Candidates toss hats on first filing day

DOBSON — All in all, it was a good day for hat tossing, with warm weather making such headgear unneeded and also because candidates throwing their hats into the ring for political offices showed democracy is alive and well.

With Friday being the first filing day for those seeking non-partisan elected positions in Dobson, Pilot Mountain and Elkin, five candidates had done so by around 3 p.m.

Meanwhile, Friday was the last day to file for a Surry County Soil and Water Conservation supervisor position. When the noon deadline for that ended, two persons had done so.

The list of first-day filers for municipal elections included all three incumbents on the Dobson Board of Commissioners whose seats are affected by the 2024 election: Todd Dockery, Robin T. Beeson and Amy Whitaker.

Two other candidates from Elkin filed Friday, including Robert Ball Jr., an incumbent town commissioner.

In addition, Juan Manigault filed for the Elkin mayoral post now held by Sam Bishop.

Commissioner Alvin Hayes also is up for re-election this year in Elkin.

At last report Friday afternoon, no one had filed for seats in Pilot Mountain, where those presently held by town commissioners Rachel Collins and Dwight Atkins are up for grabs this year.

The filing period for positions in the three towns — where eight are involved altogether — will end on July 19 at noon in the Surry County Board of Elections office at 915 E. Atkins St. in Dobson.

Those who do so will square off in the November general election.

The two people filing for the Surry Soil and Water Conservation supervisor position were William Lee Dalton Jr. and Joe Zalescik, a former member of the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners.

Those two also will go head to head in November for the office now held by Glenn Pruitt, who did not file for another term.