Influence of supporters in Raleigh’s District A is evident

One candidate poses with Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane and touts experience promoting “smart growth” in his campaign materials, using various shades of blue and green.

The other’s materials are red and black, with blurry, colorless images of immigrants. They denounce the city’s debt and “liberal” influences in challengers’ campaigns.

The runoff election in Raleigh’s District A, the remaining City Council seat after voting last month, features two candidates who are taking strong cues from their powerful supporters, from different levels of government.

Dickie Thompson, McFarlane’s pick, will face the conservative Eddie Woodhouse in Tuesday’s runoff. The two beat J.B. Buxton, a high-profile Democrat, by fewer than 100 votes in the Oct. 6 election.

While Thompson received $11,600 from Mayor Nancy McFarlane and husband Ron, Woodhouse is endorsed by the Wake County Republican Party and high-profile Republicans such as Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison, Congressman George Holding and Sen. Richard Burr.

The endorsements are evident in both candidates’ platforms and campaign materials.

McFarlane supported several candidates in this election, all of who were elected to a council seat in October. For Thompson, she also appeared on campaign materials where he said he planned to “keep Raleigh great” by continuing the work led by McFarlane.

Woodhouse’s campaign materials come mostly from a conservative viewpoint: He rails against making Raleigh a sanctuary city and against a $2 billion city debt. He’s for curbing crime across the city.

Woodhouse charges that Thompson was “recruited by the liberal establishment, which binds him to vote their liberal special interests.”

Thompson said in the past he was asked to run by McFarlane. Most of his campaign materials promise to continue the work McFarlane is doing by “keeping Raleigh great” through proper planning.

That would include preparing infrastructure and services for the city’s anticipated growth, Thompson said in an email.

The bulk of Thompson’s experience comes from five years on the city’s planning commission from 1997 to 2004.

While he was chairman of the commission, developers were eager to complete infill projects that often angered residents. Thompson rarely voted against those, opting to approve them with conditions and to encourage discussion between developers and neighbors.

“When I was on the Planning Commission, my approach was to listen to all parties and make the best decisions for Raleigh on a case-by-case basis,” Thompson said.

The Planning Commission is not a political body. If a project fulfills the city’s requirements, the Planning Commission approves it.

Thompson runs his family construction business, J.M. Thompson Company, which has completed three contracted jobs for the city in the last five years.

Woodhouse avoids topics like development and growth and focuses on topics usually reserved for Republicans in higher offices. In an email announcing U.S. Sen. Richard Burr’s endorsement of Woodhouse, he said his efforts on city council will mirror Burr’s plans at the federal level.

“I will stand against the outrageous debt our city has incurred,” Woodhouse said. “We share that concern and I will fight to bring some common sense, ficsal conservatism to the Raleigh City Council.”

Voters have approved more than $2 billion worth of bonds since 2010 and the city has $1.6 billion of debt, most of it incurred to pay for water services.

“The hard-working taxpayers of North Raleigh are less interested in how the City defines debt, but rather are concerned at the decision-making that allowed the accumulation of $1.6 billion or $2 billion in debt,” Woodhouse said in an email.

Woodhouse’s focus on sanctuary cities came after McFarlane was quoted in the Spanish newspaper “La Noticia” saying she was open to discussing municipal IDs for undocumented immigrants.

She later said she was misquoted. The state legislature also recently made sanctuary cities illegal.

And although most of Woodhouse’s campaign shies away from growth and development, which was a major issue in other North Raleigh districts, he did call for a slower process to complete the UDO remapping.

Paul A. Specht contributed to this report

This story was originally published November 1, 2015 at 4:22 PM with the headline "Influence of supporters in Raleigh’s District A is evident."