More than two dozen candidates have filed for election, reelection through Wed.
More than two dozen candidates have filed for election or reelection, through Wednesday (the eighth day of a 10-day filing period that ends Friday at noon), according to the Alamance County Board of Elections.
This week’s focus seems to be in Burlington, where councilman Ronnie Wall intends to run for mayor [see separate story in this edition] and councilman Harold Owen will seek a third term on the council [see separate story in this edition].
No one else has yet filed for mayor, but three others have filed for city council seats. Former mayor Ian Baltutis filed for a city council seat. Mayor Jim Butler, who ousted Baltutis four years ago, is not seeking reelection. And Donna M. Vanhook, who ran for Burlington mayor in 2021 and as a Democrat for state senate in 2024, has filed for a seat on the Burlington city council.
Also filing this week for a city council seat is former Burlington police chief Jeffrey Smythe, who stepped down from his post after eight years in the job in 2021. He is now the director of the N.C. Criminal Justice Standards Division in Raleigh.
Burlington is the only local municipality that has a potential for a primary. If more than two candidates file for mayor (Wall is the first to indicate an intention to do so), or more than four for the two city council seats, there will be a primary on October 7 to narrow the number before the general election on November 4.
Any additional city council candidates will trigger a October 7 primary in order to whittle the choices down to four.
A lot of focus is in Graham, where Randy Phillips, a retired emergency services worker, filed within the first few hours for one of the two available seats on Graham’s city council.
City councilman Bobby Chin filed for a second, four-year term on the city council, which also drew a second non-incumbent candidate, Jim Young, a member of the city’s planning board and a former mayoral candidate in 2017. The second incumbent Graham councilman, Joey Parsons, has indicated he will not seek reelection inasmuch as he is anticipating a move outside the city.
And Graham mayor Jennifer Talley also filed for reelection.
Another area which will apparently have some lively competition is in Mebane. Incumbent Mebane council members Tim Bradley, who’s currently serving as the mayor pro tem, and Montrena Hadley filed for reelection on Wednesday. The third incumbent, Jonathan White, has filed Friday.
Meanwhile, at least three challengers are planning to run. Blair Helms filed on Tuesday; meanwhile, former planning board member Kurt Pearson announced last week for a seat on the Mebane city council, although he had not yet filed. Filing Tuesday was Rick Thomas.
In Swepsonville, three incumbent council members filed for reelection on Monday: Henry Carrouth, who currently serves as mayor, as well as incumbent councilmen John Andrews and Wilbur Suggs.
They will be joined on the ballot by non-incumbent Lee Walls, who filed Thursday.
In Elon, non-incumbent Steve Exum filed for a seat on the town council. Two council seats are on the ballot this year, those of Randy Orwig and Stephanie Bourland, although Bourland has indicated she doesn’t intend to seek reelection. Orwig filed on Thursday, as did another newcomer for the Elon town council, Mich-ael Ratigan.
Elon’s incumbent mayor Emily Sharpe also filed on Thursday.
In Gibsonville, Darian Smith has filed for the partial remaining two year-term caused by the January resignation of long-time mayor Lenny Williams.
Incumbent alderman Paul Dean has filed for reelection; newcomer Byron Bellman has also filed for one of two available seats on the board of aldermen. No word yet on the intentions of Bryant Crisp, the other incumbent Gibsonville alderman first elected in 2021.
Patricia Jones and Jose McBroom filed for reelection to two available seats on the Green Level town council. Meanwhile, a third candidate, Lesley Sanders-Carter, has also filed for the Green Level town council, as has former councilman Theodore “Ted” Howard, who did not seek reelection when his last term expired in 2023; Howard placed fifth for the three seats that year , anyway, with 45 write-in votes.
Incumbent councilmen Richard A. Overman and Jim McAdams have filed for the two seats on the Ossipee town council.
In Haw River, town councilman Shawn Riggan has filed for reelection to the city council; also filing for one of two open seats on the town council is Debbie A. Brown. One Haw River council seat is vacant by virtue of the elevation of then-councilman Lee Lovette to be mayor after then-mayor Kelly Allen was appointed by the Alamance County Republican Party to serve on the county’s board of commissioners.
Incumbent alderman Philip Cheap filed for one of three alderman seats on the Village of Alamance board of aldermen, as did newcomer Ken Cass; incumbent alderman Gayle S. Andrews has also filed; filing for reelection Friday was the village’s mayor, Don Tichy.
The filing period ends at noon this Friday, July 18.
