Last chance to impress

The Young Professionals of Lenoir County stepped onto the political scene Wednesday when the organization brought about 100 people out to hear from Kinston’s mayoral candidates in the final forum before Tuesday’s election.

“We have always heard about the importance of voting, and the Young Professionals believe that in order to be good stewards of our right to vote, we need to be educated about the candidates and issues,” YPLC chair Becky Hines told the audience gathered in the Schechter Auditorium at the Kinston-Lenoir County Public Library.

She added: “We are proud to host this forum, not to support a particular candidate, but to provide another opportunity to educate voters.”

The forum was also broadcast live on Kinston.com, followed by 125 viewers; it was recorded and will be replayed on Clark Tutt’s TACC-9 cable channel several times before the election.

Candidates Jimmy Cousins, Earl Harper and B.J. Murphy each gave an opening statement, answered questions from moderators — some of which related to young professionals’ concerns — and questions written by audience members.

“Our mayor is a facilitator-leader,” Cousins said. “He accomplishes things through other people. The mayor needs to be a people person.”

If elected mayor, Cousins pledged transparency in city government, to encourage development of local infrastructure to serve businesses and to work to unify all Kinstonians.

“My political ideology is to be myself, is to be Jimmy, is to be a person that people can come to,” the Democrat said. “You need to be an open-minded person that will listen to people.”

Harper pledged to promote a cleaner city, especially along its entranceways, “so people don’t turn us down before they even get here.”

If elected, he would also work make Kinston attractive to seniors and young professionals through recreation and job development, and promote education.

“I’m proud of Kinston, and I just want us to be back where we were when DuPont was real big here and we were the center of Eastern North Carolina,” said Harper, the unaffiliated candidate.

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.

“As your mayor, I look forward to working on those issues, working on solutions and being part of the team,” he said.

Murphy, the Republican candidate, said he would “lead the fight” to appeal the DOJ ruling even if not elected mayor, though.

“That is something that the voters wanted to see happen, so I will continue to lead the fight to appeal the Department of justice decision,” he said.

David Anderson can be reached at 252-559-1077 or danderson@freedomenc.com.