As candidate filing for the 2024 election drew to a close on Friday, most of the local races on the November ballot will be contested, and there will be a five-way Democratic primary for the Lee County Board of Commissioners and a 14-way Republican primary for Congress.
In the commissioners race, for which three at large seats are available, incumbent Democrats Cameron Sharpe and Mark Lovick are joined by Bob Joyce, Kenneth Cole and Lloyd Smith. Sharpe is a retired probation officer who now works in the city of Sanford’s Code Enforcement Department and Lovick owns a carpet cleaning business. Joyce is a recently retired economic developer with the Sanford Area Growth Alliance, Cole is a civil engineer and former assistant county manager in Lee County, and Smith lists “consultant” as his occupation. The top three vote getters in the Democratic primary on March 5 will move on to the general election.
On the Republican side, David Smoak, a retired U.S. Army officer and former president of the Carolina Trace Association, Samantha Martin, a manager with Operation Homefront, and Bob Quinty each filed. Quinty did not list an occupation. Incumbent Republican Commissioner Bill Carver did not file for re-election.
The top three vote getting candidates in the general election will win seats.
Four at large seats on the Lee County Board of Education are also up next fall. On the Democratic side, incumbents Patrick Kelly, a self employed business owner, and Jamey Laudate, a software engineer, are joined by retired educator Marcia Hudzik and registered nurse Shonda Ray. On the Republican side, incumbent Sherry Womack, a retired U.S. Army officer, is joined by author Carla Hooker, real estate agent Cindy Ortiz, and Megan Garner, whose occupation is listed as health, safety and environmental senior director. Incumbent former Republican turned independent Sandra Bowen did not file for re-election.
The top four vote getters in November will win seats.
Pam Britt, the incumbent Democratic Register of Deeds, filed for re-election and did not draw an opponent.
In the state legislature, Lee County’s incumbent representative, Republican John Sauls, will be challenged by Democrat Ginger Bauerband of Cameron. Republican Senator Jim Burgin is being challenged by Democrat Tanya White Anderson of Linden.
In the open 13th Congressional District, which includes Lee, Harnett, Johnston, Franklin, Person and Caswell counties, as well as portions of Wake and Granville counties, a total of 14 Republican candidates filed for the GOP leaning seat. They are Josh McConkey of Holly Springs, Chris Baker of Zebulon, Eric Stevenson of Spring Lake, Kenny Xu of Raleigh, Brad Knott of Raleigh, Fred Von Canon of Wake Forest (editor’s note: this is not the Fred Von Canon who lives in Sanford), Siddarth Sharma of Garner, James Phillips of Lillington, Matt Shoemaker of Clayton, Marcus Dellinger of Wendell, DeVan Barbour of Benson, David Dixon of Garner, Kelly Daughtry of Smithfield, and and Steve Loor of Raleigh. Democrat Frank Pierce of Raleigh also filed. Incumbent Democrat Wiley Nickel did not file for re-election.
I would like to make a small correction on my own employment history. I am a retired non-commissioned officer (Master Sergeant), not a retired officer. It’s totally understandable that most civilians don’t know or care about the difference, but we do have a heavy military population in Lee County that does know, lol. I’m grateful for the writeup and publicity regardless, Smoak For Commissioner, Happy Holidays!
David I appreciate you for giving voters a choice. From reading your FB page it appears you are pro vaccination. Samantha Martin is also running for County Commissioner as a republican. From reading Samantha’s FB page she appears to have an extreme anti-vax view to go along with a lot of other extreme positions on other issues. The third republican running for Lee County Commission is an unknown. All of the democrats running appear to have center-right views. Would you support an extremist like Samantha Martin over candidates that appear to be more in line with your political views just because she is running as a republican?
Jeff, I describe myself as center-right, but would leave that analysis up to each voter to make based on their own voting spectrum and bias. As to labeling people “extremist” or even “antivax” I would again be cautious with labeling and prefer to answer specific questions on clearly defined situations, my own views are usually pretty nuanced. At this point when the five Democrat candidates still need to be winnowed down to three by the voters in the March primary, it seems a little early to make any Republican vs Democrat matchup. In general, I will support my fellow Republicans until shown serious, specific and multiple issues that I find incompatible with my own beliefs and principles for this county’s future. Finally I would caution about judging or reviewing my own personal FB page too much without knowing me personally and understanding my quirky, cynical and sarcastic sense of humor which is also not unusual to the many military veterans in our area, lol. Good question, I’m sure this will be an exciting election year!
