Greensboro mayoral race expands

Jay Ovittore (right) chats with Guilford County Republican Party Executive Director Michael Picarelli after filing to run in District 3. Picarelli supports incumbent Zack Matheny, who is a registered Republican, and joked that he was considering filing for the race to discourage Ovittore from running.

Two new candidates entered the Greensboro mayoral race before filing closed today at noon.

Chris Phillips is an African-American conservative who participated as a presenter in a county government spending reform summit organized by Conservatives for Guilford County. Bradford Cone, 31, is a longtime Democratic Party volunteer who is interested in making Greensboro a sanctuary city for undocumented immigrants.

Cone said the fact that there were no other Democrats in the race factored in his decision to run.

The three other candidates are Mayor Bill Knight, at-large Councilman Robbie Perkins and former Councilman Tom Phillips. All three are registered Republicans, although each holds a unique ideological position. Of the three candidates with experience on council and name recognition, Knight is the conservative choice. Perkins frequently votes with the liberal end of the council.

Tom Phillips was often considered a lone staunch conservative during his tenure on the council in the 1990s and 2000s, but the city's politics have moved to the right since his retirement from council in 2007. He opposes current plans to reopen the White Street Landfill and alienated some conservatives by backing former City Manager Mitchell Johnson's handling of discrimination complaints by black police officers.

Jay Ovittore began filling out paperwork for the District 3 seat on council at 11:15 a.m. and asked board of elections staff to wait until literally the last minute to allow him to file in the event that no one stepped up to challenge incumbent Zack Matheny. A rumored challenge from the right by conservative activist Jeff Hyde did not materialize, so Ovittore made the jump into the race. Ovittore ran for the seat two years ago, but was eliminated in the primary.

Ovittore said he couldn't allow Matheny to run unopposed.

"I'm still really miffed about the teen curfew downtown," he said. "It wasn't teens downtown causing problems. It was adults with guns and knives. We did nothing but send kids home."

Ovittore told Michael Picarelli and Tony Wilkins, respectively the current and former executive directors of the Guilford County Republican Party, in the hallway after filing that he plans to change is registration from Democratic to unaffiliated.

Two additional candidates, Christopher McLaughlin and Marlando Pridgen, also filed in the at-large race, bringing the total number to 14. Mayor Pro Tem Nancy Vaughan and at-large Councilman Danny Thompson are running seeking one of the three at-large seats, along with former Mayor Yvonne Johnson and a host of other well organized and qualified candidates.

One person who didn't file to run was Theresa Yon, a former candidate for NC House. Wilkins had encouraged Yon to run at large. She said she decided this morning against filing, but came down to the board of elections office to observe before the filing period closed.

Considering the number of candidates, all races except districts 1 and 3 will have primaries, narrowing the contests to two candidates per seat. In District 3, Matheny and Ovittore will be on the general election ballot, as will District 1 incumbent Dianne Bellamy-Small and challenger Donnell "DJ" Hardy.

Bradford Cone (standing in center foreground) filed to run for mayor of Greensboro today.