LUMBERTON — Lumberton’s first contested mayoral race since 2003 will come to down to which candidate does the best of getting his supporters to the polls.
All three candidates, John Cantey, Bruce Davis and Don Metzger, share experience on the City Council and are placing public safety and attracting businesses and tourists to Lumberton as their priorities. All three have camped out at the Board of Elections this week, greeting early voters.
“I think it’s going to be very, very close,” Metzger said. “A lot of the outcome is going to depend on folks who are hauling and that seems to be alive and well.”
Metzger said he is not hauling voters to the polls; he wants to be elected by an “expression of a whole community,” not the effectiveness of hauling.
Metzger has represented Precinct 1 since 2007, succeeding Davis after he decided not to seek re-election. Metzger says he and his wife, Linda, have endowed scholarships at Robeson Community College and The University of North Carolina Pembroke, and he has served on boards at both schools. He has served twice as the Lumberton Area Chamber of Commerce president.
“We have been actively involved in trying to make this community better for over 30 years,” Metzger said. “I don’t think there is any other candidate who can demonstrate that kind of long-term commitment and service.”
Metzger said he has spoken at churches and other community events throughout South and East Lumberton and has been “pretty encouraged by the outpouring of support.”
“… What I typically tell them when I finish is, ‘With God’s help and your vote, I hope to have the opportunity to continue to serve,’” he said.
A retired businessman, Metzger has said that as mayor his priorities would be embracing the Lumber River and other assets to boost tourism, and cracking down on crime.
“That’s what keeping us from getting a lot of new businesses in our community. It impacts our tourism rates, it impacts us in so many ways we don’t even think about. It permeates everything we try to do positively in this community,” he said.
Davis has been pleased with the early voting turnout. There were 1,979 voters during the early period, slightly more than in the last municipal elections in 2013.
“We are offering transportation to folks who need it,” he said. “We don’t have an operation as such, but we have that option if people need it.”
Davis said with all three candidates boasting council experience, the election “sort of depends on who gets out the vote and who can politic the hardest.”
“I would say look at the number of years of experience that the candidates have and what they’ve accomplished independently or individually, not just sitting on a board and saying ‘yay’ or ‘nay,’ but what have they done individually to set themselves apart,” he said.
Davis served on the City Council for 24 years. He is the only councilman to have represented two precincts, serving Precinct 8 from 1977 to 1981 and Precinct 1 from 1987 to 2007. Davis, who has run B.W. Davis Construction for 40 years, served as mayor pro tem twice and was awarded the Order of the Long Leaf Pine in 2008.
He is credited with helping to make the Southeastern North Carolina Agricultural Events Center a destination for meetings and helped craft an ordinance to regulate density in the city.
“I have a deep, abiding concern for the city and if I can do any one thing for this city, I would make it safer for people to live and I would want to grow this economy and expand the tax base,” he said.
Known for his get-out-the-vote efforts, Cantey said he is not hauling voters this t ime.
“Our campaign is a people’s campaign. It’s all about the people. I just wanted to supply them with a third option,” he said. “… Sure, we can go to the communities and haul 800 people and win, but what do we really win?”
With his term on the City Council not expiring until 2017, he wants to maintain a good relationship with his fellow members should he return to his Precinct 5 seat.
“If I win I want to win fair and square,” he said.
Cantey was elected to the council in 2005 and has served as mayor pro tem and vice chairman of the county’s Democratic Party.
“I don’t want to be known as the first African American mayor in the city of Lumberton, I just want to be known as a mayor who worked hard, did everything fair and moved the city forward,” he said.
Cantey said as mayor, he would like to continue the legacy of Raymond Pennington, who is not seeking another term after 24 years of wielding the gavel. He would focus on finishing ongoing recreation projects, like Northeast Park, boosting tourism and making Lumberton safer.
“In 10 years I’ve seen the city at its best and I’ve seen the city go through some trying times. That being said, I have insight on what goes on in the council and some new innovative ideas to make this city even greater,” he said.
If Cantey is elected mayor, a special election would be held to fill his seat.
Lumberton will also see two contested council races.
Precinct 7 incumbent Leon Maynor is seeking a sixth term, while Laura B. Sampson is making her third bid for a council seat.
A lifelong resident of West Lumberton, Sampson is on the board of directors of the Lumberton Boys & Girls Club.
Sampson said she would focus on encouraging commercial growth in West Lumberton and creating more activities for young people.
“I would like for us to have an activity center. We have nothing for our youth to do but swim in a pond and that’s unacceptable,” she said.
Sampson said the neighborhood has changed little in the past 25 years, and that she has the vision to bring West Lumberton into the future.
“If you want to move our community forward. If you want to make it a better place to live and stay then we need to vote for a change,” she said.
Maynor has represented the city on the North Carolina Electric Cities Board, served as the chair of the Robeson County Partnership for Children and the vice chairman of the Robeson Juvenile Crime Prevention Council. He is also a member of the Lumber River Rural Transportation Committee and has served on the Airport Commission. He could not be reached for this story.
In Precinct 1, political newcomers Rickey Gregory and Leroy Rising are vying for the seat being vacated by Metzger.
“The reason I’m running for City Council is that Lumberton has been good to me and to my family for the past 30-some years and it’s time for me to give back to my community,” Gregory said. Gregory is on the Mayor’s Committee for the Challenged, the Robeson County History Museum committee and has also been involved with the Robeson Arts Council, Robeson Roadrunners, and the fair board.
Gregory said boosting tourism in the city and revitalizing the downtown will be his top concerns, along with promoting public safety.
“Everybody deserves a safe place to sleep at night,” he said.
As a real estate agent and former engineer with the Department of Transportation who has worked on the city’s Land Use Plan, Rising says he is familiar with Lumberton’s infrastructure and needs. Rising has a degree in business administration and says he would work to secure grants.
“I have a very strong work ethic and I’m very committed to doing the very best job that I can do,” Rising said. ” … I know that some of the citizens are extremely concerned about safety and tax values and opportunities for growth. Being involved in real estate really gives me an insight on what might be needed to help grow the city.”
Karen Altman Higley is unopposed in her bid to represent Precinct 4, where Harry Ivey will not be seeking another term after 46 years on the job. Chris Howard is unopposed in the race for Precinct 6, which has been represented by Robert Jones since 1991.
