The Piedmont and Sandhills regions of North Carolina are playing host to a wide array of commissioner races on July 20. Counties such as Cabarrus, Alamance, Davidson and Union have an unusually large number of candidates in both Democratic and Republican primaries. Some may even require a runoff. The Sandhills also contains counties such as Lee and Harnett where even the primaries may determine a partisan shift in power. And Cumberland County may have the only multi-seat districts in the state.
In the Triangle, I previously wrote about Wake County, but Durham and Orange are also worth a look. Both county boards have five total members — all of whom are Democrats.
Durham, which has had two-year terms, will be switching to four-year terms this year. All will be chosen at-large. Four of the five incumbents are running for re-election. Phillip Cousin, Ellen Reckhow, Joe Bowser and Becky Heron are all the current incumbents. They are being challenged by Warren Herndon, Tonja Washington, Josh Parker, former Durham city council member Lewis Cheek, and former school board member Michael Page. At issue are the contentious nature of the current commissioner meetings and the potential merger of Durham city and county functions. Incumbents are looking strong considering there are five seats in the primary. The real battle may be for the fifth seat. There will only be one Republican running in the general election.
Orange County has two open seats this year and both incumbents, Moses Carey and Margaret Brown, are seeking re-election. City school board member Valerie Foushee is vying for one of those seats, as are Pam Hemminger and Jack Lamb. The central issue here is a proposal to combine the city and county school systems. Both Foushee and Hemminger have been endorsed by the anti-merger movement. Though name recognition is as relevant as ever, the merger issue has become a focal point in this election and will probably dominate this primary.
Moving southward through the region, Harnett County, which has three district seats up for grabs, only features one primary that should be close. Three-term Democratic commissioner Dan Andrews is seeking a fourth term and is being challenged by former Lillington councilman Don Turlington who narrowly lost to Andrews in the 2000 election. The third candidate is Pfeiffer University instructor David Gilcrest. The Harnett County board, though split among Republicans and Democrats (3-2), rarely has a split vote. The past two years have been marked by profound cooperation under the leadership of Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran Teddy Byrd, a Republican who is seeking his third term with no primary opposition.
Lee County has three at-large seats being sought by five candidates (in the interest of disclosure: I serve as vice chairman of the Lee board, but my seat is not up this year). Longtime Democratic commissioner and former chairman Bert Matthews is not seeking re-election. This board is currently split 4-3 with a Democratic majority, but Democratic board member Ed Paschal has supported Republican leadership on this board. That decision has become an underlying issue in this primary. Paschal, seeking his fourth term, is joined in the Democratic primary by a first term commissioner, Jerry Lemmond, former district 3 candidate and local business owner Darryl Davis, former county veteran affairs and city alderman Bob Brow,n and the brother of a former commissioner, Bob Moretz.
Cumberland County may feature the most unique commissioner race in North Carolina. The seven-member board is composed of two commissioners serving from District 1, two commissioners elected at-large, and three who serve from District 2. The board is made up solely of Democrats. The District 2 race has four candidates; the top three primary finishers will face two Republicans in the general election. Newcomers Carmen Battle and Andy McCall are challenging incumbents Kenneth Edge and John Hendley. Incumbent Ed Melvin is not seeking re-election. The dominant issue in Fayetteville right now is the attempted annexation of roughly 40,000 citizens. It has temporarily been halted by the NC Supreme Court. The third seat in the primary will be a toss up between the newcomers. In all likelihood, the winners of this primary will win the general election.
Cabarrus, Davidson, and Union counties are blessed/inundated with an abundance of candidates in their primaries. Cabarrus County has nine Republicans seeking two seats. Union has seven Republicans and seven Democrats each seeking to be the top three finishers to move on to November. But Union County has seven Democrats and 12, yes 12, Republicans each vying to be the top two finishers in their respective primaries.
Electoral law plays an important role here and is genuinely interesting. Accordingly, a candidate must win a “substantial plurality” in order to avoid a runoff. Strictly defined, that means a candidate’s total votes must be greater than the total votes cast divided by the number of seats available multiplied by 40 percent. Before you tilt your head with that same quizzical look that my dog gives me when I ask him what he wants to do, consider this. If candidate A gets 1,000 votes and 3,000 are cast for a best of two primary, 3000/2 x .4 = 600. Thus candidate A received more than 600 and would win that primary. This will probably be much discussed in the GOP gubernatorial primary next week; hopefully you understood it here first.
Adams is director of the Center for Local Innovation and a contributing editor at Carolina Journal.