school - Carolina Weekly Newspapers

10 OCTOBER 17, 2008 THE HERALDNEWSMackey is main attraction at Chamber’s candidate forumThe Lake Norman Chamber ofCommerce’s annual candidatesforum is set for Thursday, Oct. 23,in the auditorium at CPCC-Northand the featured attraction will bean appearance by District 99 StateHouse candidate Nick Mackey.Mackey, a Democrat, is facingRepublican Dempsey Miller ofHuntersville in a battle for DrewSaunders’ seat. Mackey, whostirred a controversial pot last winterwith his aborted bid to gain theMecklenburg County Sheriff’s postthrough a convoluted intra-partyelection, upended Saunders in theDemocrat primary. He’s a favoriteto win the heavily Democrat districtthat includes a small piece ofsouthern Huntersville.The county commission candidates,both in District 1 and atlarge,are also scheduled to squareoff. Other candidates are invitedand will be recognized. The eventbegins at 7 p.m. The public is invited.HERALDpoliticalNOTESJudicial help?The election is looming, and asalways that means dealing withthose pesky judicial races. Whoknows how to figure those out?State representative Thom Tillisof Huntersville offers some helpwith a list of recommendations athis Web site (www.thomtillis.com).Tillis, a Republican, recommendsmostly Republicans. That includesa recommendation for incumbentFritz Mercer who hasn’t beenthe friendliest of jurists to northMecklenburg interests when it’scome to getting a magistrate inthis neck of the woods. Tillis alsodidn’t make a recommendationin the all-Democrat, “departmentstore seat” race for a district judgeseat between incumbent BenThalhimer and challenger BillBelk.Conservative rankingsThe aforementioned Tilliswas the highest-ranked northMecklenburg legislator in therecent Civitas ConservativeEffectiveness Ranking (CER). TheCivitas ranking rates the effectivenessof state House and Senatemembers in upholding conservativeprinciples. Each member ofthe House and Senate is ranked ona scale of 0 to 100, based on theirvoting record.Tillis was 23rd out of 123 rankedHouse members. Huntersville’sSaunders, a Democrat, was 115th.House speaker Joe Hackney waslast. In the Senate, Mecklenburgsenators Eddie Goodalland Robert Pittenger, bothRepublicans, were ranked firstand third, respectively. Democratsenator Malcolm Graham,whose district covers most of northMecklenburg, ranked 34th out of51 senators. Charlie Dannelly,whose district covers a small pieceof north Meck, was 48th.Also notedAdd Huntersville town boardmember Charlie Jeter andDistrict 1 county commissionerKaren Bentley to the list of localpoliticians with e-mail newslettersfor constituents and anyone elsewho’s interested. The local master— and local originator — of thattrend is Cornelius commissionerJim Bensman. Bentley’s newsletteris even based on the same softwaretemplate and, so, has the samelook as Bensman’s. To receive thenewsletters, e-mail the appropriateofficial (Bentley — kwbmontana@msn.com, Jeter — cjeter@votejeter.com, Bensman — jbensman@attglobal.net).... The granddaddy of allpolitical gatherings in the county,the Mallard Creek BBQ, is set forThursday, Oct.23. The all-dayevent featurestasty BBQ fora good cause(Mallard CreekPresbyterianChurch) and allSaundersTillisthe politiciansyou can stand.Various polsroam the groundsand stand inspecial greetingareas beside theBBQ line so theycan grip and grinat passersby.The public ismore than welcometo attend.Mallard Creek Church is MallardCreek Church Road in northeasternMecklenburg County, about eightmiles from Huntersville.