WE DID IT! Bob Fulton has notified us that our petition drive was a SUCCESS. He received a certification letter from Sarah LaVere, Board of Elections Director, that we turned in 6,131 names and that 5,679 were deemed valid/qualified!! We needed 5222, so WOW, we made it with hundreds to spare! He officially will be on the November ballot for Brunswick County Commissioner, Dist. 3, Unaffiliated.
Congratulations to Bob, and thank you to the countless folks who worked so hard to make this happen! Bob most of all. So many precincts and members put forth Herculean efforts from all corners of the county to reach our goal. I know I'm going to miss folks -- apologies up front for that, and please email me if you know someone whom I've left out -- here goes…
Special thanks to Mike Rush (Belville 2 chair), who spearheaded efforts in Belville 2/Leland area -- members there religiously staffed the LCAC early voting site for the entire voting period and then went back on primary election day as well (special shoutout to Linda Baker, Patricia Faulkner, & Sharon Herzog, signature collectors extraordinaire). Mike turned in over 380 from the Leland area the morning of the primary! He’d like to also acknowledge: Kay Pickles, Cheryl Lopresti, Jim Longly, Renee Norris, Jody Soules, Jeffrey & Catherine Eighmy, Linnae Clinton, Claudia Tidwell, Nancy Garland, Brad Tratenberg, Richard & Vicki Turner, and Richard Eggeling.
Thank you to Mosquito 2/"Blue Beacons" (Liz Guinan, chair) for canvassing St. James and collecting hundreds of signatures (shoutout to Felicia Garland and Cheryl Fulton for the many, many they personally collected).
Southport 1 (Maria Riccobono) and the Oak Islands, we see you too for your efforts! Dan Corcoran, we loved your Mardi Gras garb at the Oak Island Fest as you collected signatures. Uyen Bannerman from Secession 2 and Denise Donnelly from Supply went out day after day armed with petitions. Special thanks to Maria Surprise (Secession 2 chair) for being my signature-gathering partner in crime.
Thank you to Mark and Amy Predieri and their Grissettown team for persisting -- gathering hundreds and hundreds of signatures as well! Mark would like to also acknowledge: Ric and Christine Helfrich, Ginger Trapanotto, Linda Eastman, Susan Usher, and Linda & Joe Gironda.
Hickmans Crossroads and the Shingletrees were stars too, staffing early voting and hunting down signers. Shoutout to Jan Stocklinski and Besty Moyer (Hickmans Crossroads vice chair and chair), Eileen Farrell (Shingletree 1 co-chair), Kristine Garrity (Shingletree 2 vice chair) for coordinating efforts in south-western Brunswick. Jan delivered 200 signatures from their area on primary day! Thank you to Mary Walton (Waccamaw chair), Perita Price, Tim Randall, and Bill Flythe for gathering signatures at your churches.
We also had the help of special friends like Eric Terashima, Caroline Miller (We Will Not Go Back Coastal Carolina), Ray Gilbert, Sam Pierce (New Hanover County Democratic Party 1st Vice Chair) & friend, Southport Democrats (formerly St. James Progressives, led by Ed Smith), and Ryan Buck & Ash Ramos with our Young Democrats (Ash helped us spread the word on her "Preserve Shallotte Point" Facebook page). Our candidates from Brunswick County also graciously gave their time gathering signatures for Bob -- thank you Jill Brown, Charles Jones, Jonathan Damico, Tom Simmons, Janis Simmons, and Holly Segalla (Jill's campaign manager).
Again, my deepest apologies for leaving out, I'm sure, many others. This was truly a county-wide effort, and every single signature acquired, mattered.
I think many of us along the way learned that talking to strangers wasn't so bad (with a few exceptions!), and that many, many Brunswick County voters, regardless of affiliation, are fed up with the way our current county commissioners are handling development issues in our county. Onward to getting our County Commissioner Slate -- and all of our other candidates -- elected this November!
Congratulations, Brunswick County Democratic Party team, on a job well done!
Shelley Allen, Chair
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