Add the Wake school board runoff mess to the list of items that the State Board of Elections will handle next week.
The Wake County Board of Elections unanimously voted Friday to ask the state board for guidance on whether to hold the Nov. 3 runoff in the District 2 race. That contest could decide the direction of the school system.
When the state board will get to the runoff issue is uncertain. It would have to fit it into a busy meeting schedule that begins Monday with the hearing into former Gov. Mike Easley's campaign finances.
Wake County Elections Director Cherie Poucher said she's confident that the state will act on the issue before Election Day. Only the state board has the authority to cancel the runoff.
On Wednesday, school board candidate Cathy Truitt withdrew her request for a runoff. If the runoff is canceled, John Tedesco would take the seat and provide the vote needed to form a new board majority that supports neighborhood schools.
On one side, the Wake County Republican Party and others critical of the school district's socioeconomic diversity policy want the runoff over. On the other side, the state NAACP wants the runoff to continue.
If the runoff takes place, supporters of the diversity policy could mount a campaign to have Truitt get the most votes. Since she has withdrawn from the race, the seat would be declared vacant if she won. The current school board would then appoint a person who would likely leave supporters of the diversity policy in the majority.
Campaign signs stolen
Campaign signs vanished last week from the front yard of William Watt Jones, a Wake Forest commissioner candidate. Jones, 54, said his fiancée heard a noise about 7 p.m. Sunday outside their house in the Wall Ridge subdivision. They then heard a car driving away. By the time Jones went outside, his signs were gone.
Jones filed a police report and said the rest of his campaign signs across Wake Forest have not been stolen. He said there were seven or eight signs in his yard.
"We were not happy," Jones said. "The signs aren't that important. It's that someone went up in the yard that bothers me."
Tooting their horns
Wrapping up at a Durham candidates' forum this week, mayoral challenger Steven Williams had a barb for the incumbents.
After City Council members Cora Cole-McFadden, Howard Clement, Mike Woodard and Mayor Bill Bell used their time to mention achievements on their watches, Williams began his closing statement thus:
"There's a parable that goes, 'Let thy work speak for thyself.' If you have to talk about what you have done, it is obvious you haven't done a thing."
Write-in candidate in Garner
Janice Stephenson, a former town board member in Garner, is running as a write-in candidate in next month's Town Council race.
She is seeking one of two seats on the council and is up against five other candidates, including two incumbents.
Stephenson served on the then-Board of Aldermen in Garner from 1989 until 1993 and from 1999 until 2003.
Her name will not be on the ballot. To choose her, voters must write in her name. Stephenson said some of her friends urged her to run, but she said no at first. Some people voiced concerns about the Town Council's recent decision to hire a trash company that was not the lowest bidder, she said. Then she realized she wanted to push to bring a YMCA to Garner.
"All of a sudden, I had a list of things I certainly could not do anything about from the outside," she said.
Stephenson said she has put up some signs and is mailing campaign fliers.
Political trail
Anna Hayes, author of "Without Precedent: The Life of Susie Marshall Sharp," will speak at the Thursday meeting of the Democratic Women of Wake County at the N.C. State University Club, 4200 Hillsborough St. Sharp was the first woman to serve as the chief justice of the N.C. Supreme Court. The evening begins at 5:30 p.m. and includes cocktails and a buffet dinner for $15. For reservations, contact Martha Farmer at 782-1272 or Nancy Looper at info@dwwc.net.
The Black Law Students Association of N.C. Central University is holding a Durham candidates' forum at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Great Hall of the NCCU School of Law, 640 Nelson St. The forum is open to the public.
Compiled by staff writers, Ray Martin, Jim Wise, T. Keung Hui and Sarah Nagem
