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Allran wins N.C. Senate seat |
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Written by Gina Lindsey (O-N-E Staff Reporter)
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Wednesday, 07 May 2008 |
N.C. Sen. Austin Allran won’t be giving up his 42nd district seat in the North Carolina Senate any time soon. The longtime N.C. legislator toppled his competitor Catawba County Board of Commissioners Chair Kitty Barnes with two-thirds of the vote in Catawba County.
“They say if you get 60 percent (of the vote) it’s a landslide,” Allran said. “I guess this is an avalanche.”
In Catawba County, Barnes received 6,684 votes to Allran’s 8,988. She lost the race with 34.26 percent of the vote in the county. Without a Democrat to run against in the Nov. 6 election, Allran will run unopposed. A successful write-in candidate is the only way he will not serve another term in the N.C. Senate.
Allran said two things set him apart from Barnes, his extensive record in office with more than 20 years experience in North Carolina politics and Barnes’ negative campaign against him.
“I think people looked at both of the records,” he said. “I think people approved of my record more than hers.”
He added later, “I’m the conservative and she’s the tax and spend liberal,” he said.
He believes the “vicious” campaign Barnes ran with TV ads denouncing his leadership capability and scorning the times he’s voted for more tax options that she, as a Catawba County Commissioner was lobbying for.
“It was gutter politics,” Allran said.
He celebrated his campaign success with family and friends at his home in Hickory.
“We are feeling very positive and humbled by the size of the victory,” he said.
Barnes will continue to serve the remaining two years of her four-year term on the Catawba County Board of Commissioners. She failed to return multiple phone calls.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 03 July 2008 )
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