Winston-Salem City Councilman Dan Besse of the Southwest Ward is running unopposed in the Democratic primary. Two Republicans, Ted Shipley and Donald T. Shaw, are vying to be their party's candidate for the seat. We believe that Shipley is the best candidate in the Republican primary for the Southwest Ward seat. The primaries are Sept. 15.
The winner of the Republican primary will face an uphill battle. Besse, a 54-year-old lawyer who grew up in Hickory, has been a dedicated public servant during his two terms on the council and a leader on environmental issues such as the tree ordinance that passed this year.
Shaw, 77, said that the city council has not been a good steward of the public's money because of its decisions to give millions of dollars in incentives to the Dell computer plant and millions for the downtown baseball stadium. He's against all incentives, he said.
Shaw grew up in Mount Airy. He has spent most of his adult life in Winston-Salem, having come here after serving in the Marine Corps. He owns a HVAC company. He complains about the city's taxes, its storm-water ordinance and its annexation of surrounding areas. He said that the city should improve its police protection, garbage collection and street maintenance. He would like to do away with the ward system and have all council members elected at-large.
Besse soundly defeated Shaw in the 2005 general election. Shaw seems to want the best for the city, but his criticisms far outweigh his ideas about how to fix problems.
In contrast, Shipley, 31, has several good ideas. For example, he suggests more auditing of city services to make sure they're being administered economically and efficiently. This is Shipley's first run for public office. He grew up in Winston-Salem, graduated from the Wake Forest University School of Law and is an associate in the Spilman Thomas & Battle law firm. He practices corporate law and describes himself as a conservative Republican.
He said he can understand why the city had to offer incentives to Dell, but the city should stand by its claw-back clause on those incentives if Dell doesn't meet the expectations for job creation spelled out in its agreement with the city.
In regard to the baseball stadium, he said that there should have been guarantees, such as a collateral pledge from developer Billy Prim and his former partner, Flip Filipowski, from the start. The oversight measures that the city council put in place in June should have also been there from the beginning, Shipley said.
He said that the council has misplaced priorities. It devotes time and attention to regulating trees in the city, but is not being careful enough with public dollars on the stadium.
We like Shipley's positive, pragmatic approach on other concerns, including his call for more accountability on projects involving public dollars. Should he win his party's nomination, he would give Besse a healthy challenge.
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