RALEIGH — The race in Senate District 15 pits high-spending former Raleigh mayor Tom Bradshaw against first-time, fill-in legislative candidate John “Johnny Mac” Alexander to claim a seat left open by the retirement of Republican state Sen. Neal Hunt.
Alexander got a late start in the campaign after the death during the summer of Dr. Jim Fulghum, who had been the Republican nominee. Fulghum was a member of the state House and was seeking to replace Hunt.
Alexander, who entered the race in July, said it has been a quick campaign. As a consequence, he’s far behind Bradshaw in fundraising. The State Board of Elections’ website reports that, as of Oct. 23, Alexander had raised $242,437. Spending figures were not available.
Conversely, Bradshaw reported slightly more than $1 million in receipts, according to Board of Elections records. He spent just over three-quarters of a million dollars and had $219,972 cash on hand at the end of the Sept. 30 filing period.
Alexander said he is proud to be running a positive campaign. He said he was committed to running only positive advertisements to showcase his merits and strengths.
“Most people are sick and tired of the negative ads,” Alexander said. “I wanted my campaign to be positive to show voters the type of state senator I’d be.”
Alexander said his main priority if elected to the state Senate would be education. He said he heard that it should be the top topic from many people he has met during the multitude of meet-and-greets he has attended.
“Education is everyone’s No. 1 theme,” Alexander said. “Teachers, the K-12 system, the vocational track, they need our attention. I think there is more agreement than you hear about.”
Alexander also would like to see state government perform more efficiently. He said he would like there to be better communication up and down state government.
“We need to make sure the lines of communication are open,” Alexander said. “Efficiency in state government can’t come from the top down. I feel like people in state government are good people and they have a lot of knowledge.”
Alexander said his experience as a small businessman who signs paychecks for about 50 employees has kept him grounded in the realities facing many working families today.
“I am pleased with the amount of support there is for somebody like me who wants to do the right thing,” Alexander said. “I want to be able to stretch taxpayers’ dollars better than we have in the past.”
Bradshaw did not make himself available for comment.
His campaign website says that he will work to bring teacher pay to the national average, protect early childhood education, and restore cuts to education made during the past two years by the Republican-controlled legislature.
Besides serving as mayor of Raleigh in the 1970s, he was secretary of transportation during Gov. Jim Hunt’s first term. He was instrumental in overseeing the construction of the Raleigh Beltline as well as extending Interstate 40 from Raleigh to Wilmington.
Since then, Bradshaw has served on numerous state boards, including the Environmental Review Commission.
His website says that the legislature is not doing enough to protect the state’s freshwater supplies, and that fracking needs more oversight. He also believes that the responsibility of cleaning up utility-owned coal ash ponds should fall upon Duke Energy and not its ratepayers.
The district covers northwestern Wake County, and has been shown to lean Republican based on Conventional Voting Behavior Ratings used by the North Carolina Free Enterprise Foundation.
The district is 33.1 percent Democrat, 35.8 percent Republican, and 30.7 percent unaffiliated.
In the 2012 election, President Obama won the district by more than 7 percentage points, and Democrats generally dominated the Council of State races. Only the races for governor, lieutenant governor, and state Senate went to the Republican candidates. Hunt easily won re-election against Democrat Sig Hutchinson.
Joe Johnson is a contributor to Carolina Journal.