Mike Nelson
Kirk Ross had a good preview of the coming electoral season in The Carrboro Citizen last week. He highlighted the battle for Ellie Kinnaird's N.C. Senate seat as she will really be retiring this year (we think.) I'm amused that after his bold declaration that he'd be back after losing to Kinnaird in the 2008 primary, Moses Carey is now quietly enjoying his N.C. state goverment appointment instead of gearing up for a campaign.
Kirk also introduced the emerging races for County Comissioner...
With the newly-elected (and newly-districted) members of the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) sworn in, they have followed their annual tradition of selecting a new chair and vice-chair of the group. This is a leadership structure that is quite different from other elected bodies in the county in that the chair has similar responsibilities as a Mayor would have in a municipality, but the seat rotates among the members in a very egalitarian fashion so that every commissioner in recent memory has served at least one year at the helm.
What I found especially interesting is that this year's chair will be Valerie Foushee (an African-American woman) and the vice-chair will be Mike Nelson (a gay man).
In a good example of both thoughtful leadership and why elected officials should use blogs, County Commissioner Mike Nelson recently posted his response to the local Democratic Party's resolution in support of the Rogers Road neighborhood and against siting a waste transfer station on Eubanks.
Here's an excerpt:
While the actual transfer station itself is not a dump, it does attract the stigma of a dump and has the unmistakable stench of environmental racism. The responsible course of action is to seek an alternative solution.
Additionally, it must be acknowledged that the manner in which the search was handled was flawed. By not conducting a thorough and transparent search, the BoCC reinforced the community's fears. This was a mistake; we can, and should, do better here in Orange County.
- Leading from the Left: Waste Transfer Station
With John Herrera joining Mike Nelson and Moses Carey, the tally is up to three very qualified Democratic candidates queuing up to run for Ellie Kinnaird's NC Senate seat in 2008. But Senator Kinnaird is still waiting for her Princess Charming who will be able to maintain female leadership in that seat.
I certainly share her concern about the small and shrinking number of women currently elected to the Senate (in fact, I wish she had raised it sooner) but I also have to wonder whether having a Latino, an openly-gay person, or an African American would also make a strong contribution to that body.
The Carrboro Citizen wonders whether Ellie will call her own bluff and run for re-election if she can't find a woman to run for her seat by next spring.
I couldn't be happier to announce the web site (and campaign of course) of Mike Nelson for Orange County Commissioner! This year the seats of Alice Gordon, Steve Halkiotis, and Barry Jacobs will be open. I don't think any of them has announced whether they are running. Candidates have until February 28 to file for the primary.
Mike deserves some credit for helping Carrboro become the wonderful and successful place it is right now. He is poised to be a strong leader on environmental issues, which are currently staring the county in the face. And he also has plenty of experience with social and economic issues as the former Mayor of Carrboro.
The support of the current county commissioners for extending water and sewer lines into the Rural Buffer is one of the main reasons I have decided to run. The Rural Buffer, separating Chapel Hill/Carrboro from the rest of the county, is one of Orange County's greatest assets. We should cherish it and seek to protect it at all costs.
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