Filing update:

Combs will

seek re-election
By Scott Nicholson
nicholson@wataugademocrat.com

Incumbent Steve Combs has filed for another term on the Watauga County Board of Education.

There are three seats open on the school board, with the terms of incumbents Deborah Miller and Ron Henries expiring this year.

Combs has served two four-year terms and said a new high school was one of the passions that first led him to seek the office and remained his primary reason for continuing to serve.

“I feel real strongly about this new high school, and I’d like to see it completed,” Combs said of the project that was approved last year and is scheduled for opening in 2010.

“I’d like to see us continue to work on recruiting good teachers, and I want to work on the drop-out rate,” he added.

“We’ve done a lot to improve vocational programs. We’ve made a lot of progress over the last eight years and done a lot of good stuff.”

With three seats open for 24th District Court judge, one candidate has stepped forward in Watauga County. Judge Greg Horne, a former assistant district attorney, filed for a second term.

The other open seats are held by Kyle D. Austin and Roy Alexander Lyerly.

The race is non-partisan and the district includes Watauga, Avery, Mitchell, Madison and Yancey counties.

In the first week of election filings, U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-5), N.C. Sen. Steve Goss (D-45) and N.C. Rep. Cullie Tarleton (D-93) all filed for reelection and Boone dentist Jerry Butler filed as a Republican challenger to Goss.

Democrat Roy Carter filed in Ashe County for the 5th District U.S. Congressional seat, and former Iredell County Commissioner Diane Hamby is also seeking the Democratic nomination.

Incumbent Republican JoAnn Townsend has filed for Register of Deeds, and Democratic county commissioners Jim Deal (District III) and Winston Kinsey (District V) have filed for reelection.

Filing period for 2008 campaigns ends at noon on Feb. 29.

Other open seats include the District I county commission seat and a Soil and Water Conservation District board seat.

The primary is May 6, and the general election is Nov. 4.