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Ballots taking shape
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Published: July 8, 2009
The mayor's seat in four of Iredell County's five municipalities will be on ballots this fall. And the incumbents in three of those races filed the paperwork necessary to seek re-election.
Filing for municipal offices in Iredell County got off to a fast start Monday, as 11 people threw their hats in the ring for seats in three municipalities.
All but one of those who filed are incumbents.
Included in that group of early filers were Costi Kutteh, Bill Thunberg and John Ray Campbell, the incumbent mayors of Statesville, Mooresville and Harmony, respectively.
Also in Statesville, where six seats (including the mayor's) are up for grabs on the city council, three other incumbents filed right out of the gate: Ward 3 Councilwoman Bonita Eisele; Ward 2 Councilman C.O. "Jap" Johnson; and Councilman John Gregory, who occupies one of the council's two at-large seats.
On Tuesday, Peter A. Molleur, who works in Iredell County's finance department, filed to run for one of those seats.
County Manager Joel Mashburn said he and Molleur discussed his making a run for city government prior to Molleur's filing.
"We talked about it and I said that in those cases that could come up where there might be a conflict of interest between the city and the county, he would have use his discretion," Mashburn said.
Neither county nor state laws prohibit a county employee from running for office, Mashburn said.
Kutteh and Johnson, who were both initially elected in 1989, are currently the two longest serving members of the council and both hope to extend their stays there.
Eisele has the least experience of anyone on the council. She was elected in 2007 to finish out the last two years of former Councilman A.E. "Pete" Peterson's term.
Gregory has served two different stints on the council. He was served in the 1980s, left the council for more than a decade and won his current seat in 2005.
In addition to Thunberg, filing for seats on the Mooresville Board of Commissioners were incumbent Ward 4 Commissioner Chris Carney, At-Large Commissioner Frank Rader and Ralph M. "Mac" Herring, who filed for the Ward 3 seat.
And three of four Harmony commissioners — Patricia Clanton, Ray Lewis and Joyce Rogers — all filed on Monday to keep their posts.
A total of 31 seats are up for grabs in this year's two elections.
Statesville will have its elections Oct. 6.
Other elections — including those for seats on the Love Valley Board of Commissioners, the Troutman Board of Aldermen and the Mooresville Graded School Board — will be Nov. 3.
If a primary election is required in Mooresville, it will be Oct. 6. If a run-off election is needed in Statesville, it will be Nov. 3.
The filing period ends July 17.
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