Inside Scoop: Outgoing Johnson weighs what’s next
Inside Scoop: Outgoing Johnson weighs what’s next
Mayor Yvonne Johnson, who lost her seat in last week’s election, sent along a Facebook message to supporters:
“My Dear Friends and Supporters,
“Please know that you have my heartfelt thanks for your encouragement and support during the campaign. I so appreciate the many people who contributed resources and time during these last few months.
“We worked hard, yet there were clearly some areas that needed more concentration. I have loved serving Greensboro and each of you. In the coming months, I will find new ways to be of service to the city that has been so integral to my life.
“I do not yet know how this new path will emerge, but I do know that God is in charge of my life and the life of our city.
“You are dear to my heart. God bless you, and God bless our City. — Yvonne”
A note for next election
Scoop got some questions about whether it was legal for candidates to use official Greensboro symbols on their campaign paraphernalia.
District 1 candidate Luther Falls Jr. has a flier with Greensboro’s oak leaf “G” symbol. At-large candidate Sandra Anderson Groat used the city seal on her Web site.
We consulted an expert — attorney Don Wright from the State Board of Elections.
Wright said using seals or other government symbols to decorate fliers and such is OK.
“Candidates can use the American flag. They can use a picture of the White House. They can use the Great Seal of the United States,” he said. “Those are owned by the public.”
Wright reminded us that use of such symbols in no way implies official government action on behalf of the candidate.
Good work if you can get it
Groat, an outgoing at-large City Council representative, received grass-roots help for her campaign Tuesday from students at Bishop McGuinness Catholic High School, which her son attends.
Honors political science students at the private school must log 15 hours of work on a political campaign.
“They want us to learn how to take part in elections,” said Kimberly Host-Madsen, a senior from High Point who worked a polling site for Groat.
Not that she was new to campaign work, really.
“I worked with the presidential election last year, even though I couldn’t vote,” said Host-Madsen, who said she might go into journalism after college at the University of Richmond.
Her teacher, David Seidel, said his students also worked on the bond referendum for the Natural Science Center. “What I call my 'nuts and berries kids,’” Seidel said, “they really enjoyed working for a cause that they believed in.”
Although Groat did not win an at-large seat, Scoop thinks she can notch a victory in helping teens become more involved in politics.
Funny man Alston
County commissioners Chairman Melvin “Skip” Alston appeared in peak form during a tour of the High Point University campus Thursday.
Serious as he can be in political situations, Alston has a goofier side.
He took that along as he rode around campus with Commissioner Bruce Davis, County Manager Brenda Jones Fox, assistant manager Sharisse Fuller and facilities director Fred Jones on a eight-person golf cart.
“I don’t like being on a golf cart without my clubs,” he said as he got on board, to which Fox and Fuller replied with peals of laughter.
He carried the mood into the university’s student center, which has game systems, an arcade, billiards table and an air hockey table.
A series of fun-house mirrors on a wall are beside the message, “Choose to be extraordinary.”
Alston made a point to stop before two mirrors as the tour shuffled by.
After seeing the student center, libraries, renovated classrooms and technology across the well-landscaped campus, Alston appeared impressed.
“For those who have not had the opportunity to come out and tour the campus in the last couple of years,” he said, “it would be good to come out and see and tour and see what makes this university one of the state of the art in the entire country, bar none.”
Staff writers Amanda Lehmert and Gerald Witt contributed.
Mayor Yvonne Johnson
Lynn Hey / News & RecordRelated Links
- Capital Beat (blog)
- The Inside Scoop (blog)
