Greensboro candidates connected to women's college, prominent consultants, finance questions

Our candidate profile for YES! Weekly's online voter guide at www.triadpolitics.info is pretty straight-forward (candidates answer basic questions about who they are and their campaign, and we post it along with a photo) but every so often there's something interesting or unexpected in the response.

Like that at-large candidate Ben Holder graduated from Salem College in Winston-Salem. It came as a surprise to us that the women's college has a co-ed adult education program for students who are 23 or older, and Communications Manager Jennifer Handy confirmed that Holder graduated from the program in 2009 with a degree in communication.

Or that Councilwoman Nancy Vaughan, who is running for mayor, hired well-known political consultant Bill Burckley. We reported that Vaughan worked with him in 2009, when he was also consulting for Bill Knight's successful mayoral bid.

Or that Tanya Wiley is managing Mayor Robbie Perkins' reelection effort. Wiley served as treasurer and consultant for the Winston-Salem Black Political Action Committee, an entity with finance problems. From Jordan Green's May 30, 2012  YES! Weekly article: 

"The committee failed to file second-quarter or third-quarter plus reports, prompting an official notice of noncompliance to Wiley from Kim Westbrook Strach, deputy director for campaign reporting at the state Board of Elections, on Nov. 12, 2008.

"Instead of catching up on its second-quarter and third-quarter plus reports the committee skipped to the 2008 year-end semi-annual report, which the board of elections received in February 2009. The report showed a balance of $164. Cash on hand at the end of the previous report should equal cash on hand at the beginning of the subsequent report. That $4,008 dwindled to $164 indicates that $3,844 remains missing or unaccounted."

Other interesting tidbits from the candidate profiles: At-large candidate Joseph Landis works as a flight attendant, District 2 challenger Jamal Fox is only 25 (Landis is 27), former councilwoman Florence Gatten is working as a paid consultant on Nancy Hoffmann's reelection campaign in District 4, District 5 challenger Alex Seymour co-founded the Beard & Moustache Club of NC and the Piedmont Old-Time Society and former NC House candidate Theresa Yon is District 5 Councilman Tony Wilkins' treasurer. 

Read more about the candidates here.