Candidates Enter Races for New House Districts

Candidates for state House and Senate seats filed Monday and Friday under new legislative maps drawn by a judge after the original maps were thrown out by the state Supreme Court.

The filing period reopened Friday morning, and is expected to run eight days.

The new House and Senate seats are now single-member districts, instead of the larger multi-member areas that the court struck down.

House District 32

Democrat Bernard Holliday of Creedmoor filed to run for the new House District 32 seat. The district covers Granville County, a northern section of Durham County and a southern section of Vance County.

The 70-year-old ordained minister ran in the last two election cycles in races that did not affect Durham County.

Holliday said Monday that the Legislature needs to have the “internal discipline” to run shorter sessions and to be more fiscally responsible.

The state Department of Public Instruction needs more staffing to monitor the progress of children in all facets of education, including those who are home schooled, he said.

“Education is still critical,” he said. “We’ve got a major problem in our state.”

He pointed out that a recent court decision said that the state has the responsibility to educate all children.

“I think there are too many gaps, there’s not enough staff in the [Department of Public Instruction],” he said. “And let’s not forget our fiscal situation. We need to revisit the tax structure in our state.”

House District 55

Kathy Hartkopf, an Orange County Republican, filed Monday to run for state House District 55, which covers 12 precincts in central and northern Orange County and all of Person County.

The self-described fiscal conservative joins two Democrats: Ken Rothrock, a Hillsborough attorney who filed Friday, and Rep. Gordon Allen, a Person County Democrat who currently serves in House District 22, and who filed Monday.

Allen’s current district includes Person and parts of Granville, Vance, Warren, Halifax and Franklin counties.

Hartkopf has been the spokeswoman for Citizens for a Better Way, a local group that formed last year and campaigned against the $ 75 million bond package in Orange County, which the voters ended up approving in November. The group argued in part that the bond package was too large, dollar-wise, given persistent doubts about the health of the economy.

Hartkopf said last year that, in spite of the fact that one of her daughters attends Hillsborough Elementary, she would vote against the bond package, which included $ 900,000 for renovations at Hillsborough Elementary as part of $ 47 million for county and city schools. She said she felt the renovations were needed, but that she couldn’t support the entire schools bond referendum.

Kathy Hartkopf also has helped establish a local chapter of the Citizens for a Sound Economy, a group based in Washington, D.C., that has regional offices and calls for lower taxes and limited government.

“I believe my candidacy represents an opportunity for the values of the people of northern Orange and Person counties to be heard in the North Carolina General Assembly,” Hartkopf said in a statement. “I am proud to be known as a fiscal conservative. I look forward to continuing this ideology and this work on the state level. Just as we do in our own homes, our state must function within its means.”

Unless another Republican joins the race, Hartkopf will face the winner of the Sept. 10 Democratic primary that will include Allen, Rothrock and any other Democrat who files for the 55th.

Allen said Monday that he believed many of the issues that concerned his constituents in District 22 were similar to those in central and northern Orange County. He specifically mentioned economic development and education.

“The problems that [Orange residents] have are the same problems that Person has, and also the other five counties I’m serving right now,” he said. “The issues are very similar.

“Education, of course, is the biggest issue that affects all of us,” he said. “Recruiting teachers, finding teachers. We’re producing 3,000 teachers a year, and we need 10,000.”

Allen, 73, lives on Crestwood Drive in Roxboro and was principal owner of the family insurance business, Thompson-Allen Inc., until recently, when his son took over ownership. He is a combat veteran of the Korean War and has five children and 17 grandchildren.

Allen is in his third House term, and also served three terms in the N.C. Senate in the 1970s. He said Monday that Orange County wouldn’t be new to him, in part because his district during his first two Senate terms included Orange, Person and Durham counties.

Allen currently is co-chairman of the House Finance Committee, and serves on the Education, Environment and Natural Resources, Legislative Redistricting, Rules and Transportation committees.

Like Allen, Rothrock, 52, said residents of northern Orange County and Person County share the same concerns.

“The people in these precincts are homogeneous; we think alike,” he said.

Rothrock said he would be a good candidate because of his contacts in both counties. The attorney and 1985 Hillsborough mayoral candidate owns land in Person County and has many clients there, he said. Also, his wife is from Person County, he said.

“I’ve always felt a need to be involved with public service,” he said.

Other races

State House Democratic incumbents Paul Luebke, Mickey Michaux and Paul Miller filed for their new respective Durham seats, districts 30, 31 and 29. The three redrawn districts are inside the county borders.

State Senate Democratic incumbents Wib Gulley and Jeanne Lucas filed for their respective seats under the new state Senate map, Districts 18 and 20. District 18 covers part of Durham and all of Person and Granville counties. Senate District 20 was designed as a minority district and is inside the county borders.

Non-legislative races, unaffected by the redistricting lawsuit brought by the GOP, do not have new filing periods. The new primary date is set for Sept. 10. The May 7 primary was delayed by the lawsuit. The general election is scheduled for Nov. 5.