Hats in the ring

Published 5:11 pm Friday, July 5, 2013

Candidates for municipal elections in Beaufort County were in no hurry Friday to file papers to seek office.

The filing period for those elections began at noon Friday.

“This is the first time since I’ve been here that we had nobody here at noon,” said Anita Bullock Branch, deputy director of the Beaufort County Board of Elections, at 12:30 p.m. Friday.

Branch has been working at the Board of Elections since October 2001.

Around 1 p.m., former City Council member Gil Davis, who lost his council seat in the 2011 election, and Lloyd May, an unsuccessful candidate for City Council in the 2011, filed within about five minutes of each other, Branch said. Davis and May, respectively, came in sixth and seventh in the 2011 election. The top give vote-getters in that election and winning seats on the council were Bobby Roberson, Edward Moultrie, Doug Mercer, William Pitt and Richard Brooks.

Chocowinity Mayor Jimmy Mobley filed for re-election Friday.

The filing period ends at noon July 19. Municipal elections in Beaufort County are nonpartisan. County voters who do not live in a municipality will not vote this year.

One Washington City Council member likely will not seek re-election.

“I’m undecided. I probably will not run,” Moultrie, in his second term, said Friday afternoon.

Another council member is uncertain of his political future.

“I’m undecided,” Mercer said Friday afternoon.

Jay MacDonald Hodges III, known as “Mac” or “Bear,” has announced his intent to seek the mayor’s seat held by Archie Jennings, who is not seeking re-election. He had not filed as of 5 p.m. Friday.

In Washington, the mayor’s seat and all seats on the five-member council are available this election cycle. The council members and mayor do not serve staggered terms. The mayor and council members serve two-year terms.

In Aurora, the mayor’s seat and two seats on the Board of Commissioners are available. Aurora voters will also elect a commissioner to serve out the remainder of the unexpired term of former Commissioner George Jones. W.C. Boyd was appointed in March to replace Jones.

There are two seats available on the four-member Bath Board of Commissioners this election cycle. The town’s mayor and commissioners serve four-year terms that are staggered

Belhaven voters will elect two aldermen and a mayor this election cycle. The Board of Alderman has five members, three from the east end of town and two from the west end. The aldermen serve four-year terms. The mayor serves a two-year term.

Belhaven voters also will select someone to serve the remainder of the unexpired term of former Alderman Cindy Ross.

In Chocowinity, the mayor’s seat and two seats on the four-member Board of Commissioners are available this election cycle.

All five seats are available on the Pantego Board of Commissioners this election cycle, along with the mayor’s seat. The mayor and commissioners serve two-year terms.

In Washington Park, the mayor’s seat and all seats on that town’s five-member Town Council are available this election cycle. The mayor and council members serve two-year terms.

About Mike Voss

Mike Voss is the contributing editor at the Washington Daily News. He has a daughter and four grandchildren. Except for nearly six years he worked at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., in the early to mid-1990s, he has been at the Daily News since April 1986.
Journalism awards:
• Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service, 1990.
• Society of Professional Journalists: Sigma Delta Chi Award, Bronze Medallion.
• Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award.
• Investigative Reporters & Editors’ Award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Public Service Award, 1989.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Investigative Reporting, 1990.
All those were for the articles he and Betty Gray wrote about the city’s contaminated water system in 1989-1990.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Investigative Reporting, 1991.
• North Carolina Press Association, Third Place, General News Reporting, 2005.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Lighter Columns, 2006.
Recently learned he will receive another award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Lighter Columns, 2010.
4. Lectured at or served on seminar panels at journalism schools at UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, Columbia University, Mary Washington University and Francis Marion University.

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