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Candidates register for county board, state house, school board seats

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The 2016 election season officially got underway on Tuesday, Dec. 1 when several local candidates, along with supporters, gathered at the New Hanover County Board of Elections office to formally register.

Two candidates brought crowds with them as they launched their campaigns. Financial advisor Patricia Kusek registered to run for the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners while New Hanover County Board of Education member Tammy Covil became a candidate for the state House of Representatives. Covil is running for the District 20 seat which is held by outgoing state Rep. Rick Catlin, who announced in November he would not seek re-election after his term expired in 2016.

After registering, the two candidates addressed the sign-waving supporters who had gathered. But several familiar local political figures also registered without the fanfare. New Hanover County Board of Commissioners Chairman Jonathan Barfield Jr. and Commissioner Beth Dawson both registered to defend their seats on the board, while Ted Davis Jr. filed to defend his seat in the North Carolina House of Representatives for District 19.

Several candidates also filed for seats on the New Hanover County Board of Education, which along with the seats on the commission and for state house, are partisan, requiring they win the March 15, 2016, primary contest before becoming candidates in the November 2016 general election. Candidates have until Dec. 21 to register.

Kusek climbed up on the planter boxes lining the sidewalk outside the elections office to speak to her supporters, where she said her focus would be to keep taxes low, be fiscally responsible with county finances and draw new businesses to the region. She said her campaign would be about “ILM: integrity, leadership and management.”

Kusek touted her history both in business and in local government, including her five years’ experience on the Cape Fear Public Utilities Authority board, where she served as chair for the past two.

“We’ve come light years on our infrastructure with water and sewer,” Kusek told the Lumina News. “I can’t help but thinking that there are some areas like that we can work on as well, so we can have facilities ready” for new businesses.

Kusek said while she has met a lot of people in her 15 years of living in the county, she knows she’ll have to continue to get her name out there, which will mean a lot of “knocking on doors and standing in front of the grocery store.”

“I think what most people miss is the personal touch,” said Kusek, who will be vying for one of three available seats on the county board of commissioners.

On Tuesday, Dawson was the only other Republican to register. Commissioner Woody White, also a Republican, announced last week he would not run for a seat in Congress, but did not indicate whether he would seek re-election for the board of commissioners.

Covil, who has served on the board of education since 2012, said education is 60 percent of the state budget and her campaign will focus on that experience. She said the state’s general assembly has mostly pushed useful education initiative.

“I have some concerns about education, especially about the direction we are heading with technology usage,” she said. “We have a great delegation of people in this county at the state level, but they don’t have a lot of education background. I hope to bring that experience and knowledge to the state.”

Several candidates registered for three seats on the county’s board of education. They include Democrats Chris Meek, Kevin Spears and Sandra Leigh and Republican candidate Jeannette S. Nichols. Republican Tammy T. Beasley filed as a candidate for register of deeds.

Statewide and national candidates have also announced they would run for re-election. Republican Rep. David Rouzer, who represents North Carolina’s 7th Congressional District in the U.S. Congress, has said he will seek re-election, and on Tuesday, Governor Pat McCrory, also a Republican, announced he would run again.

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