden Jones.
According to Mr. Benton, he was at the festival, pushing his 15 month old grandson throughout the Town of Bladenboro when he came in the vicinity of the stage where the music was playing. He saw Mr. Jones, his wife and daughter and several supporters in a tent near the stage. When Mr. Jones saw Mr. Benton, he, his wife and daughter walked to wards Mr. Benton. Mr. Benton continued walking toward the stage and they meet away from the tent and stage. Mr. Jones spoke first and said he had a talk with Mr. Benton’s daughter. They talked back and forth about the campaign and Mr. Benton spoke about the mailers being sent out by the Jones campaign that were completely untrue whereupon Mr. Jones soon suggested they walk out into the street. Mr. Benton expressed concern about his grandson and Mr. Jones indicated his wife would take care of the boy. Mr. Benton looked to Mrs. Jones who initially said or did nothing and then came up to the stroller and put her hands on the stroller. Only then did Mr. Benton agree to go out in the street where he thought they might continue their conversation in private. Nothing more. They walked shoulder to shoulder and the talk got louder on both sides. Mr. Jones seemed to get quite angry at something Mr. Benton said and stopped his walking. He then turned into Mr. Benton, leaned in close and whispered in his ear, “I’m going to break it off in your ass.” Who did what to whom after that is quite controversial and in dispute. That is why warrants have been issued for both Mr. Benton and Mr. Jones for assault and ultimately it will be up to the Bladen County Legal System to adjudicate where and to whom the fault lies.
Back to the incident itself, soon local police (out of uniform) intervened and both men walked their separate ways apparently uninjured. The entire incident lasted less than five minutes. Prior to the incident, almost all polls showed this as a close election, but with Mr. Benton still leading.
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