Tanya Riemer, is hoping to advocate for the Latino population. She works at Bank of America as a loan officer and is a fall 1997 political science graduate of UNC.
She has worked extensively to try to include the local Latino community in the financial system, working heavily with Carrboro Alderman John Herrera.
She said that many of the Latinos with whom she works in Chapel Hill work locally but cannot afford to live in town because of high housing prices.
“We need to improve,” she said. “We need to have more representation. We will, but we are a very new community.”
Jason Baker is a junior political science major who has been heavily involved with the Young Democrats. He emphasized the need for the Town Council to include a younger member to represent the student population.
“Chapel Hill has a population of 50,000, give or take, and about 16,000 of those are students,” he said. “And I think it’s a little silly right now that not one person on the council is under 35.”
He said he expected a significant student turnout, noting that both previously successful student candidates, Gerry Cohen in 1973 and Mark Chilton in 1991, ran in years immediately following contentious elections that spurred student voter registration. He hopes that last year’s contentious presidential contest will generate a similar spillover effect.
Walker Rutherfurd, who graduated last year from UNC with a degree in business, has emphasized a common-sense perspective more than his youth.
As a registered Republican — the only in the field — running for a seat on a council devoid of GOP members, he has also said that he hopes voters will look at his ideas rather than his registration, especially since the election is nonpartisan.
“I just hope people get to know me for who I am and what I stand for and then make an informed decision of whether or not to vote for me,” he said.
Will Raymond has placed significant emphasis on technology issues and his experience on the town’s Technology Committee.
He proposes, if elected, to lobby for the town to begin providing high-speed Internet access as a public utility the same as water or natural gas, thereby helping to bridge the “digital divide” between individuals with and without access to the information superhighway.
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His proposal goes far beyond the scope of what most candidates have suggested. Some have mentioned providing wireless on Franklin Street, but Raymond feels that would offer more convenient Internet access only to those who already have it, whereas broadband as a utility would reach out to under-served areas.
Laurin Easthom emphasized a history of activism with town boards and neighborhood groups.
She hopes to be on a council that shapes the planning for Carolina North, a massive University development project on the Horace Williams Tract near Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard that has been called one of the definitive issues for this year’s campaign.
“I think that I also represent a lot of people that share the same views as me and would like to see their voices represented on council,” she said.
Meanwhile, Robin Cutson, another candidate, has a platform of fiscal modesty, condemning the current council’s management of town monies.
“They do not have a firm grasp on sound, responsible, fiscal development,” she said.
She has said that the town is being badly developed in a way that does not support commercial businesses.
“You can call it collateral damage; it’s still over-development.”
Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
