Your early voting cliff notes, Moore County edition

Part 1 and Part 2 have already been published.  This post is tailored to those of us who live among the bunkers, tees and greens of ‘America’s Golf Capital.’

County Board of Commissioners.   Conservative Nick Picerno is unopposed in District 2 this year.  So, we will not see his name until November.  However, District 4 has an Adams vs. Adams battle royale.  To paraphrase one Forrest Gump: “[…They] are not relations.”

Steve Adams, owner of the local radio station and a perennial candidate, is one of the candidates to fill the seat being vacated by the retiring Frank Quis.  He is being challenged by Tom Adams, a retired businessman and recent past president of the Moore County Republican Men’s Club.  This matchup is what some might call an exhibition in mediocrity — something you take a good look at and react with a hearty sigh and a ‘Who cares?’ .   This is one of those scenarios folks in the gambling industry describe as a Pick ‘Em.  (Good luck.)

Moore County Board of Education.  These are the races featuring the problem described in this previous post.

Public school bureaucrats and a rowdy contingent of the county’s leftist minority are seeking to reverse the conservative majority voters elected the last go-around.

District 1’s race features four candidates but only two reasonable choices.  Amy Dahl and Kevin Lewis are leftists who will answer to the leftist bureaucrats at the central office.   Jim Boyte and Oscar Romine appear to understand that board members need to ally themselves primarily with the kids, their parents, and the taxpayers.  Oscar Romine edges out Boyte slightly and therefore should get your support at the polls. 

District 2’s race features three not so exciting choices. Incumbent chairman Robert Levy is seeking reelection.  Long-time Moore County Schools employees Steve Johnson and Emily Davis are challenging Levy.  Levy would be a shoo-in for our support if he had not gone off-the-rails last year and collaborated with the schools staff on a mischief-making campaign. We know Johnson personally.  He is a nice guy with an equally nice family.  But his political views are a bit too far to the left to be elected to any sort of governing role. Both Johnson and Davis are too close to the group that the school board is meant to oversee.  If Levy can control himself, and return to the mindset he had when the voters first elected him, we’d whole-heartedly recommend him. Instead, right now, we’re recommending Robert Levy as the lesser of three evils.  

District 4’s race will probably provide much more hubbub.  Conservative incumbent and former vice-chairman David Hensley is seeking reelection.  He is being challenged by a trio of opponents: Kellie Davis, Ellie Collins, and Kaylin Boin.    Hensley has been quite the lightning rod.  He’s clashed with our local newspaper, whose managing editor’s wife is a former school system employee and Hensley political foe.  Hensley has elevated transparency – keeping the public informed about government activities – and various conservative reforms to important new heights.  The bureaucrats who control the central office and have thrived for years under do-nothing hands-off school boards are in war mode against him.

Kellie Davis is a nice person but has not made a coherent case as to why she needs to replace Hensley.  Collins and Boin both possess political views far too left of the mainstream in Moore County.  Ellie Collins, more so, has transformed herself into a bolshevik — leading the conversion of a local church into a front for Obama-loving, cop-hating, BlackLivesMatter-emulating activities.  Electing either Collins or Boin would give leftists and their bureaucrat allies a foothold in the campaign to retake control of the local schools from the taxpayers.  You can be a fool and fall for The Pilot’s crap about ‘civility’ or you can keep the forces of positive change moving forward and reelect David Hensley. 

District 5’s race includes an incumbent who withdrew after the ballots were printed, and two former school system employees.  Philip Holmes came onto the board with the conservative takeover, but decided to follow Bob Levy off-the-rails and into the loving arms of central office bureaucrats.  His name is on the ballot, but he is not running and – reportedly – will not serve if elected.  Robin Calcutt has held numerous leadership roles within Moore County Schools. She’s very popular, and proved to be quite competitive in the last round of elections.  Calcutt allied herself tightly with county Democrats last time around – a move that likely hurt her in the end.

Calcutt is well-known to and very tight with the central office staff.  The real question about her will be: Can she remember to put the interests of the parents, kids, and taxpayers ahead of her government employee pals? 

Don Zawlocki is a former coach at Pinecrest High School who speaks about being ‘a voice’ for teachers.  He has four decades of experience as an educator in North Carolina and Indiana. .

District 5 appears to be Calcutt’s race to lose.  

US House District 9.  Richard Hudson allegedly lives here.  But I saw Greensboro resident Howard Coble much more when we were in his district.  Hudson allegedly represents us.  But if you follow the hijinks in Washington, you’ll notice that he spends his time at the beck-and-call of ‘leadership’ like Kevin McCarthy.  (Charlotte-area bagmen – close to his hometown of Concord – have all his attention locally.)  Unfortunately for us — fortunately for ol’ Rich — he is blessed with the presence of a whole lot of ‘clapping seals’ in his adopted home county of Moore. They’re impressed with the R in parentheses at the end of his name and the allegation he lives here.  But his decision-making process in DC does not have our best interests – or those of the country’s future – at heart.

He’s being challenged by Sanford resident Troy Tarazon.  In all honesty, Tarazon has been more visible in the district than Hudson has been.  But Tarazon got in the game late. And he’s fallen down on some ideological positions – like Medicaid expansion – that would allow him a better shot at effectively questioning Hudson’s record.

Somebody needs to get Hudson’s attention and humble him just a tad.  Voting for Tarazon – or even leaving this race blank – might do the trick.  Significant under-votes get the attention of incumbents.  Under-votes also signal potential opponents that an incumbent is a bit weak.  There are no great choices in this race. But we can recommend sending a message to Hudson via a Tarazon vote or leaving this race blank.