We’re going to Speed Round mode to get the rest of our political endorsements published. In this article, we’ll clear the rest of Halifax County’s elections off the board.
We’ve already endorsed Fred Clark for the Sheriff’s race. When we look at the rest of the Halifax County elections, we only have one contested race for the school board and three for the Board of Supervisors. Let’s get started with the school board.
School Board Election District 1: Incumbent Phyllis Smith is running against challenger Orey Hill. Smith has been a quiet member of the school board and has done her job well. Hill’s only campaign policy statement that I’ve seen has been that he was in favor of the Local Option Retirement Plan that was summarily eliminated by the board who followed the advice of superintendent Merle Herndon. I’ve said before that LORP had became a bloated and distorted version of what the program was envisioned. The elimination could have been handled in a more compassionate manner, but that would have cost a lot of money. Herndon & the board did the right financial thing and getting rid of it. Hill’s blind support of LORP tells me that he hasn’t really got a grasp on how $1,000,000+ could have affected the school system. In this race, I’ll stick with the incumbent.
SouthsideCentral endorses Phyllis Smith for the Election District 1 school board and asks our District 1 readers to vote for her on Tuesday.
Now we’ll move to the Board of Supervisors races…
Board of Supervisors Election District 1: Incumbent J.T. Davis has a strong challenger with a well-known last name. Jeaneen Abbott is the daughter of the late Dickie Abbott who served on the board for 40+ years.
Davis has been stressing his experience and his leadership qualities, but I completely reject all that talk after Davis became a vocal and highly visible person in the start of the year nonsense that made Halifax County a governmental gridlock. If Davis is going to talk about his leadership, I consider his leadership on antics like throwing his pencil while saying “I can throw my pencil if I want to.” Yeah, real good leadership there. After the talk about clearing the board of all the supervisors that let their personalities get in the way of governing, this is one of the chances to actually vote one of the members of Team Bowman out directly.
Jeaneen Abbott is running at the perfect time. She’s retiring from her teaching job and will have to the time to devote to the elected position. I’ve got absolutely no doubt about her abilities to hit the ground running in the position and I’m just as sure that she’ll do a great job for his district if she wins. With a name like Abbott, she’s got to be good. Let’s just hope that she won’t vote “No” on everything like her father did. Heh.
There’s one other very important reason that I’m endorsing Jeaneen Abbott… She’s not J.T. Davis.
SouthsideCentral gives Jeaneen Abbott our highest endorsement and we strongly urge District 1 to elect her to her first term on the Halifax County Board of Supervisors.
Board of Supervisors Election District 5: Incumbent Barry Bank is running for his second four-year term and has drawn two challengers. Joey Rogers & Buddy Wilborn are making their first runs for the supervisor position.
Barry Bank is embarrassing for Halifax County at times and the only saving grace for his reelection potential is that he was part of the coalition that put a stop to Team Bowman’s power in county government. Bank has no problem telling anybody about his opinions and a lot of his opinions are toxic. I’d like to see Barry Bank off of the board, but at what cost?
Joey Rogers’ campaign is being bankrolled by Halifax County Big Money that is tired of Barry Bank’s big mouth. Rogers says he’d be unattached to either side of the current logjam and I have to take him at his word for that.
Former South Boston town councilman Buddy Wilborn jumped into the race late to make it a three-person one. Wilborn was the man who sued the county school system after losing his job. Wilborn said he thinks that the school system could improve on how they use their money on education. That begs the question of “Why the hell isn’t Wilborn running for the school board then?”
Barry Bank is the guy you don’t invite to your party. Joey Rogers is running on the ABB ticket (Anybody But Bank). Buddy Wilborn is running for the wrong elected office. If I was able to vote in the race, I’d hold my nose and vote for Barry Bank. That’s just because he’s roadblocked Team Bowman and kept the fire under county administrator Jim Halasz. Of course, Bank’s gone after Halasz in an embarrassing manner though. Yuck, what a decision to make when it comes down to the endorsement. Or not to make. Yep. that’s how I’m going in this one.
SouthsideCentral does not endorse any candidate in the Halifax County Board of Supervisors Election District 5 race. Somebody’s got to win but I’m not going to be held responsible for influencing any votes to any of these candidates. If you’re voting in this race, you’re on your own.
Board of Supervisors Tiebreaker: Three people are running in this election. Voters will choose between Korey Snead, Peter Bednarz & Jimmy Wade.
I was originally supportive of the tiebreaker concept until I sobered up & realized that the tiebreaker will probably never be used. If it is ever used, it’s a lameass way of governing. It’s also an excuse to allow the elected district representatives to pull the same kind of crap that happened earlier this year. The county had better be redistricted into an odd number of election zones in the future so the tiebreaker position will be eliminated. Until then, Halifax County is stuck with the tiebreaker that was asked for. Lovely.
All three candidates are qualified for the position because there’s no real qualifications needed. If the tiebreaker ever has to vote, they’ll be given all of the information needed to make a decision. Oh yeah, they’ll be pushed by both sides of the tie to vote in each sides’ favor. Lovely again. I’m staying far away from the decision because I’m betting that the eventual winner will hate winning the election.
SouthsideCentral now realizes that the Halifax County Tiebreaker position is a lousy idea and therefore endorses nobody for this job. If any voter wants to condemn one of these candidates into a four-year elected job of boredom and possible hell, then vote for somebody. I’m not that vindictive.
And that’s it. We’ve covered all the contested Halifax County elections.
We’ve got more coming up here on SouthsideCentral!
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