Tuesday, Nov. 03, 2009

'Town Crier' flier unites opponents in N.C. town election

CAROLINA SHORES, N.C. -- One issue has surfaced on which all candidates and their known supporters in today's Carolina Shores election are united: Whoever is responsible for a flier titled "The Carolina Shores Town Crier" needs to face a judgment day.

Tom Pressel, president of the Concerned Citizens of Carolina Shores, which is backing commissioner candidates Walter Goodenough and Joyce Dunn, has filed a complaint over the flier with the Brunswick County Board of Elections.

Incumbent Commissioner Gere Dale, who is their only opponent in the race for two open seats, said he intends to ask town attorney Holt Moore to pursue slander charges against the perpetrator, so that person is identified.

The flier, a single 8-inch-by-10-inch piece of paper, was distributed throughout the town late last week. One side urges voters to back Goodenough and Dunn and to vote in a referendum to change the town's form of government back to a mayor-council form.

Commissioners voted earlier this year to change the government to a council-manager form of government, a move some residents feel was done too hastily and which has galvanized opposition to Dale.

The flipside of the flier is a cartoonlike depiction of a council meeting showing Dale and Commissioners Dan Mann and Thomas Puls as enraged over one thing or another; Commissioner Joe Przywara and Mayor Steve Selby looking bored and seeking help of citizens to unseat Dale; and Commissioner John Russo as a court jester dancing in front of the others while asking Dale, Mann and Puls how they want him to vote.

Both sides said they were shocked when the flier began appearing in newspaper delivery boxes. Each blamed the other for instigating it initially, but they now say they believe - at least publicly - that a third party might have created it.

Greg Bellamy, elections board director, said he forwarded the complaint to the State Board of Elections, which he said will investigate.

He said that any individual who spends more than $100 on a political campaign or any group that spends any money at all must open a campaign expense file with the local election board and report what it spends.

Failure to do so is a fine of $50 per day to a maximum $500 total. Bellamy said that the state elections board may assess additional penalties if it finds the violation to be particularly egregious.