Working For A Better Stokes County

Working For A Better Stokes County

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Whenever I tell people that I am running for a seat on the County Commission, the first question asked is "what is your platform?". My platform seems to be taking shape...foremost of which is to improve the schools to a point that they become an attraction to business and residential development. This will help expand the county's tax base so that we can provide better services to the citizens of Stokes county.

In future posts I will review what brought me to the point of running for County Commissioner. I will also continue to review the campaign up to the latest point. My desire is for this blog is to generate discussion on the issues, keep friends and supporters up to speed on the campaign, and hopefully get help from the constituents in educating myself on those issues, and the specifics of running a campaign for an elected office.

I've found it quite interesting and informative so far, and I'm only getting started! I spoke to my first group of constituents that I didn't know personally this past Monday night and it seemed to go well. There will be much more of that as the campaign wears on!

One of the biggest reasons for running is to be an example to my kids and their young friends (and all Stokes County youth for that matter) that citizenship is not a spectator sport. My hope is that we will inspire a significant number of the youth to get registered to vote, to get educated about government, to discuss the issues, and to cast an educated vote when they get into that booth.

If anyone has any questions about getting registered please let me know! There is contact information available on my website at www.zollie.org.

The schedule right now is to file on February 11. There are two contested seats among the current board of County Commissioners. Leon Inman and Jimmy Walker are both up for re-election. Mr. Inman is the current Chairman of the Board. As far as I know, they are both running again. Both of them are Republicans, and both have been very active in the community for as long as we have lived in Stokes county. I have a lot of respect for both of them. Leon Inman was vice -principal of King Elementary during my term as president of the PTO. He was also the realtor we used when Renee and I bought our land in Pinnacle. I do not have a axe to grind with anyone on the current council....it's just that I feel that in our form of elective government that it is crucial to have different people with different ideas and experiences get involved.

My first objective is to win the Democratic Primary. As of this posting I have not heard for sure who else is running for either the Democrats or Republicans. I really try not to worry about that since I have no control over it. I feel my time is better spent at this point working on my campaign and polishing my platform, and those are constants won't change regardless of the competition. We'll know for sure when the filing period ends February 29. Both primaries will be May 6.
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Thanks to Chuck Segal for all his help and support.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Welcome to the Zollie Smith Campaign Blog!

The Zollie Smith Campaign welcomes you to follow the election for the Stokes County N.C. Board of Commissioners from this blog. Zollie will be keeping us informed about the issues facing Stokes County, as well as commenting on the events leading up to the election. Zollie believes in keeping constituents informed, and this blog will serve as one of the ways in which our campaign can reach out to the public. Please feel free to comment on posts, as we feel that responsible government must keep the lines of communication open to the very people it is charged with serving. Thanks for reading, and remember....

ZOLLIE SMITH FOR STOKES COUNTY
BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS IN 2008!