Republican lawmakers in Raleigh have introduced several bills to make more local elections a partisan affair, and local leaders aren’t happy about it.

A bill set to make school board elections partisan in Haywood County took current school board members — including the chairman — completely by surprise and has so far earned poor marks from a majority of the board.

Newly elected Rep. Mike Clampitt was asked some tough questions during his first constituent meeting in Haywood County last Friday, and the crowd was not satisfied with his answers — or lack thereof.

With the new session of the North Carolina Legislature underway, a flurry of bills has been filed in both the House and Senate — more than 180 of them — as of Feb. 14. 

If you’d polled Kimberley Brookshire’s friends a couple years ago, they’d likely have said the chances were slim to none that the Charlotte resident would ever think seriously about leaving it all behind to hike more than 2,000 miles through North Carolina. 

“I wasn’t much of an outdoors person,” said Brookshire, 32.

It took Bryson City Republican Mike Clampitt three tries over six years to finally become a member of the North Carolina House of Representatives.

As voters cast their ballots each Election Day, judicial races are often overlooked — they’re the least publicized, least funded and least understood of the lot.

It’s been a bizarre year in North Carolina’s state legislature, and that hasn’t led to the state looking good in national media headlines. 

But after four special sessions (and counting), the legislature appears to be finally winding up while addressing the same issue that brought international scorn and widespread business boycotts to the Old North State earlier this spring.

Unless the U.S. Supreme Court steps in, some or all of North Carolina’s state senators and representatives will face re-election a year early, not even a year into their new terms. 

Joe Sam Queen counts his campaign wins and losses like innings in a baseball game.