Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton looks to impact elections

After losing out on the nomination for Ellie Kinnaird’s recently vacated seat in the North Carolina Senate, Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton said he wants to impact statewide elections.

A three-member voting committee decided on Sunday to nominate Rep. Valerie Foushee, D-Orange, to fill the empty seat after two rounds of voting.

“I’m working right now on trying to find a way to have as good an effect as I can on state legislative races in 2014,” Chilton said.

Chilton said he wants to help the Democratic Party regain seats in the legislature, but he isn’t sure exactly what his role in the process will be.

Chilton said he’s confident Foushee will do well in the Senate.

“I have always been a supporter of Valerie in every other bid she has made for office,” he said.

Chilton and Foushee both stated similar goals relating to helping Democrats regain ground statewide.

While Chilton is not worried about the forthcoming races in Orange County, he believes there is a great deal of work to do in other areas if Democrats are to regain ground in 2014.

Alderman Damon Seils said he was not disappointed with the results of the nomination.

“I would have loved for us to have had both Mayor Chilton and Valerie in the general assembly together,” Seils said. “If it couldn’t be Mark then it needed to be Valerie.”

Chilton said he also plans on joining the board of directors at Strowd Roses, Inc., a nonprofit foundation dedicated to maintaining the Gene Strowd Community Rose Garden and giving money to the greater communities of Chapel Hill and Carrboro.

Board member Jennifer Boger said the board has not formally voted on whether or not to invite Chilton to be a part of the foundation, but if he joins he would be replacing Patti Thorp, who vacated her seat on the foundation’s board earlier this year.

Board member Syd Alexander said Chilton was informally sounded out prior to his expressing an interest in the Senate seat.

His appointment to the board will take place only after he has finished his term as mayor, because both Chilton and the board deemed it inappropriate for him to be in office and on the board of directors, Alexander said.

Boger said the foundation has given out about $4.2 million in grants to various Chapel Hill and Carrboro-based projects and organizations.

Chilton said his main job would be to assess applications for grants.

“I consider it quite an honor that they asked me to serve on that board,” he said.

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