A recently reappointed member of the North Carolina Utilities Commission is the subject of a write-in mayoral campaign, even though he says he’s not a candidate.
But R.V. “Bobby” Owens, Jr. has said publicly that should he win the election on Tuesday, he will accept the office. A small group of businessmen and developers, who dubbed themselves the “Manteo Citizens for Change,” have purchased newspaper advertisements and mailed postcards supporting Owens as a write-in candidate for the Dare County town on Roanoke Island.
Gov. Mike Easley nominated Owens to a second eight-year term on the commission earlier this year, and he was confirmed by the General Assembly.
If Owens was an active candidate with his own election committee, he would need to resign his current post because Utilities Commissioners are covered by North Carolina’s Code of Judicial Conduct, which forbids active judges from running for non-judicial elective offices. But the legal counsels for both the State Board of Elections and the Utilities Commission said that based on evidence they’ve seen, Owens’s “non-candidacy” campaign appears to comply with the law.
“The right of Mr. Owens to run as a write-in candidate is not prohibited under North Carolina law,” said Don Wright, general counsel for the State Board of Elections.
Bob Bennink, attorney for the Utilities Commission, said he saw no problem with the campaign to draft Owens either. Organizers of Manteo Citizens for Change told the Board of Elections they are not cooperating with Owens on the campaign, and he is not actively seeking office. According to a report in the Outer Banks Sentinel last week, Owens “said the campaign is ‘out of my hands,’ and that he hasn’t asked anyone for their vote.”
However, Sentinel managing editor Sandy Semans said that one campaign ad placed by the group in the Coastland Times — a competing newspaper — contained language that she said ran almost verbatim from an interview she had with Owens just days earlier. That, along with his failure to disavow his campaign, raised questions about whether he’s really a candidate.
“Of course he’s running,” said John Wilson, the incumbent mayor. “If he’s not running, he would say so.”
Another advertisement in the Times featured a large-font header that said, “He’s Running!” Post cards mailed to residents read, “He can’t seek office. BUT, he can be drafted.”
Owens did not return phone messages left by Carolina Journal at his home and at the Utilities Commission.
Wilson also has concerns about who the Manteo Citizens for Change are. He said that of the 14 individuals who have contributed a collective $11,675 dollars to their efforts, only one lives in the Manteo town limits. Jack Burrus, treasurer for the Citizens campaign committee, asked a CJ reporter how he got his number when reached by telephone. When asked by CJ if he would answer questions about the effort on Owens’s behalf, Burrus said, “I don’t have any comment,” and ended the call.
Wilson said supporters of the write-in campaign, including Burrus, are mostly developers and investors who own large amounts of acreage surrounding the town limits. He said they want to change the makeup of the town board of commissioners to become more favorable towards annexing their land, so they can access Manteo’s limited water and sewer capacity. Most of the developers’ land is not suitable for septic, Wilson said.
“I think the ‘Citizens for Change’ are not citizens at all,” Wilson said. “It’s all about money.”
Wilson said the town of just over 1,000 residents probably would see about 450 voters show up at the polls on Tuesday, and he doesn’t know what to expect. “There are millions and millions of dollars at stake,” he said.
“I do wish if [Owens] was running, he would run,” Wilson said. “Let the people have an honest election. I find all this very underhanded.”
Paul Chesser is associate editor of Carolina Journal. Contact him at [email protected].