Jim Painter, Matthew Shelton and Peter Sorensen are running in the Sept. 15 Republican primary for the Northwest Ward Winston-Salem City Council seat. The winner will challenge Democrat Wanda Merschel, who is unopposed in her primary, in the Nov. 3 general election. Sorensen would be the most qualified challenger.
Merschel, a 59-year-old banker seeking her fourth term, will be hard to beat in the general election. She is hard-working and accessible.
Painter, 57, grew up here, was educated at Wake Forest University and is the co-owner of Contempo Concepts, a furniture store on Fourth Street. He wants to see council members limited to two terms, is against forced annexation and would like to see the police department and sheriff's office combined to be more efficient and to save money. He described Winston-Salem as "lagging behind," and said the city should be run like a business.
He supports the downtown baseball park, he said, but believes the council should have provided better oversight of the project from the start. The ballpark is in the southernmost part of the Northwest Ward. Painter said he's not opposed to incentives in general, but "on Dell, I just think we gave away so much."
He has raised concerns about downtown issues, including lack of parking.
Shelton, 38, grew up here, was educated at UNC Charlotte and is in customer service with Shamrock, a Greensboro company that sells material for school fundraisers. He wants improved trash collection and smaller city budgets. He's not against incentives, he said, but the city should have required better communication on employment figures from Dell.
The council should not have approved a total of $27.7 million in financial support for the baseball stadium, he said, and he questions whether the park will be able to attract enough customers to pay for itself.
He's also concerned about the recent layoff of John Giles, a beloved teacher at Mount Tabor High School, and school-bond referendums, and said that he intends to be at every school-board meeting.
Sorensen, 40, grew up in California, was educated at American Intercontinental University, an online university based in Georgia, and is an underwriting account manager for WFDD, the local public radio station.
He said that the council has not been a good steward of tax dollars, and the city should create more favorable conditions for business. His Lochurst neighborhood was annexed by the city, and he's an opponent of such forced annexation. The council places too much emphasis on downtown revitalization and not enough on the outlying areas, he said. He said that council members should be limited to two terms.
The council should have given the public more time to evaluate the latest financial support for the ballpark project -- $15.7 million mostly in a loan guarantee -- before approving it. The ballpark should have been privately financed, he said, like the Greensboro ballpark.
The city should have required more stringent benchmarks and accountability on employment figures from Dell, he said. He sees incentives as a necessary evil. If the state would overhaul its tax structure to make it more business-friendly, he said, the need for incentives would be eliminated.
He supports his views with sound arguments and thoughtful solutions. The Journal endorses Peter Sorensen in the Republican primary for the Northwest Ward Council seat.
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