The Winston-Salem City Council has emerged from one of its most contentious election cycles with three new members, the biggest change it's seen in years. The three Democrats -- James Taylor of the Southeast Ward, D.D. Adams of the North Ward and Derwin Montgomery of the East Ward -- must learn to work with the incumbents and Mayor Allen Joines when they are sworn in next month. They will be challenged right away with finding a tenant for the Dell computer plant and bringing the downtown baseball stadium to completion.
Those projects defined the campaigns that ended with Tuesday's election. Republican challengers raised questions about the council's oversight of the details of the Dell incentives deal and the stadium project, especially in the initial stages of both deals.
The council approved millions of dollars in incentives for Dell and financial backing for the stadium.
As the council races heated up through the summer, challengers to the incumbents had plenty of fodder. Dell had laid off employees a few months before and gave few details about that move.
The council approved a second cash infusion for the ballpark in June, but construction was still stalled weeks later because developer Billy Prim had failed to close his end of the deal.
As the Sept. 15 primaries approached, Republican challengers questioned the council's handling of Dell and the ballpark. Democrats did so to a lesser degree, but placed more of their emphasis on the need for economic development in general. In the Democratic primary, Montgomery, a Winston-Salem State University student, scored an upset victory over long-term councilwoman Joycelyn Johnson. Taylor, a juvenile-court counselor, beat out one-term incumbent Evelyn Terry in a runoff race. Adams, a quality engineer for Johnson Controls, beat out fellow Democrats to become her party's candidate to run against Republican John Hopkins for the seat held for 20 years by Nelson Malloy, a champion of social justice.
The scenario started to improve for the incumbents in recent weeks.
The ballpark deal finally closed and construction resumed. Dell promised to repay the incentives to the city. And late Monday, thanks to a request from Joines, Dell wired $26.5 million, its repayment to the city, Forsyth County, the Millennium Fund and the Forsyth County Development Fund. The money was recouped because of the strong agreement the city had with Dell.
Yet there was obvious discontent with the status quo Tuesday. Joines, who lacked formal competition, had 988 random write-in votes cast against him, including several for Billy Prim and "anybody but." Democrat Molly Leight of the South Ward, also unopposed, faced last-minute efforts from two candidates that produced a total of 697 write-in votes. And James Taylor's opponent, Republican Chuck Woolard, a fierce critic of the Dell and ballpark deals, received 292 votes, even though his own party had withdrawn support from him after news that he has misdemeanor convictions of forgery and possession of marijuana.
But only about 9 percent of the 143,629 eligible voters turned out for Tuesday's election. The incumbents in contested races -- Mayor Pro Tem Vivian Burke of the Northeast Ward, Wanda Merschel of the Northwest Ward and Dan Besse of the Southwest Ward -- all beat their respective Republican opponents, Claudia Shivers, Peter Sorensen and Ted Shipley, by significant margins. The council's lone Republican, Robert Clark, was unopposed.
The incumbents' records of strong constituent service obviously helped them. Shipley acknowledged as much in comments he made in conceding to Besse. "He's really good at city services, at day-to-day activities, and that's what people remember," he said.
Incumbents have said they have learned from the Dell and ballpark projects. Their vision and experience are as needed on the council as are the fresh ideas that the three new members will bring.
The city has turned a major corner. Much remains to be done. A task force needs help finding a new tenant for the Dell plant. And careful oversight is needed as the ballpark is pushed to completion.
Now that the healthy debates of the campaign season are over, it's time to move forward together.
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