Written by Hunter Klosty
This past November, voters in Chapel Hill went to the polls and cast their votes for a new cast of local politicians. The elections were some of the most contentious in recent memory with our town’s mayors retiring, many of the incumbent members of the town council not seeking re-election, and the race for school board having a crowded field of 14 candidates.
In the race for Mayor, Chapel Hill opted to elect current town councilor Jess Anderson by a margin of 59% to 40% over fellow councilor Adam Searing. Ms. Anderson, a Professor of Practice for Public Policy here at UNC, ran on a platform of implementing the previously passed zoning law that eliminated single family housing in Chapel Hill. Anderson, who voted for the law as a member of the Town Council, has claimed the move would create “…a more inclusive community and support our environmental goals.” Mr. Searing opposed the measure, pointing to the impossibility that the zoning law could be reasonably enforced in congruence with state law and the limited benefits of mixed-zoning on a community. Throughout the course of the campaign, many Anderson supporters advocated for this policy on the premise that student housing options would be expanded throughout the town of Chapel Hill. How transitioning residential neighborhoods such as Booker Creek or The Oaks into mixed development areas for college students to travel 15-501 everyday to get to class helps to alleviate pricey student housing is beyond me, but alas, it’s what the citizens of Chapel Hill have elected to get done.
The voters of Chapel Hill similarly elected a like-minded Town Council to implement many of Anderson’s policy prescriptions. The top three vote earners were Melissa McCullough, Amy Ryan, and Theodore Nollert, who, while not running in a block, ran on the same leftist ideology when it came to town growth and development. On the contrary, four other failed candidates ran together with the support of mayoral candidate Adam Searing. The last seat on the Council was won by Elizabeth Sharp, an ally of Searing, who defeated Reunka Soll by a mere 6 votes.
For the school board race, three incumbents ran for re-election, School Board President Rani Dasi, Deon Temne, and Ashton Powell, with only Dasi winning. In a crowded 14 person field, the three other candidates who will serve a four year term are Barbara Fedders, Meredith Bellows, and Vicki Fester Fornville. Dasi, Fedders, Bellows, and Fornville have all been on the record supporting the current direction of the school district under the leadership of Superintendent Nyah Hamlett. Mrs. Hamlett has come under scrutiny from independent experts for plagiarizing her doctoral dissertation and has overseen the proficiency rate of students in her district fall from a pre-pandemic high of 71% in 2017 to 59% in 2023, with an abysmal growth rate of less than 1% over the past year. Ms. Bellows has asserted that the district is “…on the right course…” and Dasi claimed that the district is being “very capably led.” Ms. Fedders ran supporting the 2027 Strategic Plan outlined by the district in 2022, which places platitudes of “Engagement, Social Justice Action, Collective Efficacy, Wellness and Joy” as its Core Values. Ms. Forville has even been so flagrant in her support for the current direction of the district, saying that “…student leaders do not have the right to come out and publicly [critique] leaders in our district…”. Presumably, she meant the superintendent or district principals, public officials whose criticism by citizens is protected under the First Amendment, according to North Carolina courts.
Ultimately, what these elections show is that the era of voters driven by common sense and their best interests is gone. Instead, we have a local electorate that is either blissfully ignorant about the policy positions of candidates or one that is more than willing to reject basic competency in government and accept policies that harm their bottom lines. Time will tell how dire the consequences of this election will be, and how fast the Southern Part of Heaven will turn into the Southern Part of Hell.