Our preview of North Carolina primaries for county commission ends with our state’s beautiful coastal plain. As was true in the central region, some counties such as Onslow and New Hanover have a plethora of candidates running. Others — including Bertie, Dare and Craven — have very little activity. In those situations, and others, there are few if any challengers. In fact, Craven only has one race this year; the remaining six seats will be up in ’06.
Here’s an observation: counties with a dominant party, Democrat or Republican, seem to have the most bitter races on their hands. Cartaret County, whose seven-seat board is entirely Republican, is having a vicious primary in their three district seats. The county has gone through several managers and often has very contentious meetings. They’ve fought bitterly amongst themselves accusing one another of political games and have endured endless meetings. Such activity is leading two of their incumbents, Doug Brady and Jonathan Robinson, to retire when their terms expire.
In District 3, Brady’s retirement has opened the door for Republican Army reservists Charlie Cox and Ernie Hussey to vie for the opportunity to face the winner of the Democratic primary between Lawrence Harris and Leonard Jones.
All of the aforementioned candidates are probably thankful they aren’t in District 4 or 5. Current chairman Beattie Bell is being challenged by former Atlantic City Councilman and retired minister Doug Harris. There is no Democratic opponent.
In District 5, first-term commissioner David Wheatly is being challenged by the second-term mayor of Beaufort, Dr. Tom Steepy. Both district races are going to be referendums on the boards’ behavior and leadership over the past four years. It is often difficult to understand that fights within the party family are far more brutal than between the parties.
Meanwhile, Beaufort County is experiencing a major political battle over control of its county commission and a related issue: a $33 million school bond on the ballot. There are nine Republicans running in the party’s primaries for commission, some allied with conservative stalwart Hood Richardson and some allied against him. A PAC formed to oppose Richardson’s bloc, called the Committee for a Progressive Beaufort County, is trying to defeat three Republicans in the primary: incumbent Richardson and challengers Chris Cayton and Stan Deatherage. The Beaufort County Taxpayers Action Committee is supporting the three conservatives and a related group is running ads urging defeat of the school-bond measure.
New Hanover County has five commissioners with a 4-1 Republican to Democrat count. Three of those seats being selected at-large this year. The lone Democrat on the commission, Julia Bosman (in her first term), is running for the NC Senate seat vacated by Patrick Ballantine earlier this year, and is thus not seeking re-election.
There is no Democratic primary for the commission as only two candidates have opted to run this year. But the Republican primary is full. First-term commissioner Nancy Pritchett and third-term commissioner and attorney Ted Davis are both seeking re-election. Former Brunswick County Commissioner Bill Kopp, former commissioner candidate Jack White, retired naval officer Leroy Sullivan, and current school board member Nancy Wigley join them in the primary.
The entire New Hanover area is rich in culture and diversity and their political races are as well. Merger possibilities, annexation, land-use, and environmental concerns will dominate this race and simple name recognition isn’t going to settle it. Wilmington folks are paying attention in this race.
And to round out our tour of the east we’ll focus on the Brunswick County primary, where a current 3-2 Republican led board may go back to the Democrats this time around. Brunswick County is a true marvel of modern NC politics. The retirement areas of the county lean Republican and the inland areas and longtime residents lean Democratic. Even the current Democratic governor claims Brunswick as his home. But the voting patterns here are not unlike the rest of the state — alternately selecting Republicans or Democrats in any given election.
District 3, which comprises most of the beach areas, features incumbent commissioner May Moore. Moore has also served on the town board and as mayor of Yaupon Beach (prior to the merger with Long Beach that is now Oak Island). She has also served on the Brunswick school board and will be tough to beat. She is faced by for 16-year sheriff department veteran Charles Miller and J. Walton Willis, who has kept a low profile.
The District 5 race features former two-term school board member and current incumbent Bill Sue against political newcomer Jack Batson. But the real story is the Democratic District 5 primary between former commission chair Grace Beasley and the current mayor of Navassa, Bobby Brown. Beasley should survive this primary with her eight years on the commission (although they were 14 years ago).
Nonetheless, her win will set up a probable race between her and current incumbent Bill Sue that will determine the leadership of the Brunswick board. With land-use, coastal development and growth issues dotting the landscape this will be a race to watch this fall.
Chad Adams is director of the Center for Local Innovation at the John Locke Foundation.