Downtown support fails to deliver council victories

Candidates running for city council thought they were in for a hard fight this election season, but voter outreach efforts by local businesses failed to counteract a landslide at the polls for many candidates relying on the youth vote.

The Greenville City Council has been dealing with a downtown crime issue for years now, but the council's handling of the issue never seemed to garner much controversy until late this summer.

In response to the downtown shooting in June, the council began debate on four possible ordinances that would place restrictions on downtown business. The proposals included the halt of bar and club establishments in the area, as well as the requirement that many downtown businesses hire extra security personnel on their own dime.

Student outrage over the proposals created what seemed to be a good platform for youth-friendly candidates to run on. At-large candidate Zeke Jackson, 27, and District 4 candidate Matt Smith, 22, threw their hats into the council race in July, hoping to give students and young people a voice on city council.

During a candidate forum hosted by the ECU Libertarians in October, Jackson focused his statements on addressing the problems downtown. He said that he hoped to speed up council meetings, alluding to the fact that all council members are in their 50s or older. He also made note of being the youngest person serving elected office in Pitt County as the supervisor for Soil and Water Conservation.

Smith, who is an ECU student, attempted to actively involve students in the debate. He made direct mention of the potential threat of closing downtown on his Facebook fan page multiple times, and in an Oct. 16 post, he asked fans to "cast your vote against losing our downtown night life and the rent tax."

In an Oct. 29 Facebook message to guests of the "Save Downtown Greenville!" event to get out the student vote, Jackson addressed the young voter impact in the election throughout the early voting period.

"As of today, 130 young people voted to save downtown," he wrote. "We need 1,200. We only have two days left in this campaign … two days to determine if Downtown will stay open or will be taxed out of existence."

The downtown district endorsed pro-downtown candidates prior to the election, Jackson and Smith receiving the endorsements in their respective races. Businesses downtown also gave students incentives to vote and canvassers worked downtown to boost support for defeating what they considered anti-downtown actions by the current council.

"When I went downtown, somebody asked me to sign my name on a list asking me to save downtown," said Pitt Community College freshman Amber Meeks.

ECU sophomore Jordan Cleary said that clubs and bars even opened their doors to people who voted early.

"We could get in anywhere free if we had our voting sticker," she said.

The support of local business seemed to amount to little, though - Jackson and Smith both lost their races by a large portion of the vote.

In fact, the candidates facing challengers who did not receive endorsements from the downtown district not only won, but achieved landslide victories - all of them receiving over 70 percent of the vote, with the exception of District 1 candidate Kandie Smith, who managed to beat 22-year incumbent Mildred Council by a mere 12 votes.

Businesses and candidates used pamphlets and social networking sites like Facebook to promote early voting, which lasted from Oct. 15 to Oct. 31. Early voting has proven to be a good means of getting out the youth vote during larger elections such as in 2008, but in an off-year election where only municipal candidates appear on the ballot, students may be less inclined to take the time to show up to the polls.

This writer can be contacted at news@theeastcarolinian.com.