In New Hanover County, there are two spots up for grabs on the Board of Commissioners. Four candidates for the board are battling over those two seats: Republicans Eric Lytle and Skip Watkins and Democrats Julia Olson-Boseman and Rob Zapple. WHQR has more on challenger Eric Lytle.
This is his first run for public office.
The financial planner says he is strongly committed to public education. He’s the only candidate with small children in the county school system. And those kids played a role in his decision to run.
“This is why I'm here. It's for my kids because I want my kids to have good schools, safe schools. I want the teachers to be well funded and so in, and also if my kids go off to college somewhere, maybe they'll go to UNC or Cape Fear. But if they go off to somewhere that if they want to come back here after they graduate, they'll have an economically vibrant place to come back to where they can start a family or start a business, get a good job, and raise a family like I chose to do here. And so that's a lot of why I got into the race is because of my young kids.”
He also says protecting the taxpayers of New Hanover County is a priority – and he approves of the county’s current fiscally-conservative budget as it does its job of meeting obligations without raising taxes.
Early voting is already underway. Election day is November 6th.