On Tuesday, about 30 students attended the Student Government-hosted forum for Raleigh City Council and mayoral candidates in Witherspoon Student Center. Candidates introduced themselves, shared their platforms and answered student questions.
Nicole Stewart (Democrat), Zainab Baloch (Democrat), Robert Axtell (Unaffiliated*), Robert Ward (Republican), Shelia Alamin-Khashoggi (Democrat) and Russ Stephenson (Democrat) spoke to the crowd as candidates running for Raleigh City Council at-large. Mayoral candidates Paul Fitts (Republican) and Charles Francis (Democrat) also spoke.
Affordable housing and transportation were the major issues discussed by city council candidates. Axtell believes these issues are important to improving Raleigh.
“Affordable housing needs to be more than just talked about,” Axtell said. “Right now, Amazon is looking for headquarters, and they want to put it somewhere like Raleigh, Denver or one of the other large cities, but Raleigh’s lacking many things, including transportation and affordable housing. We need an aggressive approach. We need creative solutions.”
Ward took an opposite approach; he feels that Raleigh should focus on being fiscally conservative and reducing debt.
“If you guys have been paying attention to the news lately, our first responders had a cut, and I attribute that directly to our debt,” Ward said. “They played a shell game — they gave them a pay raise but them they took away their times. So, I see that as a direct result.”
Candidates urged students to come out and vote, mentioning that they felt municipal elections were even more important that national elections.
“Hopefully we’re not boring you, but we need to find a way to make [local elections] more exciting,” Axtell said**. “It’s kind of hard to get excited about transportation, but I’m going to keep trying. This stuff is important to you on a ground level. So, when you go outside your apartment and that road has a big pothole, well, city council might be able to do something about it.”
Baloch added that millennial representation was very important in government, and she believes young voters are an essential part of the Raleigh population.
“No one on the council is under 35,” Baloch said. “So, where are these young voices being heard, and where are these people being represented? Most of the people in this room are not being represented on the council right now. I think that when you bring different people, different backgrounds, different generations to the table, you can do more.”
City Council candidates also discussed issues such as firefighter pay and their visions for the future.
Mayoral candidates Fitts and Francis discussed their plans for undocumented immigrants, the new city hall building, building a soccer stadium downtown and tax reform.
Francis strongly felt that it was time for a change in mayoral leadership.
“I believe that we need to create platforms where more people can win and more people can be successful, especially young people,” Francis said. “I believe that Raleigh can do much better than what we are doing right now. We keep talking about all these lists, and I think too many people at city hall believe in all that propaganda.”
Fitts shared similar sentiments in regards to leadership.
“Raleigh is lacking leadership, and I hope that I’m the guy you can look at and say he will read the budget, he will understand what the budget is doing and how it will affect me going forward,” Fitts said.
For more information on the mayoral candidates, check out Dialogue with Technician podcasts in iTunes, Overcast and at technicianonline.com.
*Editor’s note: This article was updated on Sept. 27 with Axtell’s party affiliation.
*Editor’s note: This article was updated on Sept. 27 with quote attribution.
Republican mayoral candidate Paul Fitts speaks at the Evening with the Electorate Student Government event in Witherspoon on Sep. 26. Fitts is in a three-way race with incumbent, independent Nancy McFarlane and Democratic candidate Charles Francis. "This city has been spending money like drunken sailors," Fitts said.
