Todd Paris, RFP Contributor and Salisbury Attorney
This year’s Rowan County Commission Primary lands on May 8th. Early voting starts April 19. There is no Democratic Primary as only two Democrats, Veleria Levy and Latasha Wilks have filed. The five commissioners serve staggered terms and three seats are open. They currently filled by Judy Klusman, Greg “Pee Wee” Edds, and Jim Greene. The three GOP challengers are Craig Pierce, Michael Julian, and former Commission Chair Jim Sides.
Craig Pierce already holds a seat that runs for two more years, however he is running for this seat to extend his term and make sure that county water and sewer are run to the north and south along I-85 to lock in potential economic development. This was his “baby” long before the new comers were elected. The local Fish-wrapper has excoriated him as this could place their favorite “Salisbury Special Interests First” poster-child Greg “Pee Wee” Edds in some jeopardy of losing control of the county. They can’t have that.
Klusman and Greene were first elected with the help of a political PAC called “La Resistance” whose main goals were to provide a more “Salisbury Special Interests First” County Commission. While he was never endorsed by L.R., the group’s efforts no doubt inadvertently helped Greg Edds get elected. All three have been and will be praised in local print media, I suggest for being “Salisbury Special Interests First” and Klusman and Greene for almost always voting automatically with Edds.
Sides, a noted fiscal and social conservative, has always been wary of Salisbury special interests and their outsized influence over his county. Michael Julian narrowly missed being elected to school board. His platform was to prevent the “Salisbury Special Interests First” members of the school board from wasting $60o million dollars on unneeded new school construction for a system that has many empty seats. They attempted to close rural schools and bus rural children in towards Salisbury. He was featured prominently in the Facebook group Rowan Rural Save Our Schools and their temporarily successful drive to prevent wasteful spending and stop county-wide busing that was designed to benefit Salisbury special interests and their construction friends in the construction at the cost of the rest of the county. Should Edds, Klusman and Greene be elected this $600 million dollar county-wide busing scheme will return and our county taxpayers will take a beating. Salisbury’s elite rulers will demand it.
Primary elections for the GOP is often like trying to decide between “Diet Coke” and “Coke Zero” however, this year this is not the case.
If you are a country club Republican who lives in Salisbury who believes in Salisbury’s alleged exceptionalism over the rest of the so-called know-nothing hee-haws in the county, you might vote for Edds, Klusman and Greene. The local city hall newsletter will tell you as much. Klusman spends much of her time when she’s not in bed down at the “Mean Mug” hanging out with local social justice warriors and Democrats and has a great deal of support among them. Seriously can anyone think of anything she’s done on the commission except vote with Edds and Greene. Greene’s only notable effort was a stillborn attempt to build a multi-million dollar softball complex to replicate the fiasco of our Kannapolis-Rowan ball park that Jim Sides finally got off out county taxpayers backs and dumped it on on Kannapolis after years of financial losses. Kannapolis will soon abandon this debacle themselves. Edds? Pee Wee’s insurance business is in Salisbury and his business insures many Downtown buildings. His only accomplishments were the zany idea to place ugly Gateway signs on I-85 that looked like public latrines at Colonial Williamsburg. Oh yes another brainstorm was to build a multi-million dollar convention center and a luxury hotel in the West End Plaza parking lot and next door to Clancy Hills Apartments. And five endless miles from interstate I-85. Even Salisbury’s elite became slack-jawed when they heard “Pee Wee” Edds’ latest proposal.
Of course local print media will be regaling you with Klusman, Edds and Greene’s “accomplishments” however, all of them were started by the Sides, Pierce, Caskey, and Mitchell Commission years ago. The new spec building in Granite Quarry, that Pee Wee championed, follows the same pattern as one we built that laid empty many years before it was unloaded at a loss.
Then again, if you are a GOP voter that considers Salisbury as just another town, but a deeply troubled one in Rowan, don’t want your local high performing rural schools closed and desire responsible fiscally sound government, you will no doubt vote for Sides, Julian and Pierce.
County Commission Candidates for the Fall
The Rowan Democratic Party has two candidates for Rowan County Commission in the fall, North Kannapolis resident Veleria Levy and Salisbury pastor La Tasha Wilks. Ms. Levy worked with City Council member David Post’s former pharmaceutical sales business Avita, which is headquartered on West Innes in Salisbury. David sold the business a few years back. Ms. Wilks was a recent candidate for Salisbury City Council. She runs a church in a challenged neighborhood and is honestly all about good works and helping the community. Many pin her defeat on the fish-wrapper revealing she had some very old felony controlled substances convictions. She offered perfectly sound explanations to the fish-wrapper and said the substances belonged to someone else staying in her home. Both are pleasant people to talk to and if you are a Democrat, liberal, or a social justice warrior they might get get your vote.
Folks may remember Ms. Levy from a well publicized “dust-up” between her and the folks that ran the Holiday Caravan parade. It appears “Avita” rented a float that was approved, however when she showed up with folks to ride the float with materials that promoted a local gay or gay-friendly group that were not approved, they were banned from participating. Much angst was levied in the local paper and I suspect the private group that runs the parade will be forced by the Democrat controlled Salisbury City Council to be more “inclusive” next year.
I note that Democrat Veleria Levy appears to be a big fan of Edds, Klusman, and Greene. In an interview with the local paper shortly after she announced, Levy said “The 2014 election of Greg Edds, Jim Greene and Judy Klusman to the board of commissioners improved the state of Rowan County Government.” If she is elected, I suspect she will function completely well with any of these more liberal and Salisbury friendly Republicans.
Ms. Levy is running in a “red” county where GOP registrations out-number Democratic voters. The independents are anyone’s guess. I remember when I ran La Resistance that many Democrats registered independent to vote against Jim Sides and for Edds, Klusman and Greene. There could be a chance for Ms. Wilks and Ms. Levy, depending on these votes. Those conservative Republicans who are sitting on their hands might get what they would consider a “nasty surprise” in November.
Curious enough, a major part of Ms. Levy’s political strategy seems to involve being anti-second amendment in this “red” county. I should have thought trying to appear as a moderate Democrat would have been more effective in a county-wide race. I’ll post a number of screen-shots from Levy’s personal and political Faceook page. If you are one of those persons, who value your right to keep and bear arms you might want to consider closely whether you can vote for Ms. Levy. More importantly, you might want to consider what Republicans you vote for in the primary because who knows who might become her “fellow travelers” after coffee one night at the “Mean Mug” and lunch the next day with “Pee Wee” Edds.
I realize that that more knowledgeable readers will call me to task for some of my past political involvement and support. Yes, I donated a thousand dollars to Klusman’s last campaign. That money would have been better spent had I set it on fire in my parking lot. Yes, I supported Jim Greene. I had no idea he would become an automatic “yes” vote for Greg Edds. As for Edds, I would never have started La Resistance if I thought it would inadvertently help Edds get elected. Yes I fought Jim Sides. Once we started talking to each other instead of at each other, I decided I had made a big mistake. Jim is one of the smartest political figures I know and will stem the wasteful spending of Edds, Klusman and Greene. Klusman seems to be closely connected to Salisbury’s City Council as well as being anti-second amendment.
As for me, I will vote for Sides, Julian and Pierce in the GOP primary.
Veleria Levy sounds off for Greg Edds, Judy Klusman, and Jim Greene (Click on to enlarge):
