Southern Pines 2011: Former mayors endorsing David McNeill

A regular reader of this blog called me today.  This person was doing business in downtown Southern Pines when they came across four former mayors of Southern Pines — Jane Clark, Frank Quis, Mike Fields, and Alex Bowness — posing together for a photograph. With this being election season, my source was a wee bit curious about this development.

After some investigation, my source confirmed that the four former mayors were taking a photo for an ad — to run within a week in The Pilot — endorsing the mayoral bid of Town Councilman David McNeill.  McNeill is running in November against his council colleague Chris Smithson — who lost the 2007 mayoral race to Mike Haney.

The group represents every mayor to have served the town from 1987 to 2007.  It includes all living former mayors of Southern Pines — with the exception of Norris Hodgkins.