By Kirk Ross, Staff Writer
Carrboro Alderman Joal Hall Broun filed last week to run for the at-large county commissioner seat, setting up a three-way primary between her, former Hillsborough Mayor Joe Phelps and incumbent Commissioner Barry Jacobs.
In an interview Wednesday, Broun said she is concerned about the county’s future in an era of constrained budgets.
“The county is at a critical moment,†she said.
And while she’s taking on a longtime incumbent, Broun said her decision was one of timing and not animosity toward Jacobs.
“I felt it was time,†she said. “I’m running for the seat and not against any person.
Broun joined the board of aldermen in early 1999, when she was appointed to fill out the term of the late Hank Anderson. She was elected to the board that fall.
Phelps, who owns Phelps Realty in Hillsborough, served as mayor of Hillsborough from 2001 to 2005, when Tom Stevens defeated him by 43 votes.
Jacobs is a three-term incumbent on the board of commissioners and has served several terms as chair and vice chair. This is the first election cycle that he had to decide whether to run as an at-large or district candidate. Voters approved a change to the make-up of the board of commissioners in 2006. The commission expanded from five to seven members two years ago, with three at-large members and two each from the two districts, which closely mirror the geography of the county’s two school districts.
The at-large race is not the only contested Democratic primary for a seat on the county commission.
Renee Price of Hillsborough, who serves as vice-chair of the county Commission for the Environment, and Earl McKee, a farmer from Rougemont, will square off in the District 2 primary.
The winner of the District 2 Democratic primary will face Republican Greg Andrews of Efland.
Incumbent Alice Gordon, who is running in the District 1 race, did not draw an opponent from either party.
School board
The primaries aren’t the only races on the May 4 ballot. Four seats are up for grabs on the Orange County Board of Education.
The close of the filing period saw a flurry of activity for the school board election, with former chair Keith Cook among those filing. Cook stepped down as chair in 2004 after admitting he plagiarized parts of a graduation speech he gave to Cedar Ridge High School. He was defeated for re-election the same year.
Also filing in the school board race last week were former county budget director Donna Dean Coffey, Laura Nicholson, Greg Williams and incumbent Anne Medenblik. They join incumbent Debbie Piscatelli and challengers Brenda Stephen and Will Atherton who filed last month.
Election notes
• The Orange County Board of Elections has opted not to set up an early-voting site at Carrboro Town Hall. Citing cost concerns, the board decided to limit the early-voting sites to the Morehead Planetarium and the county elections office in Hillsborough.
In the last local primary, which featured a referendum on a proposed land-transfer tax, the county operated four early-voting locations sites and 1,777 residents cast their ballots at the Carrboro site. Early voting opens on April 15.
• Thanks to Ruby Sinreich of OrangePolitics.org for correcting information published in a recent election story on who can vote in the primaries. Under North Carolina law, unaffiliated voters may choose to vote in a party primary as long as the parties agreed to them doing so.
In recent primaries, both parties have allowed unaffiliated voters to cast a primary ballot. A check with Orange County elections officials indicates that so far both parties are on track to do the same this year.