Mayor Murphy

B.J. Murphy entered the 2009 Kinston mayoral race as an underdog. He finished the race as Kinston’s first Republican mayor since Reconstruction.

Murphy finished with 61 more votes — 1,337 to 1,276 — than unaffiliated candidate Earl Harper to win the city’s top job Tuesday night. By percentage, Murphy outlasted Harper, 37.97 to 36.24 — finishing with a 1.73 percent victory.

“I’m excited!” Murphy exclaimed at the Board of Election after arriving from his campaign headquarters. “The citizens of this community came out and voted in this historic election. I think we have a lot of good things going for us.

“I look forward to working with the City Council and the city manager.”

During a forum for mayoral candidates two weeks ago, Murphy pledged to form “blue ribbon” commissions to promote small business development alongside industrial growth, to cut back city spending, “hold ElectriCities’ feet to the fire” to bring down electric rates and appeal the U.S. Justice Department’s ruling against non-partisan elections in Kinston.

Four years ago, Murphy lost to current mayor Buddy Ritch in a race that pitted Murphy's youth against the experience of a man who had already served three terms as mayor.

Despite Tuesday’s historic victory, Murphy said he didn’t want a lot of attention on his party affiliation.

“It is historic, but I want to downplay it,” Murphy said of his Republican label. “I was born and raised here; I’ve lived here my whole life. There are a lot of good things that have always been here. I look forward to taking it different step forward, just changing the philosophy a little bit and helping to reduce some of that wasteful spending.

“Let’s look what we can do to create a successful environment our business leaders want and need.”

Democrat Jimmy Cousins, an outgoing city councilman, came in third, finishing with 903 votes (25.65 percent). However, he was quick to say that the city needed to line up behind Murphy.

“The citizens have spoken and B.J. is going to be the mayor of Kinston,” Cousins said. “Let’s all get behind him because this city is poised to grow. We need to support the new mayor.”

Harper, who had the support of nearly all the Democrats in a Kinston and Lenoir County political office, was gracious in defeat.

“I’m tired,” Harper said with a laugh. “It was a long day. I would’ve liked to have won instead of finishing in second place. We had a lot of support and people have been great. But I’m humbled by the support I had.”

The vote total was unofficial since there were still approximately 15 provisional votes to be counted. But even if Harper won all those provisional votes, he’d still come up short, said Board of Elections Director Dana King.

“Provisional voters are those who came in today but did not show up on our printout in the precinct they went to vote in,” King said. “In the next day or two, we’ll be researching to make sure that they do live in the precinct they said they live in, that they registered to vote before the books closed and that they’re eligible to vote here in Lenoir County.

“If they meet all that, their votes will be counted.”

Voter turnout was impressive, when compared to the primary held in September. More than 24 percent of eligible voters took part in Tuesday’s election, while only about 11 percent voted in September’s primary.

There was only one other race in Kinston on Tuesday as incumbent Robert A. Swinson IV and fellow Democrat Bobby Merritt ran unopposed for the city council. Merritt finished with 2,334 votes to earn Cousins’ seat, while Swinson finished with 2,274 votes.

Free Press Publisher and Editor Patrick Holmes contributed to this report. Bryan C. Hanks can be reached at 252-559-1074 or at bhanks@freedomenc.com. Check out Bryan’s blog at bhanks.encblogs.com.