October 2003
In addition to a plethora of candidates on this year's ballot, Chapel Hill voters will have five bond questions to decide. They are (approximately):
$5.0m Parks & recreation;
$2.0m Open space preservation;
$16.2m Library improvement;
$5.6m Sidewalks & streets;
$0.5m Energy-efficent buildings
Here's an article from the Chapel Hill Herald on the Town Council's approval of the bonds. What do you think? How will you vote?
So, Ann Coulter is speaking at Carolina tonight, and I'm already getting the hives imagining the news coverage: the protesters, the earnest critics with their well-researched and relevant questions who will be brushed aside, the outraged haranguers lobbing their accusations only to have them turned into punchlines. Is there anything about Ann Coulter that should prompt anyone with any knowledge of history (or of patriotism, or of good manners, or of treason) to go out and see her speak?
It is almost midnight and I really need to go to bed since I have to get up at 5 AM. A little over an hour ago I finished the third forum of this Town council race and I'm a little too wired. I did poorly, which is totally my own fault. I am frustrated with the forums. There are too many candidates and it is really getting dull listening to all of us prattle on. The CAN forum tonight started with a question on school merger and went nowhere from there. All of our answers are too long, in most cases not substantive and occasionally insipid. This should be providing voters with a glimpse of their choices, if anyone is watching. After seeing us all in action I know who is repeating rehearsed pablum at every opportunity and who is actually trying to answer the question, but I only get one vote and my mind is made up.
The formats could be adjusted to speed things up. Maybe someone will try something new, encourage candidates to ask questions of each other, mix it up a little.
The Chapel Hill Herald reports on the second round of fundraising numbers for Chapel Hill Town Council candidates. Here's how it looks:
- Rudy Juliano: $10,164 ($9,764 self-loan)
- Sally Greene: $6,736.13 ($500 self-loan)
- Diane Bachman: $5,600 (5,000 self-loan)
- Bill Strom (i): $5,112
- Thatcher Freund: $4,336 ($1,200 self-loan)
- Doug Schworer: $2,480
- Terri Tyson: $1,790.83 ($1,600 self-loan)
- Andrea Rohrbacher: $1,450 ($1,000 self-loan)
- Cam Hill: $1,105
- Mike McSwain: $750 ($400 self-loan)
- Jim Ward (i): $155
- Woodrow Barfield is expected to spend less than $3,000 is therefore not required to report.
I will try post some numbers from previous elections along with the results of those races for camparison. More money does not equal more votes. But it can sometimes help determine who has a "serious" campaign.
(This is a reprint from a local listserv.)
The Orange County Unit of the League of Women Voters is planning three Candidates Forums (for Chapel Hill's Council race, Carrboro's Board of Aldermen and Mayoral races, and for the CH/Carrboro Board of Education race) in the month of October. Forums are scheduled for 7:00 pm
Tuesday 10/14, CH/Carrboro Board of Education in Chapel Hill Town Hall
Thursday 10/16, CH Town Council in CH Town Hall
Wednesday 10/22, Part 1:Carrboro Board of Aldermen and Part two: Mayor; in Carrboro's Town Hall
(Repost from an e-mail.)
Citizens for Livable Communities (CLC) will hold a "Musical Chairs Forum" on Sunday, October 19, from 2 - 4 pm in the large meeting room at the Chapel Hill Library.
A "musical chairs" format was very successful and fun two years ago. We are doing it again. This format will provide citizens a unique small group opportunity for local residents to ask questions in a non-intimidating setting and for the candidate to explain his or her views. Candidates will visit each table for a stated period of time. Unlike musical chairs there will always be a seat for the candidate.
Please refer questions to Kristina Ahlen, 485- 7722 or Julie McClintock, 541-5339, or reply to this e-mail.
The Citizens for Livable Communities Organizing Committee
CLC promotes livable communities through citizen involvement, dialogue and advocacy.
People around here love the word "smart." We're "smart." We have "smart" kids. We drink "smart" juice. We believe in "smart" growth. And now we want a smart-growth high school in Carrboro.
The smart-growth high school may represent the unified theory of folks who have escaped the city, embraced the space and beauty of our landscape and the pace of our lifestyles, but are still nostalgic for the days when they attended schools that began with "P.S." Establishing an urban neighborhood school in a non-urban environment would represent the overcoming of the last great obstacle to this marriage of fire and water we've been noodling with for the better part of a decade. That is, how to live a life as charged and overflowing and creative and convenient as life in Brooklyn (or Wicker Park, or Cambridge), while dispensing with the smell, and the crowds, and the dirt, and the attenuation of the natural world. Maybe in Carrboro, we think, we can just wish it into being.
I just got this in the mail today, the forum is Thursday. I know you candidates are getting run ragged, but at least people want to hear from you! People who are going to vote, and possibly even make endorsements. When I ran four years ago, it was hard to tell if anyone was paying attention at all. Plus campaigning is just as much work as serving on the Council (but without the stipend) so like it or lump it...
Here's the schedule:NAACP Candidates Forum: October 9, 2003, 6 pm
St. Joseph CME Church, 510 W. Rosemary Street
Carrboro Mayor6:05 - 6:15
Carrboro Board of Aldermen6:15 - 7:00
Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Board7:00 - 7:50
Chapel Hill Mayor7:50 - 8:00
Chapel Hill Town Council8:00 - 9:30
(From 'Friends of Affordable Housing' press release.)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 23, 2003
Affordable Housing Group Endorses Strom, Ward and Greene
The affordable housing advocacy group Friends of Affordable Housing announced their endorsement of three candidates for the Chapel Hill Town Council Tuesday morning. The group based its decisions on voting records, questionnaires and responses to questions at the Northside neighborhood forum. Incumbent Council Members Bill Strom and Jim Ward were endorsed, as well as challenger Sally Greene.
The organization's spokesperson Rich Leber said, "Bill Strom has been one of North Carolina's leading lights in the realm of affordable housing." The group recognized his leadership on requiring affordable housing in new real estate developments in Chapel Hill and held his work out as a model for other elected officials in North Carolina.
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