Primary importance
Ladies and gentlemen of Guilford County, we have a legislative primary.
Two Republicans are now registered in House District 57, currently held by Democrat Rep. Pricey Harrison.
Perennial candidate Joseph Rahenkamp will face Ron Styers, a name that’s new to me. A quick check with a couple local Republican officials I called yielded nothing this evening either. (I’d love to say I have a call into him, but the BOE has a bad phone number listed and the phone company doesn’t list his number.)
This legislative primary appears to be the exception in Guilford County, unless something changes between now and tomorrow (Tuesday) at noon.
None of the four state senators who represent the county – Phil Berger, Kay Hagan, Katie Dorsett and Stan Bingham – have any registered opposition in either the primary or general election.
Similarly, Reps. John Blust and Laura Wiley so far have free rides. Pending contests (other than for Harrison’s seat) for the November general election include:
- Maggie Jeffus, a Democrat, faces a rematch of her 2004 run against Republican Jim Rumley.
- Alma Adams, a Democrat, faces a rematch of her 2004 contest against Olga Morgan Wright.
- Earl Jones, a Democrat, faces a challenge from Bill Wright, a Pleasant Garden Republican and former mayor of that town councilman and mayor. In his last run for office, he took on County Commissioner Billy Yow and lost in a very close primary.
In federal races, there appear to be Republican primaries shaping up in both the 12th (Mel Watt’s seat) and the 13th (Brad Miller’s seat). More on those later.