From the Chapel Hill Herald news briefs:

CHAPEL HILL -- State Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, Democratic candidate for North Carolina Senate District 23, will discuss her campaign on July 14 at Town Hall Grill at 4 p.m.

Town Hall Grill, located in Southern Village in Chapel Hill, has launched a nonpartisan community issues forum called "The Village Voice," which will feature various political candidates in a series of seven events.

Attendees are invited to reserve their seat using the online reservations form at www.thetownhallgrill.com. The Village Voice is sponsored by The North Carolina Center for Voter Education and MyNC.com.

Yeah YOU. Did you know that there's an election on Tuesday? That's OK - I forgot too.

A handful of registered Democrats and independents who remember to go to the polls across North Carolina will be selecting the nominee for Commissioner of Labor. But more interestingly (to me, anyway) voters in the newly-created northern district of Orange County will be selecting their first County Commissioner to represent District 2.

Steve Yuhasz and Leo Allison finished the primary with 37% and 27% respectively. Yuhasz' failure to get over 40% qualified Allison to ask for a run-off.

Unfortunately I'm out of town, or I would drive around Hillsborough and parts north this weekend and see what going on. Are people talking about the election? How many people will vote on Tuesday?

I'm surprised to see our Town Council holding an official meeting at a corporate chain. Why not meet at Owen's or Breadmen's?

Title:	Council Committee on Voter Owned Elections
Date:	May 28, 2008
Address:	81 South Elliot Rd. Chapel HIll, NC 27514
Location:	Whole Foods
Hours:	8:30 a.m.

I still can't get over the race for the at-large seat on the County Commissioners. I'm sure no-one was surprised that Bernadette Pelissier won the primary handily. She was a well-qualified and well-organized candidate, and I think she'll be a great addition to the Board. Neloa Jones had very little name recognition, and even less resources to back up her campaign. I was quite impressed with her 20% showing. It demonstrated some real voter concern about the landfill and the racial justice issues that she raised.

But what really shocked me was the nearly 30% voting for Mary Wolff. This was a candidate that had almost no visible campaign other than the ambigious yard signs that will presumably be recycled in the fall for her husband's Republican run for the same seat. Having never heard of her before, and knowing that the Wolffs just moved to the community 3 years ago, I wrote her candidacy off. My expectations were quite wrong, so I decided to dig deeper into these results...

Did anyone else see the Moses Carey ad in Sunday's Chapel Hill News? (Pictured below.) It says "Please consider supporting me again in 2010."

Yes, he did just say that. By announcing his intent to run in 2 years, I assume that Moses hopes to scare off any other potential challengers. This will certainly put a crimp in Ellie's plans to recruit a woman to run for the seat. Even though Moses only got about a third of the vote this time, I think he would still be a strong candidate against a potential non-incumbent opponent.

Do I detect a Clinton-esque determination? 

Press release:

CHAPEL HILL HEARING ON PUBLIC FINANCING

Wednesday, May 14, 7pm, Chapel Hill Town Hall

Last year, the town of Chapel Hill became the first municipality in the state authorized to create a Voter-Owned Elections program for local races

Now, the town of Chapel Hill is introducing such a proposal. It would allow grassroots candidates to run for mayor of town council while raising only $5 and $10, and $20 contributions from local residents