Greensboro, North Carolina municipal elections, 2015

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The city of Greensboro, North Carolina, held elections for mayor and city council on November 3, 2015. A primary took place on October 6, 2015. The filing deadline for candidates who wished to run in this election was August 7, 2015. All eight city council seats were up for election.

First-term Mayor Nancy B. Vaughan, who defeated incumbent Mayor Robbie Perkins in 2013 with 59 percent of the vote, was re-elected in 2015. Prior to becoming mayor, Vaughan served on the Greensboro City Council from 2009 to 2013 and from 1997 to 2001. On October 6, 2015, she coasted to a primary win against Devin R. King and Sal Leone, winning 87.6 percent of the vote. Vaughan defeated King in the general election on November 3.

In the city council elections, incumbents filed to run for re-election in all districts. District 3 was the only city council district that held a primary. Justin Outling and Kurt Collins received the most votes, pushing Michael A. Picarelli out of the race. Outling defeated Collins in the general election. Read more about this race below.

Three challengers filed to run against the three at-large members. Districts 1 and 2 also attracted one challenger each. District 4 Councilwoman Nancy Hoffmann was unopposed. Tony Wilkins of District 5 turned out to be unchallenged as well, after his opponent changed her registered address to one outside the district, disqualifying herself from running.

House Bill 263 was a source of tension in the city during this election season. The bill, which passed in July, would have changed the districts of the Greensboro City Council and remove the mayor's voting power except in cases of a tie. The city council spent thousands of dollars on lobbyists and attorneys to fight the passage of the bill and, after it passed, to fight it in court. Many citizens were angered at the state's attempt to dictate the city's governance without more input, but others supported the bill and disapproved of the city's decision to spend money fighting it. Read more about this issue below.

Mayor

Candidate list

October 6 Primary election candidates:

• Devin R. King
• Sal Leone
• Nancy B. Vaughan - Incumbent Vaughan was first elected in 2013.

November 3 General election candidates:

• Devin R. King
• Nancy B. Vaughan

Election results

Mayor of Greensboro, General election, 2015
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Nancy B. Vaughan Incumbent	87.7%	18,031
Devin R. King	10.9%	2,238
Write-in votes	1.39%	286
Total Votes		20,555
Source: North Carolina State Board of Elections, "Official general election results", accessed November 16, 2015

Greensboro Mayor Primary Election, 2015
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Nancy B. Vaughan Incumbent	87.6%	6,229
Devin R. King	7.3%	518
Sal Leone	5.1%	362
Total Votes		7,109
Source: North Carolina State Board of Elections, "Official primary election results," accessed November 16, 2015

City council

Candidate list

At-large (3 seats)

November 3 General election candidates:

• Marikay Abuzuaiter - Incumbent Abuzuaiter was first elected in 2011.
• Mike Barber - Incumbent Barber was first elected in 2013.
• Sylvine Hill
• Brian Hoss
• Yvonne Johnson - Incumbent Johnson was first elected in 2011.
• Marc Ridgill

District 1

November 3 General election candidates:

• T. Dianne Bellamy-Small
• Sharon Hightower - Incumbent Hightower was first elected in 2013.

District 2

November 3 General election candidates:

• Jamal Fox - Incumbent Fox was first elected in 2013.
• Thessa Pickett

District 3

October 6 Primary election candidates:

• Kurt Collins
• Justin Outling - Incumbent Outling was first appointed in June 2015.
• Michael A. Picarelli

November 3 General election candidates:

• Kurt Collins
• Justin Outling

District 4

November 3 General election candidates:

• Nancy Hoffmann - Incumbent Hoffmann was first elected in 2011.

District 5

November 3 General election candidates:

• Tony Wilkins - Incumbent Wilkins was first appointed in 2012.
  

Note: Maureen C. Washington filed to run against Wilkins, but in early September she changed her voter registration address to one outside of District 5, disqualifying herself from running for the position.

