Update: 7/21 7:00a What's up with this?  Last night's results and this morning's N&R reports that the District 4 Republican primary will be thrown into a run-off election once 2nd place candidate Carl Allen asks for one.  Those results show Souther with 38% and Allen with 31% - both short of the 40% needed to avoid the August 17th re-vote.

WXII has left a zero out of one of the candidate's results or something.  They are showing the following results: Souther 682 (53%), Kindley 540 (42%) and Allen 54 (4%) with 100% of the precincts reporting. 

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The Commonwealth of Guilford 5 has spoken and re-elected Billy Yow as their representative on the County Commissioners by122 votes- I was afraid of that.  The margin is not quite enough internal support to get them separated from the rest of Guilford County so we will have to claim them for another four years.

My girl Mary Rakestraw was soundly defeated by the darling of the hammer swinging crowd, Mike Winstead.  His poll workers were populated by every developer and real estate magnate that you commonly see on the byline of every "under construction" sign in Guilford County.

The High Point based ABC of Guilford County was dealt a blow to its highly inflated ego with a convincing win by their arch-nemisis Dot Kearns.  Dot defeated the ABC sponsored challengers soundly but will have to face well-situated long-time politico Jim Kirkpatrick in November.  Kirkpatrick is against the High Point Choice Plan.  He also thinks school uniforms "have merit" based on a conversation I had with him late this afternoon.  Because of his unsatisfactory answers as to why he is for uniforms, he will have me to deal with in addition to Kearns.

Former A&T band director and very-long-time incumbent Johnny Hodge is out of the running for School Board in Didtrict 9 thanks to Amos Quick and Loretta Jennings (one vote separated Quik and Jennings, BTW).  My guess is that school superintendent Terry Grier is down on his knees tonight hoping that Loretta will be the winner.  Amos is fiery and very outspoken but I believe Dr. Grier will have his hands full with either of the finalists.

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Last night I helped put up signs at polling places for Mary Rakestraw.  Today I've been campaigning for Mary since 7:00a over at First Lutheran church on Friendly... the turn out is low but steady.  One voter about every ten minutes.

First Lutheran is widely know among campaigns to have a large core of very dedicated voters of both political persuasions, so if that polling place is quiet I can't imagine how slow it is in heavily Democratic precincts who have very few candiates on the ballot - such as mine at Aycock Middle.  I voted "early" last Thursday and haven't had a chance to check by my precinct to see just how slow it is.

Last night I met Mike Winstead, Mary's District 7 opponent, at a polling place on Cone Boulevard.  Mike was pulling in as I was leaving and yelled, "David, what are you doing working for Mary?"  Going over to introduce myself properly to him, I explained how much I admired Mary for voting her mind, not necessarily her party, and how she had stuck by my neighborhood during the baseball stuff even though we weren't in her district.  Mike then said, "But I voted for you for City Council...".  I thanked him and wished him luck.  He said he hoped I was going to run again, I answered with my pat answer, "I don't know yet".  Mike is a very personable guy and obviously knows how to cast an intelligent vote.

This morning at First Lutheran came a few more candidates and political influencers.

Sheriff B.J. Barnes made a drive by check of how it was going.  Also, had a long visit with Paul Gibson(D) at-large Commissioner candidate about County politics after which he offered his help if I decide to run again.  (Where were these folks last year?)

Democratic candidate for NC House, Pricey Harrison, showed up even though she has no opponent in the primary and is not on today's ballot.  She was the hit of the polling place because she was bearing bottled water with campaign literature attached.

I've known Pricey mainly through my friendship with one of her sisters and have never had the opportunity to really talk to her until today.  I like her.  She has been an un-paid lobbyist in Raleigh for several years and knows the ins and outs of the system in our state legislature very well.

Pricey could be a very effective representative but I think it will help for her to get better acquainted with Greensboro issues.  It is widely known that Pricey is a long-time coastal inhabitant and advocate having made Beaufort her home for at least the last ten years.  She has recently moved back to her hometown and is trying to re-acquaint herself with the goings on around here.  Our long conversation today gave me great confidence that she working to get a solid handle on local issues. 

I offered her any help she might need and suggested she start a weblog so others could learn what I learned during today's conversation.  She let me know that Cone had already suggested the same but that her campaign folks just don't see it as being a part of her campaign.  I protested vigorously.

More later... I've got to get back for the "after work rush".  We are expecting the voter frequency to increase all the way to one every six minutes.

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