Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM APRIL 27 - MAY 3, 2022 UCW 5 On face value, our Cumberland County Senate District 19 democratic primary election between Sena- tor Kirk deViere and challenger Val Applewhite is pretty boring minus a few misleading mailers and radio ads. Kirk and Val have similar campaign platforms just like most democrats running for State of NC senate seats. ey both support increased teacher pay, Medicaid expansion, clean water, supporting military veterans, afford- able housing, affordable wages and the list goes on. e main differences I see be- tween Kirk and Val for the upcoming democratic primary election are one is a man, one is a woman; one is white and one is black. One is a seasoned State Senator and the other is trying to become a State Senator. I served with Kirk and Val on the Fayetteville City Council and consider them friends. Both are extremely intelligent, came prepared to every council meeting and truly cared about Fayetteville citizens. I am not person- ally endorsing either of them. Kirk and Val both have NC Senate campaign sites and I recommend you review them at www.kirkdeviere.com/ and www.valapplewhitencsenate.com/. I did find a few differences between Kirk and Val's voting records within archived city council meeting min- utes. In 2012, Val voted four times against a voter bond referendum for Parks and Recreation projects. From what I remember, Val was against the bond referendum because city staff was not forthcoming with the "all-in cost" for the bond referendum including interest costs for borrow- ing the money. is item reemerged in 2015, and Kirk voted yes to allow the voters of Fayetteville to decide if they want to fund General Obligation Bonds for additional parks and rec- reation facilities. Voters overwhelm- ingly approved borrowing the money in a vote of 21,323 in favor to 14,785 against. Back in 2012 and 2013, Fayetteville was going through the Driving While Black discussions. Part of that dis- cussion was to ask the NC General Assembly to authorize Fayetteville to form a Citizen Review Board. e first step was to adopt a formal resolution and prepare a city ordinance creating the CRB. Val voted against the creation of the CRB in November 2012 and January 2013. e CRB came back to council's at- tention in 2020 and 2021 from con- cerned citizens. City council reached out to our local delegation in Raleigh. Kirk introduced Senate Bills 291 and 682 to authorize cities to establish a CRB. Senate Bill 291 was only for Fayetteville while Senate Bill 682 was broader to include all cities in North Carolina. ese bills are still stuck in the Com- mittee on Rules and Operations of the Senate. Senate Bill 291 can still come back this summer during our General Assembly's short session should our city council be unanimous on this item and ask our local delegation to once again push for its passage. Kirk and Val both ran for the Mayor of Fayetteville position twice and lost twice. Val lost her bids for Mayor in 2013 and 2015. Kirk lost his bids for Mayor in 2013 and 2017. Kirk moved on and won the NC State Senate District 19 position in 2018 and 2020. Both Kirk and Val are great citizens for putting their names on the 2022 democratic primary ballot. Both were successful members of the Fayetteville City Council and have voting records to examine. Val voted to support our new multi- model center in downtown. Kirk voted to support our new baseball stadium. Early voting begins April 28 and primary election day is May 17. Please get to know Kirk and Val before you vote if you're voting in the democratic primary election. OPINION Get to know Senate candidates before District 19 primary by TED MOHN TED MOHN, Former Fayetteville City Councilman, COMMENTS? BILL@upandcomingweekly.com. 910-484-6200. Kirk deViere Val Applewhite artists 10 S E L F C U R A T E D E X H I B I T S