The New Hanover County Board of Commissioners will see at least one new member, as incumbent chair Beth Dawson lost her re-election primary bid on Tuesday, while Commissioner Woody White cruised to victory as did Patricia Kusek and Derrick Hickey. Kusek and Hickey join White as the Republican slate for the fall general election.
In the race to elect three Republican candidates for the board, White, with more than 15,800 votes won 24 percent of the vote, while Kusek grabbed 17 percent with 11,306 votes and Hickey took 9,712 votes to edge out two others with 14.8 percent of the vote. Hickey, whose campaign pointedly targeted White and Kusek, narrowly edged Dawson by less than 400 votes, leaving her 14.2 percent of the vote. Jim Brumit, who ran in partnership with White and Kusek, was also close, falling less than 1,000 votes shy of Hickey for 13.4 percent.
Another high-profile race, the contest state House district 20, saw newcomer Holly Grange overwhelm New Hanover County board of education member Tammy Covil in capturing 62 percent of the vote with more than 7,100 votes. With no Democrat challenger, Grange will take the seat now occupied by Rep. Rick Catlin, also a Republican, who is retiring after this year’s short session of the General Assembly.
Kusek joined White and Brumit on the Conservative Leadership Team ticket, where the three shared fundraising and advertising. Kusek acknowledged that two experienced Democratic candidates will make the race for the board seats in November challenging. Incumbent vice-chairman Jonathan Barfield Jr. and former Democratic commissioner and state senator Julia Boseman didn’t face primary challenges, leaving them free to focus on the general election.
Kusek said she and White will make the case that they are the fiscally responsible candidates, saying she will point to the two candidates’ records on taxes and spending.
“We’ll talk about our thoughts on being fiscally responsible and how to watch the taxpayers’ dollars,” Kusek said. “I don’t believe these candidates will do that. From what I’ve seen, they haven’t been fiscally responsible.”
White said the campaign would fundamentally be about decisiveness, truth and consistency, where he and Kusek will highlight their conservative record.
“We worked hard to ask the right questions,” White said of the campaign. “And we’re going to continue to ask the tough questions.”
Grange, who had never run for public office, said she was able to gain name recognition and defeat a candidate who had already won county-wide elections by going to polling locations every day through early voting to meet voters.
Grange was the subject of a negative campaign from Covil, who linked Grange to the congressional investigation on the Benghazi attack. Grange’s husband, a former Army general, operated a defense contracting company that in memos explored a contract in Libya, though the company never placed a bid.
“It’s odd to think I would want to promote a war in Libya when I have a son who is a Lieutenant in the Army in Afghanistan,” Grange said. “A lot of people said they were turned off by the negative ads.”
While she won’t take her seat in the General Assembly until next year, Grange said her focus will be on policies to manage business and economic development, especially as the local population grows. However, she said that she also has experience in environmental engineering, like Catlin, a former environmental engineer turned politician whose seat she will fill. Catlin was awarded the 2015 Pelican Award from the N.C. Coastal Federation for his work on environmental legislation.
“Our natural resources are very important,” Grange said. “It’s why many people want to come here, and it’s an important part of our economic development.”
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