By Taylor Sisk
Staff Writer
With the filing deadline having passed at noon yesterday, four candidates will be vying for three seats on the Orange County Schools Board of Education.
Incumbents Steve Halkiotis and Tony McKnight have been joined in the nonpartisan race, to be decided on the May 8 North Carolina primary ballot, by challengers Tommy McNeill and Lawrence Sanders.
Jason Chambers was the only person to file in this final week for any office serving Orange County, entering the Republican primary for the N.C. House of Representatives District 50 seat, where he will square off with Rod Chaney, W. Lewis Hannah Jr. and Thomas Samuel Wright.
Orange County Commissioner Valerie Foushee and Travis Phelps will challenge each other in the District 50 Democratic primary.
The primary winners will then face off in November for the seat now held by Democrat Bill Faison, who is running for governor.
Redistricting plans call for District 50 to include portions of Orange and Durham counties.
For the House District 56 seat, which includes Carrboro and Chapel Hill, Rep. Verla Insko will be unchallenged in the Democratic primary in her bid to win reelection. She will face Republican Karrie Mead in November. Mead is likewise unchallenged in her primary bid.
In state Senate District 23, which includes Orange County, Democrat Sen. Ellie Kinnaird will run, unopposed in the primary, for a ninth term. Republican Dave Carter will challenge her in November.
In Orange County Board of Commissioners races, incumbent Pam Hemminger will go up against Chapel Hill Town Council member Penny Rich and former Carrboro Board of Aldermen member Mark Dorosin in the Democratic primary for two seats in District 1.
No one filed to run in the Republican primary for the seat.
Incumbent Steve Yuhasz and Renee Price are running in the Democratic primary for one District 2 seat. Chris Weaver will represent the Republicans for that seat, with no one having filed to challenge him in the primary.
Incumbent Democrat Bernadette Pelissier is unchallenged in her primary for an at-large seat. Republican Mary Carter is also unchallenged in her bid for the seat.
Chatham County
In the state House District 54 race, Republican Cathy Wright is unopposed in the primary, and will challenge either Chatham County Board of Education member Deb McManus or Jeff Starkweather, who will face off in the Democratic primary.
The District 54 seat, which under redistricting represents all of Chatham County and a portion of Lee County, is now held by Joe Hackney, who will not run for reelection.
Democrat incumbent Sally Kost will face Republican Sam Shriver in November for the District 1 seat on the Chatham County Board of Commissioners. Both are unopposed in their primaries.
Democrat incumbent Mike Cross will seek reelection to his District 2 seat, unchallenged in the primary. He will face Republican Bill Crawford, who filed this week, in November.
David Hamm filed for reelection, unopposed, to his District 2 seat in the nonpartisan Chatham County Board of Education race. Karen Howard filed the District 1 seat, and is also unchallenged.
Chatham County Register of Deeds Treva Seagroves, a Democrat, received no challengers in her bid for reelection.