By By JONATHAN CLAYBORNE
Staff Writer
Two opposing candidates for the N.C. House of Representatives have filed to run in District 6, which takes in all of Beaufort County and a chunk of eastern Pitt County.
State Rep. Arthur Williams, D-Beaufort, of Washington signed up to run for re-election.
“We need to get North Carolina moving again,” Williams says in a news release. “Our workers need quality jobs, our teachers and children need the resources to succeed; there is much work left to be done in Raleigh to get us back on track.”
Bill Cook, a Republican from Cypress Landing, also filled out paperwork allowing him to take on Williams.
There had been no reports that either man would face a challenger in the May 4 primary elections, and that notion seemed unlikely Thursday.
Both candidates paid a $207 filing fee, elections records show.
The filing fee is equivalent to 1 percent of a candidate’s salary, Kellie Harris Hopkins, elections director, has reported.
Under newly minted election law, candidates for state offices no longer can pledge to raise less than $1,000 through their campaigns, Hopkins explained Thursday.
It’s assumed that Cook plans to raise in excess of $1,000.
Williams already had a sizable war chest — more than $100,000 — at the end of 2009, campaign reports showed.
Cook evidently hadn’t raised enough money to file by the end of the previous reporting period, and, indeed, wasn’t an official candidate until he filed this week.
In other filings news, Washington Republican Ashley Woolard presided over a largely ceremonial signing-up event Wednesday at the Beaufort County Board of Elections.
Woolard intends to be his party’s nominee to challenge U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., of Wilson.
Butterfield represents a large swath of northeastern North Carolina, including much of southern Beaufort County.
“Unless we change the course of our government, the country we leave to our children and grandchildren will be a far cry from the one we grew up in, with far less opportunity to grow and prosper,” Woolard says in a news release.
Woolard’s filing papers were notarized by Anita Branch, deputy elections director, and Hopkins certified that the candidate is registered to vote and is a member of the party whose nomination he’s seeking.
Woolard’s camp mailed the office-seeker’s paperwork to the State Board of Elections in Raleigh, where it will be processed by elections workers, Hopkins related.
Also filing this week was Sonia Privette, a Washington attorney who hopes to be elected to the District Court seat currently held by retiring Judge Sam Grimes of Washington.
Earlier this week, Darrell Cayton, another Washington attorney, filed to run for the Grimes seat.
The top two vote-getters in this judicial race will emerge from the primary to face off in the Nov. 2 general election.
Theoretically, the Grimes seat could draw candidates from any of the five counties in the 2nd Judicial District. Those counties are Hyde, Tyrrell, Martin, Beaufort and Washington counties.
No other candidates had filed for the judge’s seat as of 3:15 p.m. Thursday, the State Board of Elections’ Web site showed.
Back on the county level, William Reed of Chocowinity inked papers to run for a nonpartisan Beaufort County Board of Education seat in District 4.
In a brief interview, Reed said he is retired from the Army, and he also worked as a prison guard for a number of years.
The 63-year-old said he’s raising three grandchildren, and he was motivated to run for that reason.
The filing period began at noon Monday and will end at noon Feb. 26.