General election

Greensboro City Council At-large, General election, 2015
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Yvonne Johnson Incumbent	30.4%	15,589
Marikay Abuzuaiter Incumbent	26.0%	13,338
Mike Barber Incumbent	24.4%	12,515
Marc Ridgill	9.3%	4,792
Sylvine Hill	5.5%	2,817
Brian Hoss	3.9%	1,994
Write-in votes	0.59%	305
Total Votes		51,350
Source: North Carolina State Board of Elections, "Official general election results", accessed November 16, 2015

Greensboro City Council District 1, General election, 2015
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Sharon Hightower Incumbent	63.7%	2,448
T. Dianne Bellamy-Small	36.1%	1,387
Write-in votes	0.29%	11
Total Votes		3,846
Source: North Carolina State Board of Elections, "Official general election results", accessed November 16, 2015

Greensboro City Council District 2, General election, 2015
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Jamal Fox Incumbent	88.0%	2,723
Thessa Pickett	11.5%	356
Write-in votes	0.48%	15
Total Votes		3,094
Source: North Carolina State Board of Elections, "Official general election results", accessed November 16, 2015

Greensboro City Council District 3, General election, 2015
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Justin Outling Incumbent	64.8%	3,560
Kurt Collins	34.8%	1,911
Write-in votes	0.4%	22
Total Votes		5,493
Source: North Carolina State Board of Elections, "Official general election results", accessed November 16, 2015

Primary election

Greensboro City Council, District 3 Primary Election, 2015
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Justin Outling	60.2%	1,445
Kurt Collins	23%	552
Michael A. Picarelli	16.9%	405
Total Votes		2,402
Source: North Carolina State Board of Elections, "Official primary election results," accessed November 16, 2015

Issues

House Bill 263

Sen. Trudy Wade (R)

On July 2, 2015, the Republican-controlled North Carolina Legislature passed a revised version of House Bill 263 on a 33-16 vote in the Senate and a 57-46 vote in the House. The bill would have changed the makeup of the Greensboro City Council by creating eight new districts and removing the three at-large seats. It would also remove the mayor's voting power, except in the case of a tie. The Greensboro City Council opposed the bill and hired lawyers and lobbyists to fight its passage.

The changes were originally proposed by Sen. Trudy Wade (R) in Senate Bill 36, which passed in the Senate but then sat stagnant in a House committee. The bill's main components were then added to House Bill 263, the original purpose of which was to make changes to the Trinity City Council. Trinity is a small town about 20 miles from Greensboro. Since Trinity supported the proposed changes to its council, the original Bill 263 was uncontroversial. By adding the Greensboro legislation to the uncontentious Trinity bill, there was a better chance of gaining support from the House. Although initially failing in the House by a 53-50 vote, it passed 45 minutes later with a 57-46 vote after Republican leaders called a break and held a closed-doors caucus meeting.

Criticism emerged accusing state Republicans of trying to push the bill through in an attempt to get more Republicans elected in Greensboro. Although Greensboro municipal elections are nonpartisan, the city was generally considered to lean Democratic. Some also opposed the bill for racial reasons. Sen. Angela Bryant (D) said the new district lines put black residents mainly in two districts, minimizing their voting power. Sen. Gladys Robinson (D) agreed, saying, "You are packing African-Americans, who have always been segregated, back into segregation. It’s resegregation." Mayor Nancy B. Vaughan spoke out against the bill, saying it was wasting the council's time and distracting them from other issues. "This seems like it’s a vendetta," she said. Vaughan also accused the Senate of trying to pit Greensboro and Trinity against each other. Wade, who is a former Greensboro council member, denied that it was a vendetta.

On July 8, the Greensboro City Council voted 8-1 to pursue litigation against the state. The day before, the council held a special meeting that hundreds of residents attended. The council heard from 60 people during the meeting; 40 spoke in favor of legal action, while 18 spoke against it. Two people did not have a clear position. Councilman Tony Wilkins, the only member to vote against this course of action, said that he didn't believe the city could win and that the process would be very expensive. Mayoral candidate Sal Leone criticized Mayor Vaughan for the money spent on the lawsuit. He said that no comparable amounts of money were spent on issues that were more important to Greensboro residents.

Judge Catherine Eagles of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina granted an injunction on July 23 to halt implementation of the bill pending a full trial. Her 21-page ruling focused on one sentence of the bill, which read, "the City of Greensboro shall not alter or amend the form of government for the City."

“	It appears on the current record that the new statute deprives Greensboro voters, alone among municipal voters in the State, of the right to change the City’s municipal government by referendum and otherwise treats the City of Greensboro and its voters differently from all other municipalities and municipal voters, without a rational basis.	”
—Judge Catherine Eagles

For a map of the proposed Greensboro districts, click here.

Support

Rep. Jon Hardister (R)

• Representative Jon Hardister (R) supported the bill, although he originally voted against it. He said that the council's new organization would be better representative of the city's residents and that it would be beneficial for the mayor to have a more executive role instead of being involved in every vote. “ For one thing, it's going to help balance out the representation. There's areas of Greensboro that really have never had direct representation areas like Lake Jeanette, Lake Brandt. They've never really had their own representation. ” —Rep. Jon Hardister

• In a hearing in front of the state Senate redistricting committee in March, Elmer Chisholm said, "If you look at it, read it, understand it, understand what it's trying to do, it's trying to give fair and equitable representation to promote participation."

