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Shifting Power City council to get at least 3 new members; Southwest Ward race looks to be close
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Published: November 1, 2009
Updated: 11/01/2009 01:30 am
EARLY VOTERS: 1,134 BALLOTS CAST AS OF FRIDAY AFTERNOON
Change is coming to City Hall.
Even though Mayor Allen Joines is running unopposed in Tuesday's Winston-Salem City Council elections, there will be at least three new faces on the eight-member council after Election Day.
Those faces are likely to be younger, with less political experience and less time spent in the local political trenches.
Two political newcomers -- 21-year-old Derwin Montgomery and 28-year-old James Taylor -- overcame incumbent candidates in the Democratic primary elections.
Democrat incumbent Dan Besse, who, at 54, had been the youngest member of the council, is being challenged by Republican newcomer Ted Shipley, 31.
Taylor is running against Republican Chuck Woolard. The local Republican Party last week pulled its support of Woolard after learning that he had been convicted in the past of misdemeanors that included fraud and possession of marijuana. Election laws do not prohibit Woolard from running.
Montgomery is running unchallenged. If the two succeed in Tuesday's general election, the new city council will be younger and less rooted in party politics.
The members of the current council -- seven Democrats and one Republican -- are all over 50. Most came up through the ranks of their parties, serving on boards and commissions, organizing neighborhoods around local issues and getting involved at City Hall.
Montgomery and Taylor have no political experience, other than their work in this year's campaign.
"It's a welcome breath of fresh air," said Miriam McCarter, the former chairwoman of the Black Chamber of Commerce and a longtime observer of city politics. "It says that the dynamic has changed. That the way it used to be done isn't what's going to be done going forward."
McCarter said she believes that Montgomery and Taylor's primary-election wins are products of the "Obama effect."
"When he entered his name and said he was thinking about running, it was ‘Yeah, right,' because Hillary (Clinton) was in. She had paid her dues, come up through the ranks," McCarter said. "I think having achieved what he did the way that he did gave impetus to people like Montgomery and like Taylor who didn't come up through the trenches."
Montgomery, a Winston-Salem State University student, beat Joycelyn Johnson, who represented the East Ward for 16 years. Taylor, a juvenile-court counselor, beat Evelyn Terry, who had represented the city's Southeast Ward, in a runoff after the Democratic primary. Terry served four years on the council, and filled the seat formerly held by her husband, Fred, who served two four-year terms before deciding not to run for re-election in 2005.
The third seat is the one held by Nelson Malloy Jr., a 20-year veteran of the city council. Malloy, who represents the city's North Ward, announced this summer that he would not seek re-election.
Malloy has endorsed Democrat D.D. Adams. Adams, who has been involved in politics and who has been a community activist for years, is facing Republican John Hopkins, who was among those annexed into the city in 2006. He has rallied other recently annexed residents around calls for lower property taxes and more representation.
In the Southwest Ward, Shipley has made two controversial council decisions central to his campaign.
Shipley, who is also a political newcomer, has criticized the city council for agreeing to spend city money to finish building the downtown baseball stadium. The project stalled after developer Billy Prim's bank financing dried up.
Shipley has also derided the city's incentives agreement with Dell Inc., which plans to close its Forsyth County plant by mid-January.
Besse said he believes that those decisions are not as important to voters as are daily concerns such as streets, police protection and sidewalks.
Still, if local debates and campaign spending are any measure, the race between Besse and Shipley looks to be a close one.
Shipley has raised more than $31,000 for his campaign. Besse has raised about $19,000.
Shipley's campaign has spent the money on yard signs, mailings and on one large billboard on Business 40 near Stratford Road in an effort to get voters to recognize his name, said Sandlin Douglas, Shipley's campaign treasurer.
"Ted has lived here his whole life and has lots of family and friends and clients that are wanting to support him in his first bid for public office," Douglas said. "I think it's a testament to people listening to his message and believing and having faith that he can make a difference."
Besse said he has focused his campaign on encouraging residents to vote -- a challenge in a local election that historically has attracted fewer than 20 percent of eligible voters to the polls.
"My efforts here in the last few days are concentrated on being sure that my supporters remember there's an election on Tuesday," he said. "You have to remind them that the issues they really care about are on the line."
Though Joines is running unopposed, he has used some of the money from his campaign funds to send mailers reminding Winston-Salem residents to vote and explaining his position on the downtown ballpark and incentives to Dell.
In the mailings, Joines also asked voters to support the incumbent candidates, though he has refrained from supporting individual candidates.
"They've always provided real honest and independent counsel to me and to the city staff and, they've always made decisions that they believe are in the best interest of the citizens," Joines said. "We haven't always agreed."
Donald Mac-Thompson, an associate professor at Winston-Salem State University and the coordinator of the university's political science program, said that voters are mostly concerned about the economy.
"We are losing jobs in Winston-Salem -- Dell is moving out, Hanes is going to close sometime soon -- so the economy, the unemployment factor has reason in Winston-Salem," he said. "It stems from the national agenda, what is going on nationally impacting what is going on locally."
Two wards -- the West and South -- have likely already been decided. Incumbent Republican Robert Clark is the only candidate on the ballot for the West Ward; incumbent Democrat Molly Leight is the only candidate on the ballot in the South, although both could lose to write-in candidates.
In the Northeast Ward, Republican Claudia Shivers is challenging Democrat Vivian H. Burke, the mayor pro-tempore and longest-serving member of the city council. Burke has been on the council since 1977.
In the Northwest Ward, Republican Peter Sorensen is challenging incumbent Democrat Wanda Merschel. Merschel has served three four-year terms on the council. Sorensen has not raised enough campaign donations to be required to file a public report showing his donations.
Although a lot is at stake, if early returns are any indication, turnout will be low on Tuesday.
Rob Coffman, Forsyth County's elections director, said that, as of Friday afternoon, 1,134 people had voted early in the Winston-Salem City Council election. Roughly 186,000 people are registered to vote in Winston-Salem.
Martha Kropf, an associate political science professor at UNC Charlotte, said that local elections usually hinge on which candidate persuades voters to come to the polls. She said, generally, voter turnout is low for local elections, "even though local elections are probably more relevant to people's lives than the presidential elections."
"The national issues seem easier, they're usually about things that are bigger issues," Kropf said. "People who voted (in the presidential election) know about a lot of the bigger issues but if you just moved here, what do you know about light rail or what do you know about streetcars?"
Kropf said the presidential race also gets more media attention, and said everyone around the country talks about presidential races, so they are difficult to ignore.
"You prioritize a time to come and vote in the presidential election because you hear about it all the time," she said. "People still don't see the local issues as relevant to their lives."
lgraff@wsjournal.com
727-7279
The polls will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
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