News-Record.com

Cue the laugh track.

In today's N&R, we ran a story on the high number of unopposed candidates in Guilford County races this late in the filing period for the 2008 election.

Yesterday I spoke with George Gilbert, director of the Guilford County Board of Elections, on how things look so far in his experience handling elections. And he's a jokester. Between all that, he also had some insights about why this filing period looks the way it does now.

In my rounds of county commissioner calls today I talked with District 5 Republican Billy Yow and District 8 Democrat Skip Alston, who both gave me a laugh with their updates on how their reelection campaigns are coming along.

Alston told me that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are heading in town to stump for him.

"They heard I was getting contested and said they were going to come through," Alston said, laughing.

It's doubtful that Democrat Greg Woodard, Alston's District 8 primary competitor, has much to worry about. With Hillary's wins in Texas and Ohio, she and Obama probably have much bigger fish to fry.

Billy Yow said he held a big fundraiser Tuesday night with more than 400 supporters that raised about $20,000 for the campaign through raffle ticket sales, he estimated.

Like District 8, the winner of the District 5 seat will be decided in the primary. Republicans Lisa Andrews and Rick Wallace are aiming for the seat Yow holds now.

Yow said he spent time talking to folks and serving food, and when I asked if he made a speech, he said he told a joke, paraphrased here:

Two challengers in two different Guilford County Commissioner races now have an official web presence.

Democrat Greg Woodard, District 8 candidate.

Republican Rick Wallace, District 5 candidate.

Rudy Binder and Larry Proctor, two candidates seeking at-large bids to the Guilford County Board of Commissioners, recently joined the list of county commissioner candidates who are online.

Proctor and Binder are among a field of five Republicans that will be whittled to two candidates in the May 6 primary. The other Republican candidates include E.H. Hennis, Joseph Rahenkamp and Wendell Sawyer.

Two of those Republicans will advance to the November election and face incumbents John Parks and Paul Gibson for their seats on the board.

Here is Billy Yow's website.

The twice-elected Guilford County Commissioner has a few sentences on his incumbency, a link to donate to his campaign and external links to voting deadlines and the county board of elections.

Yow is running for the District 5 seat in the May 6 primary against Rick Wallace and Lisa Andrews.

Here's some clips from the editorial interview conducted by Allen Johnson and Doug Clark with District 5 Guilford County commissioner candidates Billy Yow and Rick Wallace. The third candidate, Lisa Andrews, couldn't make it out.

So two answered questions on their support for bonds and a new quarter-cent sales tax, and then got to meaty stuff: fightin' commissioners.

For the uninitiated, Guilford commissioners are known for their open debates that occasionally turn hostile.

These are things that have even been used to campaign.

So when Wallace got first crack at what separates him from Yow, he went straight for what he called professionalism. listen
(1 min 20 sec)

And Yow, with the same question, came with his philosophy on the 11 commissioners, and the tinder box that can create
(48 sec)

Democrat Greg Woodard e-mailed us today to say that he's not bowing out of the District 8 race for the Guilford County Board of Commissioners against incumbent Melvin "Skip" Alston.

Woodard, who has been sick, added that he's getting healthier every day, and that over the weekend many people called his home to offer help on his campaign. He has to limit his phone calls to less than three minutes, but welcomes e-mails with questions about his campaign.

From his e-mail:

After all, everyone gets sick. I just got sick at a bad time. I'll be back on my feet in no time and if I win, I'll be well healed long before I am sworn in.

You may want to note, I have 23 yrs. of decorated service in the Military and have been very active in the community, I don't go down that easy.

Here's his blog, which has some more on his health and details of his candidacy.

No matter the outcome of the race, we hope Woodard recovers soon. Primary Day is May 6.

The Republican primary races for Guilford County commissioner may be closer than most people first thought.

Here's a stab at a possible reason:

Of the folks that I've talked to at a couple of precincts today, the majority chose to vote in the Democratic primary. That means that in the District 5 Republican primary, where incumbent Billy Yow faces former Pleasant Garden Mayor Rick Wallace and barely-there candidate Lisa Andrews, voters who could otherwise help tip a wider margin in that race are not selecting Republican ballots. Those voters are instead shooting for the presidential Democratic nominee.

This is important because the winner in the District 5 primary will likely be the winner overall, unless the loser seeks a runoff (which can be declared only after all ballots are counted). There are no Democratic candidates for District 5.

The same theory could go for the At Large county commissioner primary. Two winners in that field of five Republicans will face Democratic incumbents Paul Gibson and John Parks in November.

That's the pull of a presidential primary for you, which can take credit for another effect. I interviewed a woman in her 40s today who voted for her first time. At another precinct I spoke with 40-ish woman voting the second time ever.

Then again, the argument could be made that any newcomers to the election probably are only interested in the national political scene, not local politics.

Whaaa? Who wouldn't find this stuff interesting?