David, thanks for the thoughtful reply. I think what concerns a lot of voters in Lee County is the tight fisted control Lee County Republican Party Chair Jim Womack has on many of the local elected republicans. Jim has literally put on trial 3 elected republicans for not following his directives. Are you willing to vote contrary to Jim’s wishes if it means being put on trial?
It’s time for you to go get injected with that 8th covid shot. Lead by example and come election time you will not be here to vote. Oh wait, I forgot you dems have that whole dead voters society thing…
20 million dead from the fake covid “vaccine” yet you still act like the bed surfing, tik tok dancing Healthcare “workers” saved lives. Amazing.
Whoever ends up being elected needs to be prepared for Pfizer’s impending bankruptcy and the money spigot drying up in Lee County, it’s only a matter of time, tick tock…
Hmmm, your question requires a few comments/disclosures: 1. I like the Womacks personally and respect what they have done in service to the country as well as the time and money they have dedicated to serving Lee County 2. There is a recently adopted Lee GOP policy that (I paraphrase) requires elected local Republicans to support other fully qualified Republicans when considering people to fill nominated positions, which I support as a principle 3. I am currently the vice-Chair of Communication for the Lee-GOP which is a supporting position to the Chair, Jim Womack 4. I have been retired for quite a while but am still fully capable of compartmentalizing and separating my life into the different roles and positions I fill in life as a husband, father, son, and various working and volunteer positions I have filled in my life such as candidate for elected position. 5. If elected as Commissioner based on MY own vision, leadership and beliefs in the future for Lee County by my fellow citizens, I will be answering solely to my own conscience and the voters for how I represent them and discuss the matters of this county. 6. The short answer is yes, I will vote contrary to any and all other Republicans if I believe I am doing the best thing for Lee County based on my own experience, knowledge, principles and after listening to both sides of an issue. I would hope to convince my fellow Commissioners of either party as well as everyone else to include Jim that they should actually join me because I do believe we all have common goals of improving the future of our county and citizens over the long-term. 7. Once again, as someone who doesn’t know me, I understand your concerns, but for those Rant readers that do know me—I am one of those people who will let you know what I think either by what I say or from my facial expressions, lol. I will not and cannot be a puppet of anyone else simply because you will know what I am really thinking by my words or my face, hah!
Jeeze, “liking” and “respecting” the Womacks should be an automatic disqualifier. They are certifiable wackos.
David, my view of the Womack’s is 180 degrees from yours. I have witnessed them use updating a historic African American school to stir up the electorate prior to an election. I.E. “WB Wicker is located in a dangerous neighborhood”. I literally watched Sherry Womack take the blue DEM ballot out of my son’s hand as he was about to go and vote, circle her name with a black felt tip market while marking through Tamara Brogan’s name which was just below hers on the ballot. Sherry edged out Tamara by just a few votes that election which left me wondering how many other people she pulled that stunt on and if that won her the election. Pretty sure Jim was behind having Mike Stone make our local School Board race partisan which gives him even more power when republicans are in control due to the rule about voting for republicans you mention above. It is my understanding that rule almost cost the CCCC Board maybe most valuable member, Julian Philpott, from being reappointed since he is registered as unaffiliated. It is all about POWER when it comes to Jim Womack. The local republican party’s theme song should be “Under My Thumb”, by the Rolling Stones. LOL. You seem like a nice guy so if you are elected I hope you are fair and even handed with your votes even if you risk going on trial at the republican HQ.
As I am running for Commissioner at Large in Lee County, I would like to add some profile information for the folks here. I did not fill in occupation on my filing paperwork because I am retired. However, I have had a successful business career as both a business owner and have held senior executive postions in other business concerns. For now, I trust this will answer that particular question that anyone may have been wondering about.
Also as a correction, my last name is Quilty not Quinty
How long have you lived in Lee County? Do you own property in Lee County? Please tell us what you know about Lee County? Why did you decide to run?
