Candidate Filing Open Thread

The candidate filing period for the 2017 local elections began on Friday, July 7th, and will end at noon on Friday, July 21st. Here's what's in store for this year's elections.

  • A nonpartisan election for the position of Carrboro mayor, held since 2013 by Mayor Lydia Lavelle, who has announced her intention to run for a third 2-year term.
  • A nonpartisan election for 4 alderperson positions on the Carrboro Board of Aldermen, 3 of which are currently held by Alderpersons Jacquie GistRandee Haven-O'Donnell, and Sammy Slade, and 1 of which is vacant as a result of the May resignation of Alderwoman Michelle Johnson. The top 3 vote-getters will serve full 4-year terms on the board. The candidate who receives the fourth highest number of votes will complete the remaining 2 years of Johnson's unexpired term.
  • A nonpartisan election for the position of Chapel Hill mayor, held since 2015 by Pam Hemminger. The winning candidate will serve a 2-year term.
  • A nonpartisan election for 4 council member positions on the Chapel Hill Town Council, currently held by Council Members George CiancioloSally GreeneEd Harrison, and Maria Palmer. The top 4 vote-getters will serve 4-year terms.
  • A nonpartisan election for the position of Hillsborough mayor, held since 2005 by Mayor Tom Stevens. The winning candidate will serve a 2-year term.
  • A nonpartisan election for 2 commissioner positions on the Hillsborough Town Board, currently held by Commissioners Kathleen Ferguson and Jenn Weaver. The top 2 vote-getters will serve 4-year terms.
  • A nonpartisan election for 3 positions on the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education, currently held by James BarrettJoal Hall Broun, and Andrew Davidson. The top 3 vote-getters will serve 4-year terms.

As they do every election year, the candidates will gather on the last day of filing at our OP Happy Hour & Candidate Coming Out Party. Please join us and meet the candidates.

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Here's where we stand after the first day of filing:

CARRBORO BOARD OF ALDERMEN: Newcomer Barbara Foushee filed as a candidate for alderperson, as she announced she would several weeks ago. Incumbent Jacquie Gist, who has served on the board since 1989, filed to run for an eighth term. Incumbent Randee Haven-O'Donnell, on the board since 2005, filed to run for a fourth term.

CHAPEL HILL TOWN COUNCIL: Incumbent Pam Hemminger filed to run for a second term as mayor. Newcomer Allen Buansi filed as a candidate for council member. Incumbent Maria Palmer filed to run for a second term as council member.

HILLSBOROUGH TOWN BOARD: Incumbent Tom Stevens, mayor since 2005, filed to run for a seventh 2-year term. Incumbent Kathleen Ferguson filed to run for a second term as commissioner.

CHAPEL HILL-CARRBORO SCHOOL BOARD: Incumbent and current board chair James Barrett, first elected in 2011 to a 2-year term and re-elected to a full 4-year term in 2013, filed to run for reelection.

Here are the new candidates as of July 10th:

CARRBORO BOARD OF ALDERMEN: Mayor Lydia Lavelle, in the position since 2013, filed to run for reelection, as she recently announced she would. Newcomer Mike Benson, rumored to be considering it, also filed for the mayoral race; he seems to have made no public statement about it.

CHAPEL HILL TOWN COUNCIL: As she previously announced she would, newcomer Rachel Schaevitz officially entered the race for a seat on the Town Council.

HILLSBOROUGH TOWN BOARD: Commissioner Jenn Weaver filed to run for a second term on the Town Board. This means that all of the Hillsborough incumbents who are coming to the end of their terms have now filed.

CHAPEL HILL-CARRBORO SCHOOL BOARD: Incumbent board member Joal Hall Broun filed to run for reelection. Broun, a former Carrboro alderperson, was appointed to the school board in 2016 to complete the unexpired term of Michelle Brownstein.

Find more information about all the candidates at https://orangepolitics.org/elections-2017/candidates.

[Corrected to note the filing by Ed Harrison. — Eds]

Filing day 8 brings another two candidates to the contest for Chapel Hill Town Council.

CHAPEL HILL TOWN COUNCIL: Chapel Hill native and longtime nonprofit leader Karen Stegman filed today for a seat on the Chapel Hill Town Council. Stegman is the third challenger in the race. Incumbent Ed Harrison, a council member since 2001, filed to seek a fifth term in office.

Follow along on OP's candidate spreadsheet.

Ed Harrison has also filed. He files in Durham, his county of residence, but he is definitely in the race. 

Thanks, Maria! We have corrected the comment to note that Ed filed.

Glad to have Karen Stegman in the race. Her opinion column in the N&O from June of last year was a call to all of us to work together to make Chapel Hill a better, more inclusive place. Good luck, Karen. 

hoping to be a tough challenger ,  from gary kahn

With just a few days of filing remaining, new candidates emerged for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board, and a rumor circulated that one incumbent may not seek reelection.

CHAPEL HILL-CARRBORO SCHOOL BOARD: Two newcomers joined the race for school board today. Calvin Deutschbein of Chapel Hill is a doctoral student and graduate research assistant in computer science at UNC-Chapel Hill. Mary Ann Wolf of Carrboro is a former elementary school teacher and the director of digital learning programs at NC State's Friday Institute for Educational Innovation.

Today was the last full day of the filing period, and it was relatively quiet. We'll know at noon tomorrow what the field looks like.

CHAPEL HILL TOWN COUNCIL: Carl Schuler, a clinical research associate at Duke medical school, filed today for a seat on the Chapel Hill Town Council. Schuler was a candidate in the 2011 election and an applicant for the 2013 council vacancy. He is currently serving in his second term on the town's board of adjustment.

Great to see that Carl has decided to enter the town council race. From Gary Kahn

The last few hours of the filing period today brought a flurry of new candidates. We'll continue updating our candidate spreadsheet as we get more information.

CARRBORO BOARD OF ALDERMEN: Newcomer Paul Clark filed for an alderperson seat. If we have the right person, Clark is a a Durham police officer and children's book author.

CHAPEL HILL TOWN COUNCIL: Hongbin Gu, a UNC researcher and member of the town's Environmental Sustainability Advisory Board, filed for a seat on the Chapel Hill Town Council. In perhaps the biggest news of the day, incumbents Sally Greene and George Cianciolo will not seek reelection this year.

HILLSBOROUGH TOWN BOARD: Cindy Talisman, a conservative who ran for the Town Board in 2015, has filed to challenge Mayor Tom Stevens.

CHAPEL HILL-CARRBORO SCHOOL BOARD: Amy Fowler filed for a seat on the school board.

Join us today at 5:30 pm at Tyler's Taproom in Carrboro to meet your candidates!

Glald to see that GEORGE C AND SALLY G won t be running again. If they had i would  nt have voted for them anyway. From Gary Kahn
 

I have concerns when a candidate's voting history seems to indicate that the candidate was working to unseat David Price in last year's congressional race.  I doubt I'm on the same page as someone who votes in a Republican congressional primary.

...... like this, no wonder people are abandoning BOTH parties. Your comment  I am not sure who you refer to but David Price  is far from omniscient and the suggestion is counter to the concept of an informed electorate.

 Your kind of rhetoric is exactly why people dislike the political parties who favor blind knee-jerk partisanhsip above listening.

The republicans can't govern and the democrats just don't get it.

I THINK THE FORMER MAYOR OF CHAPEL HILL WAS REFERIING TO  CINDY TALISMAN AGAINST MAYOR TOM STEPHENS, CORRECT ME IF IM WRONG MARK,FROM GARY KAHN

 

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