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The 2022 primary election is over, leaving in its wake a whole bunch of answers – as well a plenty of questions to keep us busy until next time. Here are some of the thoughts that arose after all the ballots were counted in Cherokee and surrounding counties last week.
It’s going to be OK: We’ve heard some really wacky rumors since May 17, from bankruptcy proceedings to mass layoffs. Not a single one we’ve tried to track down has been proven to be anything close to the truth. Percentages: Only 6,445 out of 22,455 registered voters bothered to cast a ballot on or before May 17, a total turnout of just 28.7 percent. That alone feels like a defeat for democracy, but wait, it gets worse.
The candidate who won and received the most votes in any primary race was Jason Murphy for the Cherokee County Board of Education with 3,183. That means he received the support of 14.1 percent of the total number of registered voters.
The candidate who won and received the fewest votes in the primary was Ben Adams in a five-way race for the District 3 spot on the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners with 2,164. That means he received the support of only 9.6 percent of registered voters.
Without a Democrat nor independent (yet) candidate waiting for the winners in the Tuesday, Nov. 8, general election, that’s all it took last week to earn four years in local office. As a result, folks face more acrimony after they take office because so many people didn’t push their button in the voting booth.
Runoffs: We apparently won’t be having any this time, despite having the most candidates seek office in recent years, because the threshold to avoid one in North Carolina is only 30 percent. Meanwhile, across the line in Georgia, a runoff is only avoided if one of the candidates receives 50 percent of the vote, plus one.
That means if Georgia rules were in place in North Carolina, every local race with at least three candidates would have been headed for a runoff. What a wild ride that would have been, but we’ll never know how Smith vs. Wood, Gaddis vs. Denny, Stiles vs. Tatham, Adams vs. Kephart or Eichenbaum vs. Midkiff would have turned out in one-on-one races.
Once upon a time in North Carolina, the threshold to declare primary victory was 40 percent, which still would have resulted in two runoffs here. District 4 candidate John Midkiff called his race “right out of a book plot,” so perhaps the last word has not been written about the 2022 primary yet.
The law won: Three positive things must be said in the aftermath of the Cherokee County sheriff’s race.
1. Dustin Smith is a good man. What else can you say about someone when his current boss, Murphy Police Chief Justin Jacobs, has agreed to leave his higher-paying No. 1 position to become the No. 2 person at the sheriff’s office? They’ve certainly convinced me that they have the citizens’ best interests at heart.
2. Joe Wood is a good man. For more than two decades, he has served local residents as a consummate professional, rising from a rookie to being chief deputy under two sheriffs with different political parties and challenges. His decision to consider leaving the department for another agency, so as not to unintentionally undermine the new sheriff, shows class. I hope he continues working somewhere in this region.
3. Heath Woodard is a good man. I hope his law enforcement career will keep him in Cherokee County, as he has an excellent record of fighting illegal drugs.
Do you like me – yes, no, maybe? One of the questions I’m often asked is whether I “like” a certain political candidate or not. I usually answer that loaded question with the truth: “I like ’em all.”
That’s because I know just how stressful being in an elected position can be. Instead of just your spouse demanding you do the right thing, you have an entire county of bosses. Anyone who puts themselves through that deserves at least our respect.
Districts: One of the issues that gained some momentum this election cycle – usually by opponents of Commissioner Cal Stiles – was the idea of having each district elect its own representatives on the commission and school board without the rest of the county’s involvement.
True to historical form, Stiles won his fourth consecutive election victory without taking District 1, his home in the Andrews area, as Jeff Tatham picked up a total of 356 votes compared to Stiles’ 292. Yet, the hard work Stiles put in canvassing the entire county paid off with big wins in Hiwassee Dam and Murphy.
It doesn’t appear that any other races would have changed with district-only voting. If the county ever did take that approach, I’d recommend the commission switch to four districts, with the chair of the board being elected countywide, That would also keep politics out of the commissioners picking their own chair every year.
Dirtiest ever? Steve Chabot gets credited with the saying, “Politics is a contact sport,” which was evident this primary season. In the newspaper, on the radio, behind closed doors and even face to face, an incredible amount of negative campaigning took place across the county.
Andrews Mayor James Reid called this “by far one of the dirtiest elections I’ve ever seen.” Whether that strategy worked likely depends on if your favorite candidate won or not.
There were also a lot of creative efforts, particularly in District 1. Steve Jordan’s painted bus was a genius way to get his “working for the people” message across, and the “Can Kicker Cal” political cartoon targeting Stiles was one of few things this election that made me laugh out loud.
Fortunately for Stiles, he had the last laugh when the final votes were counted. And now, after a decade of often being on the losing end of 4-1 and 3-2 votes – plus having other Republican commissioners campaign against him, even to the point of supporting a Democrat four years ago – he’s a virtual lock to finally be named chair when the new board takes office in December.
David Brown is publisher of the Cherokee Scout. Call him at 837-5122; email, dbrown@cherokeescout.com; or message via Twitter @daviddBstroh.