We’d prefer to endorse no one in this race, but we begrudgingly tip our hat to incumbent Joe Bryan for Wake County Commissioner in the District 1 Republican primary. The financial advisor and former Knightdale Mayor didn’t send in a questionnaire this year but one from 2010 says his priorities for Wake County include increasing high school graduation rates and educating globally-prepared young people, “providing a multi-modal transportation system that ensures transportation choices” and strengthening partnerships with state and federal governments with a focus on private sector jobs. Specifically, he said he supports additional funding for schools and calls Wake Tech the county’s “crown jewel.”
However, last year he defended the county commission’s takeover of Wake public schools and also has failed to stand with his Raleigh constituents in the state’s coup to wrestle away most of Dorothea Dix Park from the city.
Bryan’s campaign website states that he has the endorsement of the Wake North Carolina Association of Educators and he has said he would support a half-cent sales tax referendum for transit once there is “a vetted plan in which the public has actively participated.” Bryan, whose wife, Jennifer, is the executive director of the Knightdale Chamber of Commerce, also says he will focus on ensuring that the government is making infrastructure investments for the success of the private sector.
Bryan’s opponent, Fred Leo Puryear, is a professional firefighter, farmer and licensed plumber. He is not running a viable campaign, so it’s likely Bryan will skate through the primary.
But come November, he faces popular Democrat Sig Hutchinson, who is running unopposed in the primary.
This article appeared in print with the headline “Bryan, again.”
