The crowd of candidates for Raleigh City Council’s two at-large seats grew to eight Thursday, even as the hours remaining in the filing period dwindled down to a precious few.
Filing ends at one p.m. Friday for candidates in the October 10 election, held at a time when residents are generally happy living in Raleigh but worry about traffic and growth, according to a recent poll. The number of Raleigh mayoral candidates held steady Thursday at two: incumbent Nancy McFarlane and banker-lawyer Charles Francis.
In the Raleigh at-large council race, candidates who have filed in the past couple of days include Jeff Stewart, Zanaib Baloch, and Robert Ward. Nicole Stewart also filed in the at-large race, confirming her candidacy, as announced in the INDY. Other candidates who had already filed include Robert William Axtell, William Stacy Miller III, and Shelia Alamin-Khashoggi.
Based on filings by close of business Thursday at the Wake County Board of Elections, the at-large race will pit incumbent Councilman Russ Stephenson against Alamin-Khashoggi, Axtell, Baloch, Miller, Jeff Stewart, Nicole Stewart, and Ward. Courthouse characters would not hazard a prediction on whether Mary-Ann Baldwin, the second at-large incumbent, would file to run again.
The top two vote-getters in the at-large race win spots on the council. In other races so far:
- In District A, incumbent Dickie Thompson is running unopposed.
- In District B, first-term incumbent David Cox will get opposition from veteran Raleigh politician John Odom.
- District C incumbent Corey Branch faces Olen Leon Watson III and James G. Bledsoe.
- District D incumbent Kay Crowder is opposed by Bobby Plott Jr.
- And District E incumbent Bonner Gaylord has no opposition so far.
