So, the mystery of who will fill Michelle Kennedy's vacated seat is over and it looks like another insider was chosen. Out of the people who lost out to Hugh Holston, Mike Barber was the least surprising candidate since he could very well run for his old seat next year. As for T. Dianne Bellamy-Small, people will once again question whether she's committed to the school board (especially since she had no opposition last year) or if she wants to return to her old job.
In any case, I found this quote interesting:
While many of the applicants noted that they were only hoping to fill the seat temporarily until next spring’s primary elections, Holston made no such distinction during his comments.
We shall see if Holston makes it four for four with temporary councilmembers deciding to run for a full term the following election.
Meanwhile, the same edition of TCB put out an editorial on how the leading candidates for mayor have just put the Marcus Smith case on the backburner. AFAIC, it isn't bizarre to me as to why both the mayor and her main are avoiding progressives. First of all, both Nancy Vaughan and Justin Outling belong to many of the same political clans that fund the City Council--which made Kennedy a glaring exception--political clans that look down on the very people who marched downtown last spring after George Floyd was killed. Second, in addition to Marikay Abuzuiater, there are at least three other candidates who are in effect Blue Lives Matter supporters--District 4's Nancy Hoffmann, ex-councilman Tony Wilkins and the Karen candidate known as Katie Rossabi (the latter two are likely to run against Marikay) so, the top two mayoral candidates could be trying to keep center-right voters from staying home or rallying behind a last minute surprise entrant.
It's incumbent on those residents who are tired of business as usual to find somebody who isn't willing to play ball with Greensboro's establishment or if that effort fails, to enact extreme pressure on the next City Council from outside of electoral politics.
