RALEIGH -- Garner town councilman Phil Matthews, a businessman with a tea party flair and goals aligned the Wake County school board majority, emerged victorious in Tuesday's Republican contest to run against Democrat Lindy Brown for the Board of Commissioners District 2 seat.
Matthews, 60, earned more than 11,000 votes - about 47% of primary votes cast - to outpoll former commissioner Phil Jeffreys and Raleigh real estate agent Champ Claris, based on complete but unofficial results. The county Board of Commissioners, with a 5-to-4 Democratic majority, gets to sign off on the budget for the school board, which has had a 4-to-3 Republican ruling majority since elections last fall.
Matthews campaigned as a fiscal conservative and proposed himself as a potential deciding vote for the Republicans on the board of commissioners should he defeat Brown, a one-term incumbent.
"I am wired; I am ready to go," an exultant Matthews said Tuesday night as returns came in. "I am looking forward to that race in November."
Relations between the two county boards dominated voters' interest during the campaign, the candidates said before the election. The school board is in the midst of discarding Wake County's former school assignment policy, which used students' socioeconomic backgrounds as an important factor in determining school makeup. Matthews' home turf of Garner also produced John Tedesco, an out-of-nowhere candidate in 2009 who is now a prime mover on the board.
"The school board, they were duly elected, they have just been in office a few months, and they are doing what they were elected to do," Matthews said. "I think we need to give them time to put their plan in action."
Matthews openly favored the approach of the school board's ruling majority during his campaign, appearing at the same tea party rally as Tedesco, while Jeffreys, known as a political wave-maker, seemed determined to set his own course on school issues. Claris, a Realtor who waged an unsuccessful campaign for Raleigh City Council last year, said he wanted to see more information and data from the new board to back up the changes they are making.
The school system's current budget, which will have to deal with a projected deficit of as much as $40 million, will be voted on by the sitting board of commissioners. The board of commissioners elected on Nov. 2 will take office at its first meeting in December.
Voters countywide pick members of the board of commissioners, but each member serves a specific geographic area. District 2, where Tuesday's winner will face Brown, curves from Garner to Holly Springs around Raleigh.
In other November races, Republican board of commissioners chair Tony Gurley will face former commissioner and county Democratic Party chair Jack Nichols, while Republican commissioner Joe Bryan will run against Democrat Don Mial, who served in Iraq with the N.C. National Guard and works as a unit manager at C.A Dillon Youth Development Center. Republican commissioner and former mayor Paul Coble will face Morrisville software executive Steve Rao, a Democrat.
