By the time filing closed for Greensboro City Council seats on July 18, voters in District 4 had gotten used to the idea of a two-man race — Adam Marshall v. Nicky Smith. The two had already been campaigning for months, offering competing e-mail blasts, even purchasing billboard space.
But on the last day of filing, a new candidate emerged—Steve Ignac. Suddenly, what looked like a two-way race to the Nov. 4 general election was instead headed to an October 7 primary.
That’s how he wanted it, Ignac told The Thread this week.
“I filed at the last minute, basically,” he said. “Even though the city council is supposed to be non-partisan, the candidates are really known by their parties. They get their donations and everything through party lines. So I do believe that for a true representation of the people, you should have people who are independent from the beginning.”
Ignac is a registered Libertarian. He saw the race shaping up to be between the Democratic Marshall and the Republican Smith, he said, and getting increasingly partisan. That’s when he decided he’d like to be a voice for those who don’t identify with the Democratic or Republican parties.
Marshall and Smith may have the jump on him in organizing, fundraising, and name recognition, Ignac said. Marshall even picked up the endorsement of the Greensboro Police Officers Association this week. But that doesn’t mean he can’t offer another choice.
Having only moved to Greensboro two years ago from Southern California, Ignac said he may provide fresh eyes in a way that more firmly entrenched candidates can’t. He and his wife, Olga, have come to love Greensboro, where he works as a programmer for Guilford County Schools. They’ve seen the city grow dramatically just in the last year with a series of big economic development announcements, a corresponding need for new housing, and serious development downtown.
“I would hate to see what happened to the area around Los Angeles that we lived in happen here,” Ignac said. “Greensboro isn’t a small town, but in some ways it has that small town character that we like, and you don’t want to see that change with all this new growth. It has to be done the right way.”
The coming council races could be transformative for the city, seeing more than half the nine-member council turn over at once.
“I thought I should get involved and be part of it,” Ignac said.
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Joe Killian is The Assembly’s Greensboro editor. He covered cops, courts, government and politics at Greensboro’s daily paper, The News & Record, for a decade. He joined us from NC Newsline in Raleigh, where he was senior investigative reporter.