Filing Deadline Brings Campaign to Some, Victory to Others

The deadline to file for most offices that will be on the ballot this fall closed on Wednesday.

With it, a long campaign season started for some and for others, who are unchallenged in their races, the end of filing brought about an election victory of sorts.

At the county level, Mark Chilton was the lone candidate to file to serve as the register of deeds, meaning the former Carrboro mayor will serve another term in that office barring any unforeseen circumstances.

James Woodall will also continue serving as the district attorney for Orange and Chatham counties after no other candidates filed to challenge the incumbent DA.

Former Chapel Hill – Carrboro City School board member Jamezetta Bedford is also poised to succeed Mia Burroughs representing District 1 on the Orange County Board of Commissioners. Burroughs announced last year that she would not seek re-election, and Bedford was the only candidate who filed for the seat.

Bedford narrowly lost in her bid for one of the two District 1 seats that were on the ballot in 2016.

The two other seats up for election this fall on the Board of County Commissioners will be contested.

Longtime commissioner Barry Jacobs initially filed paperwork to run for another term but withdrew that filing last Friday. That same day former Chapel Hill Town Council member Sally Greene filed to run for the at-large seat Jacobs has held. Brian Crawford and Noah Oswald also filed in that race.

District 2 commissioner Earl McKee also has a challenger in his bid for re-election in Tommy McNeill.

The race for Orange County sheriff will have incumbent Charles Blackwood facing off with a former investigator with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office Tony White.

Former Chapel Hill Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt filed paperwork on Friday to challenge incumbent clerk of superior court James Stanford.

All of the county-level candidates who filed before Wednesday’s deadline are Democrats, meaning the races will be decided in this spring’s primary.

The most crowded field comes in the nonpartisan race for four seats up for election to the Orange County Schools Board of Education. Brenda Stephens in the only incumbent running for re-election in the field that also includes Sarah Smylie, Hillary MacKenzie, Jessica Aguilar, Hawkeye Aguilar, Mike O’Hagerty, Will Atherton and James Needham.

There will be no primary challengers for state general assembly races but there will be challengers in each seat for the general election in November.

Incumbents Graig Meyer and Verla Insko in the House and Valerie Foushee in the Senate all filed for re-election. Meyer is facing a challenge from Republican Kenneth Rothrock. Republican Marcus Cookie and Libertarian Matthew Clements filed to challenge Insko. And Foushee will have a race with Republican Tom Glendinning.

North Carolina’s Fourth Congressional District, which is home to all of Orange County, will see primaries for Democrats and Libertarians. Republican Steve Von Loor was the lone GOP candidate who filed, meaning he will be on November’s ballot. Three Democratic candidates filed, including incumbent David Price and challengers Michelle Laws and Richard Watkins. Two Libertarians – Perry Whitlock and 2012 gubernatorial candidate Barbara Howe – will also be on the general ballot after the primary race.

The primary is scheduled for May and the general election in November.

Filing Deadline Brings Campaign to Some, Victory to Others

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