I am a conservative taxpayer and successful businessperson who wants the best for Lee County.
I would like to make this point. Every senior executive position that I have held has been in operations, those companies did not hire me in that position because I knew the history of the company, current politics, or political alliances of the company and sometimes not even the problems within the company. They hired me because of their belief in my ability to be able to solve, maintain and enhance the operations of those companies to be profitable for the owners, employees, and stockholders.
I know I can be successful in helping steer the growth and needs of Lee County for the betterment of the county and its citizens.
Also, another aim for winning a commissioner’s seat is to continue the conservative leadership of our county.
Robert (Bob) Quilty, you didn’t answer my questions. 1.Do you own property in Lee County? Since County Commissioners set the property tax rates I think it is important for Commissioners to have skin in the game. Under the current conservative leadership Lee County’s property taxes have skyrocketed by the way. 2.How long have you lived in Lee County? Part of figuring out how to solve a problem is knowing the reasons behind it. I think it is very important to know the history of Lee County if you plan to represent its citizens. I assume you realize the minute you signed the paper to run for County Commisioner you made yourself a politician so you better learn the political alliances if you want to get anything accomplished.
For God’s sake, our tap water is freaking undrinkable, and you’re worried that you’re not paying enough in taxes? There are over a dozen different PFAS chemicals n the tap water plus something called “dioxone”. And that’s just out of the things they test for. The taxes here need to go up enough to provide basic services like drinkable water. They could double and it would be worth it to have water and busses and usable schools.
Are you replying to me? I’m not running for Commissioner. Robert (Bob) Quilty is the conservative running saying that wanted to continue the conservative leadership of the county. I personally do not have a problem paying more in taxes if it means clean drinking water. In 2010 republicans took control of North Carolina. At the time there was a push to cleanup Jordan Lake. Instead of spending the money necessary at the time they paid a couple million dollars putting solar bees in the lake to keep the water from stagnating. They eventually took them out and to my knowledge have done squat since then. Since Robert (Bob) Quilty professes to be a conservative I suspect he will have similar views as the republicans in the State Legislature when it comes to cleaning up our water supply.
@ Jeffrey L Cashion. I don’t know what to do other than to just vote blue and wait for more transplants to come in and do the same. On the water issue, there is really no cleaning the water. The only thing to do is to track down the people dumping these chemicals down the drain in the first place and stopping them. Most of Sanford’s water pollution is coming from water users in Sanford itself. The rest is coming downstream from Greensboro. The only way to remove PFAS from water is reverse osmosis, and there is zero chance that Sanford will ever spring for that.
My husband and I pay taxes on money we make, and even though both of us are “retired”, we still pay taxes on our Social Security. We pay taxes on money we spend, that’s why I shop at Farmers’ Markets. And we pay taxes on things we own, like three vehicles, that we already paid taxes on with already taxed money.
Why don’t you look into all of the “companies” that moved to Sanford, or Lee County, and see if THEY got sweetheart deals on THEIR taxes, to move here. Like ten years NO TAXES!
Now people running for office, if one of your talking points is, ” born at the old Lee County Hospital on Carthage Street”, I’d say you’ve been around too long, and need not run, one of the “good ole boy” networks. I watched how they used to go to the back room of a restaurant and do their deals before the public meetings. Now they just are coming out with, “we don’t need to have all our meetings in public”.
GET rid of ALL the illegals in Lee County, then we wouldn’t need to raise MY taxes to pay for all YOUR social programs. Illegals should NOT get drivers’ licenses, or Social Security Cards. Illegals should not be able to own a house, rent a place to live, own a vehicle, have insurance or BE ABLE TO VOTE!!! Maybe, if we got rid of all the illegals in Lee County, our taxes could go down, not up. Any maybe just maybe the correct people would win in the elections.
David Smoak,
I am also a retired Master Sergeant. I would love to meet with you and talk to you is there any opportunities to do that?
Contact me at smoakforcommissioner@gmail.com , I’m sure there will be some public events scheduled and I attend a fair number of county commissioner meetings anyways, just to keep learning how the business in our home is conducted.