Endorsements: Halifax County Elections

Halifax County has four unopposed races for the Board of Supervisors and three contested races for the School Board. SouthsideCentral has listened to all of the candidates and we are ready to make our endorsements.

We’ll start out with the unopposed candidates for the Board of Supervisors. Although it’s a shame that there has been no opposition for the Halifax County Board of Supervisors for the past two election cycles, we feel all of the candidates have made a good case for their re-election.

J.T. Davis (District 1), Tom West (District 2), William Fitzgerald (District 3) and Wayne Conner (District 6) all bring a businesslike attitude towards running the county and in a time of economic downturn in a county that is having problems making ends meet, the businesslike attitude is the one to have. Although we have major questions and issues with the idea of “land use taxation”, none of the candidates up for election have mentioned this controversial topic. None of the candidates expressed any views on the uranium mining issue which sadly doesn’t surprise us either. Halifax County’s revenue stream is currently limited to real estate and property tax (with a meals tax initiative on Tuesday’s ballot). Wayne Conner surprised us by mentioning the possibility of a 1% local option addition to the state sales tax during his speaking time at the candidates’ forum. While that idea isn’t immediately DOA, we find it very hard to believe that a local option 1% sales tax increase would have much popularity with county voters. All things considered, SouthsideCentral believes that all of these candidates are worthy of re-election.

SouthsideCentral believes that J.T. Davis, Tom West, William Fitzgerald and Wayne Conner have been effective leaders in Halifax County and we give our endorsement to all four candidates. We encourage our voters to give these candidates courtesy votes in Tuesday’s election.

Now let’s go to the School Board races:

District 2: Steve Anderson is not running for re-election, and Karen Hopkins & Mark Irby have stepped forward to run for the open seat. Hopkins is a nursing instructor at the SVHEC, with Irby being the safety manager for a construction company. Both candidates have showed a strong desire to serve and would make good School Board members. Listening to the candidates speak at Thursday’s forum, we felt that Mark Irby really wants to learn about the School Board and educational process but doesn’t have the same level of experience that Karen Hopkins showed. As the Halifax County School System is nearing a spectre of greatly reduced funding, we feel that actual experience with the educational process trumps a great desire to learn on-the-job.

SouthsideCentral believes that Karen Hopkins is the more experienced candidate of the two and we feel that she will fit right into the School Board processes. We endorse Karen Hopkins for the vacant District 2 seat and urge the District 2 voters to vote for her.

District 3: Arthur Reynolds is the incumbent and is facing a challenge by Kim Farson. This is the only race where an incumbent is facing a challenger and we’ve wondered if this race will boil down to a referendum on Superintendent Paul Stapleton. Reynolds has been a supporter of Stapleton and his policies but there has been a lot of county-wide grumbling about skyrocketing education costs and other Stapleton initiatives. Farson has brought an “outsider” viewpoint to this and has educational experience in the form of school volunteering and having children in the HCPS system. She’s proved herself to be very vocal (including calling me out on some things that I’ve said!) and that’s refreshing to see in such a stodgy environment that the School Board can become. Farson has been very open during the campaign and vows to continue her open-door policy with her constituents (in the spirit of Joe Gasperini’s first term). Reynolds is running on a “I’ve been on the School Board since the 2001 elections” platform and that’s not the most positive thing that can be said. We feel it’s time for a change on the Halifax County School Board and electing Farson would be a continuing factor in injecting fresh blood into the system.

SouthsideCentral believes that Kim Farson will make an excellent School Board member and we give her our endorsement. We strongly encourage all District 3 voters to vote for Kim Farson on Tuesday, November 3rd.

District 6: Fay Satterfield and Stanley Brandon are running for the seat that Mac McDowell is vacating. Satterfield brings over thirty years experience of HCPS work, while Brandon is a local business owner. Satterfield is running on a platform of experience while Brandon is running on a “New person. New Attitude.” campaign. In the District 2 race, we chose experience over a desire to learn on-the-job, but in this race we just can’t dismiss Brandon’s humor and spirit. District 6 will not lose with either of these candidates, no matter who wins.

SouthsideCentral believes that both Fay Satterfield and Stanley Brandon will make a good School Board representative and we give both candidates our endorsement. We encourage District 2 voters to vote for their own choice of candidate on Tuesday.

>>>>>

Endorsement Recap:

Halifax County Board of Supervisors:

• District 1: J.T. Davis (unopposed)
• District 2: Tom West (unopposed)
• District 3: William Fitzgerald (unopposed)
• District 6: Wayne Conner (unopposed)

Halifax County School Board:

• District 1: Karen Hopkins
• District 3: Kim Farson
• District 6: Fay Satterfield AND Stanley Brandon