Election surprises got a big jump on election filings this week when two incumbents announced they wouldn’t seek another term in office. Their decisions — both surprises — will have a big impact on the next two local election cycles; but where one incumbent’s decision not to run left a hole, the other’s made an opening.
There’s a little mystery surrounding the announcement by Kinston Mayor B.J. Murphy that one term in that office is enough. Murphy, Kinston’s youngest mayor when elected in 2009 and now only 32, is a political animal. He makes no bones about his political ambitions; but if not mayor, what?
The county board of commissioners wouldn’t seem to be a former mayor’s cup of tea. The next logical — and next available — position of advancement would be the state Legislature, but getting to Raleigh wouldn’t be easy. Murphy, the first Republican to hold the mayor’s job since Reconstruction, would have almost no chance of unseating incumbent Rep. John Bell, another young Republican, in 2014. Also difficult, though probably not as difficult, would be a challenge to Sen. Lewis Pate, a Republican beginning his second term in the Senate after eight years in the House.
Pate, from Mt. Olive, ran unopposed last November in a district essentially drawn for him — almost all of Wayne County, about half of Lenoir and a piece of Pitt, which Pate has represented in both chambers. For Murphy to successfully take on an entrenched incumbent in a primary battle, he would have to get a running start; and that could be Murphy’s plan, as much as he has one at this point.
When the mayor says he’s exiting City Hall to focus more on family and business, we take him at his word — and applaud him for it. But the chances we won’t see his name on a ballot again are nil. (Judge for yourself in the podcast featuring the mayor on www.kinston.com.) The only uncertainty is the makeup of Kinston mayoral ballot for this fall, in the city’s first nonpartisan vote. But five months away from the beginning of candidate filing, the vacancy created by Murphy won’t remain a vacuum for long.
The timing of Sheriff Billy Smith’s announcement that he would retire at the end of March, unexpected as it was, makes sense in retrospect. As he told our reporter, he’s approaching 62, been sheriff for 24 years and is wrapping up one of the biggest projects of his tenure, the $20 million expansion of the county jail.
Since Smith’s term doesn’t expire until the end of 2014, the opening he created will be filled temporarily through an appointment by the county board of commissioners. It should not be a difficult choice. Chief Deputy Chris Hill is a 30-year veteran of the sheriff’s office, has handled the nuts and bolts of the office for several years, obviously has earned Smith’s trust and wants the job. Succession planning rarely pays off in this well, and commissioners should not reject this gift.
We might ask why anyone would want to be sheriff or mayor or a member of the school board or the holder of any public office. These can be thankless positions, for the thick-skinned only, and requiring an investment of time that to most people would seem to outstrip the return.
Service of that nature has to be appreciated, whether for four years or for 24, especially when the tenures close with hope or on a high note.
