In your failure to endorse Steve Yuhasz for Orange County commissioner, you have chosen your candidate based on perceived ideology rather than judging who is qualified for the job. … As a 30-year resident of Orange County, professional land surveyor and licensed attorney, Steve has helped rural families, poor and elderly residents and small business owners cope with land-use regulations to protect their landthe major asset for most of these residents. Elected in 2008 as the first District 2 Orange County Commissioner, he saw the struggles so many residents had with ever-increasing property taxes. … Honest, intelligent and hard-working, Steve is proactive in supporting our values: good education, health and human services, transportation, protection of the environment, choices in housing, creation of jobs, containing residential property taxes and diversifying our tax base by encouraging responsible economic growth.

Ann Moss Joyner
Mebane

It is time for the Independent Weekly to find a new source of information about candidates for the NC House seat District 54. … A record of “advocacy” should always be trumped by a record of real action and actual accomplishment. Without making a lot of speeches in public forums, in her nine-plus years on the Chatham County Board of Education Deb McManus has, among other things: done away with corporal punishment in Chatham schools, gotten laptops into the hands of high school students, supported a nutrition program for students from very poor households, hired one of the very best school superintendents in the whole southeast. The school board has run smoothly under McManus’ inclusive style of leadership, and Chatham County Schools have gotten better.

Karl G. Kachergis
Pittsboro

Please join me in supporting Pam Hemminger for re-election to the [Orange County] Board of County Commissioners. Pam has always been committed to helping our community for the long term. … Pam has reached out into the community to talk with individuals and groups about common concerns. She has worked on town boards for more than 14 years, volunteered in the schools for 20 years, served on the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Board for 4 years, and served our community in many positive ways through many different organizations. She makes a difference for each of us who live in Orange County.

Jacques E. Morin
Chapel Hill