The Daily Southerner, Tarboro, NC

Local News

October 9, 2009

Conetoe candidates forum set for Oct. 19

T. J. ROYAL

On Oct. 19, the 10 candidates running for town council and the mayorship of Conetoe will have their chance to make a public appeal to voters.

Beginning at 7 p.m. at the town's Ruritan Club building on Dawson Street, event organizer Jean Harris said that each candidate will be granted four minutes to plead their case to attendees, with a 20 minute question-and-answer session to follow.

"I have no idea how the attendance will be" for the event Harris said, which will be two weeks and a day before Election Day on Nov. 3. Though the Ward 7 forum for Town of Tarboro's Town Council, between incumbent Roy Gray and Taro Knight, had fewer than 20 people attend, Harris noted that a recent forum in Bethel in Pitt County was attended by more than 50 people.

She served as Conetoe's mayor from 1997-2005, and her husband Richard "Dickie" Harris is running for a Town Council seat in this election.

"I felt the need for" hosting a forum during this year's election, Harris said, because of the number of candidates who filed for public office within the town.

"This is unusual to have this much competition" for the town's seats, she added. Incumbent Mayor Linda Ingram is being challenged by Linda Covolo Jordan. And the four incumbents on Town Council, Milton Goff Jr., Wilson Jones, Johnny Respass and Leon Wynn, are being challenged by Harris, Linda Meeks, Jesse Earl Petteway and Delane Bryant Weathersby.

"Because of the number of people (running), I thought it would be good for them and the voters" if they could gather in person to discuss the election, Jean Harris said. To her, written statements between voters and residents, in response to the issues with the town, is "sort of cut and dry."

The event, she hopes, will also get town residents "more interested in voting" in this election. Harris said she remembered elections where one of the Town Council seats was filled in by a write-in, due to only three people running for the four available seats.

During their time at the Conetoe forum, tje candidates will have two minutes to tell residents why they are running for public office, and two more minutes to explain what they wish to accomplish, or what they have accomplished for the town.

Keeping the total event to an hour running time, Harris added that she doesn't want "anyone to be bombarded" with a lot of questions during the event.

So far, a moderator has not been set, but Harris said the candidates will be seated, so as to "not waste time" getting up and getting back to their seats.

Back in July, 42 people filed to run for the available seats in Princeville, Speed, Conetoe, Tarboro, Pinetops, Macclesfield, Rocky Mount, Whitakers and Sharpsburg.

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