ELIZABETHTOWN — With one week to go in filing for municipal elections this fall, a long-time mayor is back on the ballot and one community is yet to have anyone file.
White Lake Mayor Goldston Womble led the list of filers on Friday. He’s in his fourth decade leading the town from that position, having first been elected in the mid-1980s. When he last won, in 2015, he picked up 134 votes to 15 for all write-ins combined.
Two filed for town commissioner spots in East Arcadia: Carlee Carter and Horace Munn. Each is an incumbent.
Tar Heel is the lone municipality with no one yet to file. Seats occupied by Mayor Roy Dew and commissioners Sam Allen, Michael Underwood and Angie Hall are up for election.
There are a dozen incumbents with respective seats up for election who have not filed.
Filing takes place at the Board of Elections office, 301 S. Cypress St. in Elizabethtown. The fee is $5 for all municipal races.
Filing is available Monday through Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and then is 8:30 a.m. to noon on July 19.
The following municipalities have these candidates through Friday’s filing period:
• Bladenboro: Gene Norton, commissioner.
• Clarkton: Arthur Whedbee, mayor.
• Dublin: David Kirby, commissioner.
• East Arcadia: Carlee Carter, commissioner; Horace Munn, commissioner.
• Elizabethtown: Sylvia Campbell, mayor; Howell Clark, council; Ricky Leinwand, council; Dicky Glenn, council.
• White Lake: Goldston Womble, mayor; Jay Young, commissioner; Dean Hilton, commissioner; Tim Clifton, commissioner; Tom Riel, commissioner.
Of those, only Young and Hilton in White Lake are challengers; the rest are incumbents. Other incumbents whose seat are up for election include:
• Bladenboro: Commissioners, Patsi Callihan, Sarah Jane Benson.
• Clarkton: Commissioner, Lawrence McDougald.
• Dublin: Mayor, Darryl Dowless; Commissioners, David Hursey.
• East Arcadia: Mayor, Perry Blanks; Commissioners, Rhonda Hall.
• Tar Heel: Mayor, Roy Dew; Commissioners, Sam Allen, Michael Underwood, Angie Hall.
• White Lake: Commissioners, Tracey Trivette.
Voters will go to the polls for the municipal elections across Bladen County on Nov. 5. There is no primary.
The municipal elections do not have any attachment to the special election being held Sept. 10, when the race for the U.S. House of Representatives seat is decided for North Carolina’s Ninth Congressional District. That race is between state Sen. Dan Bishop of the Republican Party, Dan McCready of the Democratic Party, Allen Smith of the Green Party, and Jeff Scott of the Libertarian Party.