By Catherine M. Welch
Wilmington, NC –
18th House District Race
In the democratic primary races for the state House seat in the 18th District, incumbent Thomas Wright beat challenger Laura Padgett.
Unofficial results for New Hanover County show Wright coming in with 69% of the votes to Padgett's 31%. In Pender County, Wright won 63% to Padgett's 37% of the vote.
Much of the campaign centered on Wright's relationship with troubled House Speaker Jim Black. Wright says while the race got contentious he plans to move forward representing democrats in the 18th district.
My democrats are pretty well unified the other democrats, well they probably weren't supporters of mine in the beginning, because if they were, they wouldn't have supported this sort of challenge in the first place. So it's entirely up to them how they feel. But my record clearly tells you what type of democrat I've been, and I will put that up against any other democrat elected official. I am I have stood the test, I have gone through the fire, I have taken lots of arrows and I don't think many democrats would withstand that, and I have and I think that's why the voters spoke pretty clearly here tonight.
Padgett says she thinks a lack of voter turnout played a role in the outcome.
I think that the people who were concerned about the things I was concerned about and the reasons why I ran stayed home, and did not bother to go to the polls and Mr. Wright did a very good job getting people to the polls. Wright now goes up against republican candidate Shelia Roberts in the November election.
8th Senate District Race
In Brunswick County,unofficial results show Bill Fairley beating Shirley Babson in the republican primary in the 8th District State Senate race, which includes Brunswick, Pender and Columbus counties.
In Brunswick County,Fairley beat Babson with 73% of the vote and beat her with 68% of the vote in Pender County.
Fairley will face democratic incumbent R.C. Soles Jr. in the November election.
Parks and Transportation Bonds
The Parks and Recreation bond passed by a two-to-one margin.
The city and county joined forces on the $35.5 million referendum for parks and green space.
Projects rolled into the bond include funding for a bike greenway system in Wilmington and a half million dollars to finish Ogden Park. The city and county will also split the cost of a $1.5 million tennis complex.
County commissioner Bill Caster says the county can now start looking at land on Carolina Beach Road near Veterans Park and on Castle Hayne Road, and says the county can also look to bonds as a solution in the future.
For the community with both bond issues passing the way they are, I think that's a good sign for us to do other things in the future, if we need to do bonds for schools and all of that.
Also passing was the $4 million transportation bond.
The city plans to use that money to widen a stretch of Independence Boulevard between Shipyard and Carolina Beach road, along with upgrading the city's traffic signals and adding more sidewalks.
Brunswick County Races
Unofficial results out of the Brunswick County Board of Elections show 6,149 ballots were cast in the primary election.
In the Brunswick County Board of Commissioners Democratic race, Marion Davis beat Louie Lewis, receiving 75% of the votes.
In the District Attorney's race, democratic incumbent Rex Gore beat Alexis Prease getting 73% of the vote.
Gore, who is running for a 5th term, faces Republican challenger Jon David in the November election.
Pender County Races
Over in Pender County, in the Board of Commissioners race for the republicans running in the 1st District, unofficial results show David Williams beating John Long with 64% of the vote.
In District 2, democrat Norwood Blanchard beat challengers George Meeks and Steve Unger, getting 72% to their 12 and 16%respectively.
And in the 3rd District for Pender County Board of Commissioners, Democrat Tim Baker beat Eugene Meadows with 65% of the vote.
The democrats running for Pender County sheriff, Doyle Christopher beat R. Ennett Carter 65% to 35% respectively.
Robeson County Races In Robeson County, Democratic Incumbent David Weinstein beat Benjamin Clark III.
And in the democratic runoff for the county sheriff's race, Ken Sealey won with 51% of the vote. His closest challenger was Mark Locklear who received 17%.