The death of John Paisley, Jr. has done more than just rob the community of a dedicated civic leader. It has also created a vacancy on the county’s board of commissioners that will ultimately have to be filled by the county’s voters this fall.
Because early voting has already begun for next month’s primary elections, Paisley’s now vacant seat won’t appear on the ballot during either party primary. Instead, the local leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties will each have an opportunity to nominate a candidate for an abbreviated two-year stint to complete the remainder of Paisley’s four-year term on the county’s governing board. This special, two-year term will appear on November’s ballot as a separate item from the two, four-year seats that are also scheduled to come up for a vote.
In the meantime, the local Republican Party, which had counted Paisley as a longstanding member, will have an opportunity to select a temporary successor to warm Paisley’s old seat on the dais from then until the general election.
Under state law, a vacancy on a county board of commissioners is filled in either one of two ways depending on the jurisdiction where it occurs. In Alamance and 41 other counties, the decision rests with the executive committee of whichever party the former office holder had espoused when elected to office.
According to the county’s elections director Dawn Hurdle, Paisley’s colleagues in the local GOP have a limited time to make their selection, which the board of commissioners is then obligated to accept.
“The statute says that the Republican Party will have 30 days following the occurrence of the vacancy,” Hurdle went on to elaborate in an interview, “to make a recommendation for who will fill the seat temporarily.”
Once the 30-day period has run out, the board of commissioners is free to make the selection themselves from among the county’s other registered Republicans.
Prior to his death, Paisley had sounded out some potential contenders for his seat should his health prevent him from serving out his four years in office. These prospects included Burlington businessman Sam Powell, who had served both on the board of commissioners and Burlington’s city council more than two decades ago.
Last fall, Powell made a personal appearance when the commissioners convened one of their semimonthly meetings without Paisley, who tuned in to the proceedings from home. At the time, Powell told The Alamance News that it was at the behest of the ailing commissioner that he attended the meeting in person.
“He’s looking for people who are willing to consider it,” he elaborated. “I had served on the board for four years from ‘98 to ‘02…and I think that there are several people that the Republican Party is looking at as potential replacements if John steps down.”
Paisley found himself in a very similar position in 2014 after former county commissioner Tom Manning gave up his seat in favor of a staff-level posting as the county’s finance officer. The local Republican Party went on to tap Paisley as Manning’s temporary successor. Since Manning’s departure occurred early in the election cycle, a primary battle followed between Paisley and former county commissioner Eddie Boswell, who had previously been elected to office as a Democrat before defecting to the Republican Party.
Voters in that year’s Republican primary went on to pick Boswell as their standard bearer for the general election, where he easily defeated Democratic contender Harold D. Bowling. Paisley served out his stint as Manning’s seat filler, although he had better luck in 2020 when he was one of three newly-elected Republicans to join the board of commissioners. He was reelected in 2024 to another four year term on the board.
