The League of Women Voters has asked me to speak at two forums in the coming weeks as “the opponent” to this referendum (because of my Sept. 2006 Chapel Hill News column “All Quiet on the Election Front”).
Moses Carey will argue for the referendum and I’m supposed to do 5 minutes on [...]

I know, short notice of tonight’s (Wed. Oct. 11th, 2006) forum for Superior Court 15B candidates. The forum is sponsored by UNC’s Young Dems.
From Matt Liles OrangePoltics notice:

The Orange County Young Democrats will hold a forum with all four candidates for Superior Court on Wednesday, Oct 11th at 7pm in Room 4085 of the [...]

Or are we waiting on the real battles to begin?  This election season I have two goals: to squash the mediocre Orange County districting referendum and to get Judge Baddour elected.
Here’s my latest Chapel Hill News column “Election referendum doesn’t fly”:

How much does it cost to unload a real turkey? This month, our county commissioners [...]

Over the last year, I’ve written about 300 posts now split between campaign.willraymond.org and blog.willraymond.org
Covering my 2005 Town Council campaign, I started with WillRaymond.org, a hopefully memorable Internet location for the local electorate to find both my platform and analysis of relevant issues.
November 2005, I rebranded the site as Concerned Citizen, shifted the campaign rhetoric [...]

Chapel Hill’s Downtown Partnership is looking for some folks to help welcome UNC students, especially the class of 2010, back to town.
UNC Move-In Weekend will take place August 18-20th. Many downtown businesses offer discounts to students and their families during this weekend and throughout the year, and the Downtown Partnership would like to let [...]

Robin Cutson, a fellow 2005 candidate for Chapel Hill Town Council and, more recently, a candidate for Orange County Board of Commissioners, has decided to spur local change outside of the “established system”.
She say’s she’s frustrated with the inability of our local elected folk to solve problems in a common sensical fashion:
…it appears that citizens [...]

Citizens aren’t geese and, for most, the golden eggs they pay in taxes don’t come easy.
While I’ve been critical of both the county’s and town’s 2006-2007 budgets, it’s Chapel Hill’s efforts that have disappointed me the most.
Why? The advertised “balance” was based on reductions in fiscal responsibility, a “lucky” sales tax windfall and [...]

Polls are open 6:30am to 7:30pm.
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Several months ago I went to Hillsborough for a demonstration of the ESS voting equipment. I saw the tried and true, paper ballot optical scan code machine and the fancy, complex and, I think, easy-to-tamper-with, touch screen unit. Wisely, the Board of Elections recommended the optical scan over the touch screen.
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I will be posting a much more extensive thank you’s, some ruminations on the outcome and various other miscellany fairly soon. For now, I’m busy fighting one heck of a cold from Tuesday, catching up on some work and pulling together some loose ends from my run.
Speaking of loose ends, [...]

By 7:21AM, my signs were out of almost every precinct (Frank Porter Graham/Scroggs were the last two I got after dropping E. at school) and off most of the roads. By 9:30AM, every sign I knew about (and I kept a log!) was safely retrieved.
If you have a sign or see a sign waving [...]

At this point, with 38 precincts reporting, it appears I’m headed for a solid 5th place. If the trend of a vote for Thorpe is a vote for Harrison continues, I imagine that by the end count I’ll still be out of the running. Of course, it isn’t over until it’s over - [...]

The balloon is going up! Headed out from campaign headquarters to take a quick tour of the key precincts in town. Putting a few last flourishes on and checking for sign “corruption”.

Wednesday, 8:30am, Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
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Recently, in a local paper, someone tried to create some FUD (fear, uncertainy and doubt) around the proposal to boost Chapel Hill into the ranks of those municipalities that understand that an investment in their technological infrastructure is a required investment in their future. (more…)