Deal reached to overhaul Wake County commission elections

NC House member Erin Pare, the only Republican from the Wake County delegation, said she has reached a compromise with the seven Democrats currently on the Wake County Board of Commissioners.

Posted 9:14 p.m. Mar 6, 2023 — Updated 12:57 p.m. Mar 7, 2023

Travis Fain

, WRAL

Wake County's lone Republican state lawmaker said Monday that she's struck a deal with the county's Democratic county commissioners to overhaul the commission's structure.

Right now all seven commissioners are elected countywide, even though they're required to live in separate districts. State Rep. Erin Paré's bill would require all seven to run from those districts and add two more commissioners who'd run countywide, growing the board to nine seats.

The change would give Republicans a shot at winning commission seats in a county that has become a solid one for Democrats. The compromise addresses a divisive issue that has lingered for years.

“Bringing more local representation to the Wake Board of Commissioners has been important to me and to my constituents for a long time," Paré said in a news release announcing the deal. "I am very pleased that the Wake County commissioners came to the table and agreed to district based representation. This is the right thing to do for the people.”

Wake County Commissioner Matt Calabria and a commission spokeswoman confirmed the deal. Paré said the board "expressed their full support" for the bill.

Elections would stay partisan under the agreement, a key change from a proposal Paré floated last month. That bill would have kept the commission at seven members, but non-partisan elections would have been district-by-district. The new proposal is something Paré proposed last year, and it will be pasted into the bill she filed on this subject last month, House Bill 99.

Commission spokeswoman Dara Demi said in an email that a deal was struck after "the two most concerning elements of the original legislation were removed."

"The requirement to run non-partisan plurality elections would have resulted in no primaries and no guarantee that any candidate would have received more than 50% of the vote," Demi said. "The amended legislation allows these elections to remain partisan as they are currently."

If the measure passes the General Assembly, which seems likely, the two at-large seats would be added in the 2026 elections. Terms for existing members would stay as-is, with those commissioners coming up for re-election as already scheduled.

Paré and other Republicans have argued for years that commission elections in Wake County aren't fair.

"When 55% of the electorate resides in Raleigh and Cary, the more rural communities in Wake do not have the accountability they deserve in their elected officials, and that’s wrong," she said Monday. "I appreciate the give and take this compromise required and look forward to effective representation for the Wake County towns and non-incorporated areas going forward."

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