• Skip Alston, another supporter who spoke at the hearing, said, "Her bill gives the African American community another seat on the city council also it gives us influence on the other districts so we can be able to negotiate things within our community."

Criticism

Gov. Pat McCrory (R)

• In a statement to WFMY News 2, North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory (R) spoke strongly against the bill. “ I'm very strongly opposed to a local bill that I could not veto because it is a local bill, but I think it's wrong for the state legislature, or Raleigh to tell Greensboro how to do their business, or to tell any other city how to do their business regarding the organizational set up. I want Washington out of my business and so does a lot of my fellow legislators. But they're hypocrites if they want Raleigh involved in local governments' business. So, I've stated on the record that I strongly object to Raleigh trying to determine how to run Greensboro's governance. If they want to do that, go run for Mayor or City Council and give up your current job. ” —Gov. Pat McCrory

• At the Senate redistricting committee hearing in March, Pastor Julie Peeples said it was "a plan that was conceived in secrecy without input from the community." She added, "This would take away our right to determine how we are governed and give that right away to the state level."

Races to watch

All incumbents of the Greensboro City Council ran for re-election in 2015. Two council members were unopposed, and according to local news sources, many of the challengers in the election were relatively unknown newcomers to city politics.

Two of the districts' races, however, looked like they could be close.

District 1

Sharon Hightower

The District 1 election was a rematch from 2013. That year, Sharon Hightower defeated Councilwoman T. Dianne Bellamy-Small by just 12 votes. Bellamy-Small had served on the council since 2003. In 2015, she filed to run against Hightower again, hoping to regain her position. Hightower won the election with 63.9 percent of the vote.

T. Dianne Bellamy-Small

The two women disagreed over the city's handling of the International Civil Rights Center and Museum, although they agreed on its historical importance. The museum opened in 2010 and honors the 1960 lunch counter sit-ins. Hightower supported the city in giving the museum the last payment of a $1.5 million loan in August. Bellamy-Small criticized that move due to the museum's debt and because the owners had not honored the loan contract. She said the museum needed to gets its finances in order to prove that it could exist without government aid.

According to the loan agreement, one dollar of the loan would be forgiven for each dollar that the museum raised on its own. The time period for this was September 3, 2013, through July 1, 2015. The owners of the museum, however, have refused to release how much money they raised privately. They have called for loan forgiveness even if they do not meet the terms. Hightower did not say decisively whether she believed the loan should be forgiven, but she did say that the city should "do what it can to help the museum survive." Bellamy-Small, on the other hand, said the loan should only be forgiven if the museum raises money according to the set terms. Otherwise, she said, they would be supporting a poorly managed organization with taxpayer money.

District 3

When District 3 Councilman Zack Matheny stepped down in June, seven people applied to fill the vacancy. The city council appointed Justin Outling, who then faced two opponents in October, Kurt Collins and Michael A. Picarelli. Outling defeated Collins in the general election on November 3. Though the city council is officially nonpartisan, the last three people to hold the District 3 seat were considered to be Republicans. When Outling—whose political ideology leaned Democratic—was appointed in June 2015, some voters in the district were upset with the city council's decision. Despite these reservations, News & Record reported that Outling had voted conservatively during his time on the council. This made it more difficult for Collins to distinguish himself by emphasizing his conservative beliefs.

Outling received criticism from his opponents because of his position as a litigator with the law firm of Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard, which represented the city in the redistricting lawsuit. They also represent Downtown Greensboro Inc., which receives money from the city. Outling had to recuse himself from some votes, but said it is no different from other council members who have had to recuse themselves at times due to their professions.

According to his campaign website, Collins' main focuses were economic development, public safety and government efficiency. He said, "These are the issues that will lead this city toward becoming a strong economic leader in the state." In an interview with YES! Weekly, Picarelli said he would focus on economic development, public safety and race relations.

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Greensboro North Carolina Election. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Greensboro, North Carolina municipal elections, 2015 - Google News

See also

• United States municipal elections, 2015
• Greensboro, North Carolina

External links

Suggest a link

• Guilford County Elections - 2014-15 Election Schedule
• Guilford County Elections - Official candidate list
• North Carolina State Board of Elections - Unofficial primary election results