Boswell, Judge will face off in November; Ballance, Twiddy take school board seats

Fellow Dare County Commissioners Warren Judge and Beverly Boswell will face off in the November general election for the N.C. House District 6 seat that is being vacated by Paul Tine of Kitty Hawk.

In yesterday’s primary election, Judge easily defeated Judy Justice in the Democratic primary — Judge had 72 percent of the vote to Justice’s 28 percent.  Boswell defeated two opponents in the Republican primary.  She narrowly beat Ashley Woolard — 39 percent to Woolard’s 37.  Arthur Williams garnered 24 percent of the vote.

In Dare County, Judge had 75 percent of the vote and Boswell had 53 percent.

Judge, a Democrat who was first elected to the board in 2000, served 11 years as chairman before Republicans took control in 2014.  Republican Boswell narrowly beat her Democratic opponent in 2014 for her first term as a commissioner.

District 6 includes Dare, Hyde, Beaufort, and Washington counties.

Mary Ellon Ballance of Hatteras village and David Twiddy of Manteo won hotly contested elections for seats on the Dare County Board of Education.

The Board of Education races are nonpartisan and the results are final.

Ballance easily defeated Carlos Babilonia of Buxton for the District 4 Hatteras Island seat and won with 73 percent of the vote to Babilonia’s 26 percent.

However, Twiddy barely beat Brandy Foreman for the District 5 seat. Twiddy had 50.24 percent of the vote to Foreman’s 49.64. In raw numbers, only 53 votes separated the candidates.  Twiddy garnered 4,436 votes to Foreman’s 4,383.  You can expect a recount in this race.

Ben Sproul and Bea Basnight, both incumbent Board of Education members, were unopposed.

Four seats on the Dare County Board of Commissioners will be on the ballot in November.

Democrat Danny Couch of Buxton will be unopposed for the District 4 seat that has been vacated by Allen Burrus, who announced in December he was not running for re-election for health reasons.

In District 1, Incumbent Wally Overman, with 71 percent of the vote, easily defeated challenger Francis D’Ambra in the Republican primary.  Overman will face Rosemarie Doshier in November.

In District 2, John Towler defeated Bobby Culpepper with 59 percent of the vote to Culpepper’s 41 percent. Towler will run against Board Chairman Bob Woodard in November.

The District 3 seat was vacated by Judge when he decided to run for the N.C. House. Democrat Monica Thibodeau will face Steve House who easily defeated his opponent, Jimmy Ray Watts, in the Republican primary with 68 percent of the vote to 32 percent for  Watts.

On Ocracoke, Tom Pahl defeated incumbent John Fletcher in the Democratic primary.  Pahl had 55 percent of the vote and Fletcher had 45 percent.

Randy Etheridge and Thomas Whitaker won seats on the Hyde County Board of Elections.

At the top of the ticket, Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton were the winners of the Presidential primaries.

Trump took 40 percent of the vote statewide in the Republican primary, followed by Ted Cruz at 37 percent, John Kasich at 12 percent and Marco Rubio at 8 percent.

Clinton easily defeated Bernie Sanders in the Democratic Primary with 55 percent of the vote to 40 percent for Sanders.

Interestingly, Clinton didn’t win over Dare’s voters.  Dare County Democrats gave Sanders 49 percent of the vote and Clinton only 43. Dare Republican favored Trump with 50 percent of the vote.  Hyde County gave Trump a hefty 53 percent of the votes and Clinton just 48 percent.

Incumbent Republican Sen. Richard Burr easily won his Republican primary with 62 percent of the vote.  He will face Democrat Deborah Ross who took the Democratic primary with 63 percent of the vote.

As expected, Republican Gov. Pat McCrory, in his bid for re-election, will face Attorney General Roy Cooper, a Democrat, in November.  With 82 percent of the vote, McCrory beat two opponents in the Republican primary.  Cooper defeated Ken Spaulding with 70 percent of the vote to Spaulding’s 30 percent.

The Connect NC Public Improvement Bond referendum easily passed with 65 percent of voters statewide approving the $2 billion that will provide funds for the University of North Carolina system, community colleges, infrastructure such as water and sewer systems, state parks and zoos, the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, and the Department of Public Safety.

Hyde County approved the bond with 68 percent of voters in favor, and in Dare 70 percent voted for it.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

State Board of Elections for all results:
http://er.ncsbe.gov/?election_dt=03/15/2016&county_id=0&office=FED&contest=0

Dare County election results:
http://er.ncsbe.gov/index.html?election_dt=03/15/2016&county_id=28

Hyde County election results:
http://er.ncsbe.gov/index.html?election_dt=03/15/2016&county_id=48