Elections

So you’ve got Barack and Hillary all figured out, but what else is on the ballot?Yes, it’s my periodic profile of the lesser known races on the ballot this May. I will be partisan and leave it to some other writer to profile the Republican Primaries (there are some). And I am skipping over the US President, NC Governor and US Senate races, presuming that you can find some good info on those somewhere else. I am also skipping the Orange School Board and the District 2 Commissioner races because I don't live in either of those districts and have not really followed those races.So what else is out there? A bunch of stuff and some of it is even fairly important. I have bolded below the names of folks that I think are the clear choice. In a few races you will see two bolded names in cases where I think progressive voters have an interesting choice to make. I personally have an opinion about those races as well and that may come through in my commentary.Lieutenant Governor – No Incumbent There are four candidates for Lieutenant Governor, but only two of them seem to have much of a following in this area: Hampton Dellinger and Dan Besse.

We have a big primary in North Carolina this year. I'm overseas and will be voting as soon as I get that ballot in hand. So, please share your endorsements here! Especially for the local and state offices; I'm already pretty clear on the presidential primary.

Editor's note: Joan wrote this a month ago, when many of us hadn't made up our minds. I think now people will have more to say. Consider this an official special rules thread. That is: You may only mention candidates that you are endorsing, please do not discuss people you don't support or why you don't support them. Comments that don't follow these guidelines will be removed. Thanks. =Ruby

The Town of Chapel Hill is proposing a system to provide public financing to candidates that can demonstrate a base level of community support. This can be a great way to help candidates focus more on talking to voters and less time on raising money.

The Council discussed this at their meeting tonight. Did anyone else watch this? If so, can you explain Kevin Wolff's comments, because I didn't find him especially coherent. He kept calling himself "viable" and claimed that incumbents running for re-election was hypocritical.

Chapel Hill is the first municipality in North Carolina to receive legislative authorization to provide a locally funded public campaign financing program. Session Law 2007-222 provides the following key requirements.