May primary has Statesville talking politics

Over the past week or so, big-name politicians have been trekking across North Carolina, and in a little more than a month, the Tar Heel State will move to the center of the national stage.

On May 6, all the hullabaloo that has been the presidential primary season comes here, and some local voters are well aware of it.

“I think North Carolina is really going to provide a lot of momentum toward the end of the race for whoever wins it,” said Dwight Johnson, an emergency room nursing assistant at Iredell Memorial Hospital. “But I still don’t know who I’m going to vote for. I look at the candidate, not the party when it comes to voting. But this primary is important.”

That point has been made repeatedly in recent times as the Democratic presidential primaries in other states whittled the slate candidates down to two - Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

But some will tell you that the race for president may not be the most meaningful one to be decided in May.

Iredell County district attorney candidate Michael Van Buren told a group of teenage Republicans on Wednesday that the votes cast in the winner of his race will have more impact on the daily lives of county residents than even that of who wins the White House.

“Despite what your parents might tell you or what you read in the papers, district attorney is the most important position you can vote for,” Van Buren said. “But the sad part is most people don’t know a lot about it.”

Van Buren was describing someone like Crystal Tolliver, a 38-year-old Olin resident.

Tolliver said she was a Democrat and knew about Clinton and Obama, but she could not specify any other primary race being contested in May.

Doug Sawyer, a Statesville music instructor, had a similar story.

He said he is well-versed on the candidates at the top of the ballot but has very little information on the others.

“I really don’t know much about who else is running,” he said. “I have followed the presidential race, which has made me more sick than anything else. But I couldn’t really tell you who else was running.”

Melissa Humphrey and Amanda Robinson are in their first major election cycle as voter-aged citizens.

The two women - 20 and 18 years old respectively - have been friends for many years. The both said they knew the names “Hillary” and “Obama” but not much else about the May election.

Robinson said she was in Clinton’s corner for president.

“I like Hillary,” she said, “because she’s a woman.”

The women both thought they may have registered to vote in the process of obtaining their drivers license, but weren’t sure.

Humphrey did offer some information about about the election process.

“I know a primary is where you pick a Democrat and a Republican,” she said. “And the other election is where you pick the president.”

Well, that’s a start.

Posted on 03/30/08 at 07:55 PM
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