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Murphy – The deadline to file for Nov. 4 town board elections in Andrews and Murphy was noon Friday, and no seat is going unchallenged in Andrews.
Between Andrews and Murphy, Andrews has the most competition for seats, with an incumbent mayor running against the top vote-getting alderman in the 2021 election.
In Murphy, a popular incumbent mayor – overlooking controversy about a downtown traffic circle – is running against a political unknown who ran for mayor in 2021 but dropped out.
For the Andrews Board of Aldermen, five candidates are running for two seats. For the Murphy Town Council, six candidates are running for six seats, including four incumbents.
Andrews
Andrews Alderman Brandi Smith is surrendering her seat on the board to run against incumbent Mayor James Reid.
Smith, who works in banking, was the top vote-getter among seven candidates who ran for two aldermen seats in 2021 with 170 votes. Reid, a high school custodian and business owner, was the top vote-getter among three candidates for mayor in 2021 with 203 votes.
The two are often at odds during board meetings, such as library funding, which Smith has argued should get increased funding, while Reid has been skeptical.
Five candidates filed to run for the two board of aldermen seats on the ballot (including Smith’s). They are incumbent Alderman Steve Jordan, Gary James, Heath Woodard, Rex Cable and Chasity Ledford.
Jordan is a musician, contractor and five-time member of the Andrews Board of Aldermen. He also served one term as a Cherokee County commissioner. He ran unsuccessfully against Cal Stiles for the District 1 commission seat in 2022.
Ledford is a cosmetologist who has served on the Andrews Planning & Zoning Board as well as the Andrews ABC Board.
As previously reported in the Cherokee Scout, Cable coaches wrestling and teaches math at Andrews High School. Woodard, project manager at Woodard Construction Co. Inc. and a former law enforcement officer, ran unsuccessfully for Cherokee County sheriff in 2022. James, a former town alderman, is retired from Cherokee County Schools, where he was a custodian and bus driver.
The November election could flip the balance of the board or consolidate Reid’s control. After the 2023 election, when incumbents Jonathan Ellison and Mike Sheidy lost to James McLean and Ted Paul, Reid could count on a majority vote on contested issues.
A Smith win in November is no guarantee that she will wield as much influence as Reid, but she and Ledford are friends and Jordan has sometimes sided with Smith on the board.
None of the Andrews candidates have posted platforms in social media, so time will tell where each of the candidates stand on town issues. The Scout will be reaching out to them for details.
Murphy
Two candidates with radio industry experience have filed to run for mayor. Incumbent first-term Mayor Tim Radford, president and owner of WKRK radio, will be defending his seat leading the town against Jeff Crane, formerly of WCNG-WCVP radio and a veteran.
Crane also ran against Radford in 2021, but dropped out of the race.
All six candidates who filed will take seats on the town council, unless they drop out or if a write-in candidate emerges – which happened in the 2021 election, when Charlene Smith ran as a write-in and won the most votes of all candidates.
Incumbents running are Smith (a dental hygienist), Barry McClure (a retired school principal.), Gail Walker Stansell (a retired educator) and Cindy Chastain (who was appointed to the council to replace Barbara Hughes in 2024 and works with N.C. Cooperative Extension).
Incumbent Frank Dickey did not file to run, and one seat has been vacant since Keisha Dockery resigned in 2024. Two new candidates have emerged – Jonathan Dickey and Kimberly Hayes Harris.
Jonathan Dickey, a former one-term county commissioner, has served on the Town of Murphy Planning Board.
Harris is an assistant district attorney.
Neither new candidate has posted information about their platform, but even if their views are wildly different from other town council members, it won’t likely change the balance of the town council. Other than Dockery’s differences over some issues, including establishing a downtown social district, the incumbent four town council members rarely disagree on major issues.
As with the Andrews elections, the Scout will be reaching out to the Murphy candidates for details about their plans.