Romaine joins Carrboro Board of Aldermen; Seils, Slade reelected

The last votes for Carrboro Board of Aldermen were cast on Tuesday. Incumbents Damon Seils and Sammy Slade were reelected, and first-time candidate Susan Romaine will join the Board.

Members of the Carrboro Board of Aldermen are elected to four-year terms.

Seils addressed supporters Tuesday night at an election party at SteelStreet in Carrboro.

“I feel really great about the results,” he said. “I’ve felt good about the campaign all along. I think it was a really well-executed campaign, and I’m really happy about how we engaged the people in the community. I’ve met so many new people, as well as old friends and old supporters. Being able to pull that all together into a really fun, lengthy campaign over many months was gratifying.”

Seils also serves as mayor pro tem in Carrboro. This was his first reelection bid for the Board of Aldermen.

Susan Romaine, a founder of PORCH and Orange County Living Wage, won the seat being vacated by outgoing Board of Aldermen member Bethany Cheney.

Romaine spent time at the Carrboro Town Hall polling location on Election Day. 

“I wish we had more racial diversity, ethnic diversity,” she said. “What I’m very happy about is we do have geographical diversity among the candidates. I’m on the northern part of town, and Steve Friedman represents the southern neighborhoods. We have never had a resident from Lake Haven Farms to serve on the Board of Aldermen. If I had the opportunity to bring that voice to the board, I think it would be a really wonderful thing to have a little bit more geographical diversity.”

Incumbent Sammy Slade, a white man, said one of his goals in his next term is to give a voice to underrepresented populations in the town.

“We have diversity in town percentage-wise that we don’t have represented as candidates, so I’m thinking specifically Latino and African-American candidates, we have a lot of Asian population in town, that is not represented either,” he said. “As people we don’t represent those populations in our ethnicity or race, my hope is that our next best thing is that we represent in policy."

Steve Friedman, another first-time candidate, congratulated the winners at his election party at Craftboro in Carrboro.  

“Congratulations to all of the candidates that ran," Friedman said. "It was a tight campaign, and no matter who wins, Carrboro is in good hands.”

The Orange County Board of Elections will meet to certify all results on the morning of Nov. 15. All results are unofficial until they have been certified.

@MichaelJTaffe

city@dailytarheel.com