Carter Leary running for Mayor of Washington as a write-in candidate | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

    This municipal election season has been very disappointing to us. There are relatively few contested seats. More seats will be filled by candidates simply filing for office. Even where there's more than one candidate we have yet to see any real spirit in the races. As a matter of fact, not but one municipal candidate has sought our help in getting their message out. That candidate is Carter Leary.

    Mr. Leary is running as a write-in candidate for Mayor of Washington. Mac Hodges filed to run but no one else did. Very little has been heard from Mr. Hodges, or any of the candidates for council.

    We asked Mr. Leary why he had not filed before the deadline and he told us he had not at that time decided to run. But after the deadline passed he said he felt the voters should be given a choice for the highest office in Washington. So he submitted the proper papers at the Board of Elections to run as a write-in candidate. We understand there are other write-in candidates but we've heard nothing from them either.

    So we asked Mr. Leary to explain to the voters of Washington what his platform is and he submitted the position paper linked below.

    He said in our interview that he favors lower taxes by cutting the growth of spending, believes electric rates are too high and hurting economic development, saying that in the short-run the City should stop moving money from the Electric Fund to the General Fund at a faster pace than has been being done and that the City needs to work with other municipalities and the Legislature to find a solution to restructuring the ownership of generating facilities.

    He went on to say that he thinks the time has come to give preference to private property rights over unreasonable land use and building regulations and that the city should stop taking money from taxpayers and giving it to a select few businesses under the guise of "economic development." He also opposes the lack of transparency, particularly in the Police Department; something we have written often about.

    Mr. Leary opposes moving county services outside of the Washington downtown area.

    But his most interesting plank in his platform is a proposal to give city workers who make less than $50,000 a year a 10% raise every year for three years provided those employees can reduce costs in their departments enough to cover the costs of the raises.

    Mr. Leary acknowledged that the major cannot implement any of these initiatives without a majority vote of the Council. "I will work with the Council, but I think the Mayor has a duty and responsibility to provide leadership. I would seek to do just that," he said.

    Early voting is already underway and will close Saturday. The election will be November 5.

    Click here to download his position paper.