Municipal elections see low turnout, turnover

This year's municipal election season came to a close Nov. 8 with most incumbents retaining their seats in office and some newcomers gaining the chance to exercise political clout.

Chapel Hill

Three familiar faces will return to the Chapel Hill Town Council as a result of the election, and they will serve with a newcomer who bested them all.

Incumbents Ed Harrison and Mark Kleinschmidt both succeeded in their bids for re-election. Bill Thorpe returned to the council after an 18-year absence.

Laurin Easthom, in her first time running for elected office, joined them. Easthom topped all council candidates with 3,788 votes, edging Kleinschmidt, who had 3,772 votes.

Challengers Will Raymond, Robin Cutson and Jason Baker, a UNC student, placed fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively.

In the Chapel Hill mayoral race, voters re-elected Kevin Foy to his seat in a landslide victory against challenger and new resident Kevin Wolff. Foy received almost 80 percent of the votes.

Carrboro

Two incumbents prevailed and one newcomer was welcomed to the Carrboro Board of Aldermen.

Incumbents Jacquelyn Gist, John Herrera and newcomer Randee Haven-O'Donnell easily won seats.

Gist, a four-time incumbent, garnered 26 percent of the total vote, or 1,545 votes. Haven-O'Donnell received 1,280 votes, 33 more than incumbent Herrera received.

Challengers Katrina Ryan, Catherine DeVine and David Marshall came in fourth, fifth and sixth place, respectively.

In a race that some expected to be much closer, Mark Chilton won the mayor's seat - leaving opponent and fellow alderman Alex Zaffron to serve out the remainder of his term on the board. Chilton carried the race with 63 percent of the vote.

Board of Education

Only one new face joined the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education this term.

Incumbents Lisa Stuckey and Pam Hemminger held on to their seats, with the third open spot going to newcomer Jean Hamilton.

Results show that Stuckey garnered the most votes with 5,949. Challenger Jeff Danner missed the cut with 3,282 votes.

Hillsborough

Hillsborough saw an upset in its mayoral race but reaffirmed two incumbent town board members.

Tom Stevens, the only first-time challenger in the Hillsborough races, won the mayoral seat against two-time incumbent Joe Phelps, taking more than 51 percent of the vote.

Incumbent town board members Mike Gering and Frances Dancy finished first and second with 689 and 653 votes, respectively. Challenger Paul Newton came in third with 573 votes.

School tax

Orange County Schools district residents soundly defeated a referendum that would have introduced a special tax in the district.

The tax's proponents said it would have worked to equalize funding inequalities between the county and Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, which already has its own special tax - one that generates about $13 million annually.

By a vote of 1,156 to 4,087, the referendum was rejected.

 

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.