Chuck Hughes, Salisbury, N.C.
♦ The most pressing decision for me this election cycle is which County Commissioner candidates deserve my vote. I had decided to vote for only two candidates since I could not find a third I could support. I considered Mr. Cohen but believed him to be a wild card. That left me with only one on my entitled list – Greg Edds.
Although having his fund raiser at the Country Club suggested he might be inclined to put Salisbury City’s interest ahead of that of the county, he did refuse to sign an earlier petition sponsored by Salisbury’s elite to put everything on hold, denying our County Commissioners the ability to continue to govern the county until December 2014. Mainly because of this support of the office he inspires to obtain, I decided he would be my one-shot vote.
For some reason, perhaps to regain standing with those who disenfranchised him when he went astray earlier, candidate Edds changed course and joined the other candidates who want the West End Plaza to fail, and signed a petition to deny the still sitting County Commissions’ request for a special-use permit for governmental use of the West End Plaza. Because of this, I quickly dropped him as an option. Mr. Cohen’s refusal to sign the above noted petition of denial, signed by the other candidates, made me give him another look.
To the ire of many, I believe you should vote for the best candidate on the ballot. Almost always, I find him or her to be a conservative Republican. However, based upon the names on the ballot of registered R’s and those who profess to be R’s but run as unaffiliated this election, there is only one “best candidate” for County Commissioner and that is Chris Cohen.
You can also vote for the three best Board of Education candidates: Travis Allen, Phil Hardin and Dean Hunter. Also, the better candidate for U.S. Senate is the Republican NOT the Democrat.
For those of you who do not plan to vote because you do not believe your vote counts, I suggest the only time your vote does not count is when you do not cast it.
