Following a June 23 public hearing, Jackson County Commissioners voted to pass the proposed 2020-21 budget without any of the cuts suggested by Commissioner Ron Mau. 

Over the past week the Jackson County Board of Commissioners has been discussing whether to pass the 2020-21 fiscal year budget and tax rate as recommended by County Manager Don Adams or make changes some commissioners see as imperative. 

It looks like one of North Carolina’s longest-running political feuds will go another round. 

Over the past decade or so, there’s been only one serious candidate willing or able to run for the District 119 House seat currently occupied by Waynesville Democrat Joe Sam Queen. 

Jackson County Commissioner Ron Mau hopes to unseat Rep. Joe Sam Queen in the 2020 election, announcing before a gathering at the Jackson County Republican Party headquarters Nov. 18 that he will run on the Republican ticket for District 119 of the N.C. House of Representatives. 

A May blog post titled “Chairman Mao or is it Chairman Mau?” was the topic of an impassioned statement Jackson County Commissioner Ron Mau read during a Nov. 19 commissioners meeting.

Ron Mau is still in the midst of his first term on the Jackson County Board of Commissioners, started in 2016, but this November he’s challenging incumbent Chairman Brian McMahan in McMahan’s bid for re-election.