Corbin sails to primary victory

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Corbin sails to primary victory

election time By the time polls closed March 15, Kevin Corbin’s soles were feeling the pain from 12 hours of standing on pavement outside polling places in Robbinsville, Murphy and Hayesville.

But as results rolled in, it became clear his campaigning would be worth it. Corbin, R-Franklin, took 73.4 percent of the vote, with his opponent Elliott Southworth, R-Murphy, pulling in only 26.2 percent.

“We are all extremely pleased with the outcome,” Corbin said. “Of course we went into it with a plan to win, but I don’t think we expected quite the percentage that we got.”

Corbin, who now sits as chairman of the Macon County Commissioners, was tapped to run for the seat by Rep. Roger West, R-Marble, after the 17-year representative decided not to run for another term representing N.C. House District 120. Corbin attributes that endorsement, as well as the endorsements of 17 of the 20 county commissioners in the district, as having an effect on the election outcome. He also sees the results in Macon County as a positive referendum on the county commission board as a whole. Corbin received 81.6 percent of the vote in Macon County, the most populous county in the district.

“Our board collectively has done a wonderful job, made good decisions, kept taxes low, made economic improvements, and I think people recognized that,” Corbin said. “I think I was the beneficiary of the success we’ve had there.”

He also pointed to what he called the “negative campaign” run by Southworth as a positive for the campaign. Southworth had called Corbin a “career politician” with an “uber-progressive agenda” who should have “a blue R after his name instead of a red one.” He’d criticized Corbin’s board’s ties to the Southwestern Commission, a regional planning commission, saying the Southwestern Commission is Agenda 21-driven — claims Corbin called “so disingenuous it’s not funny.”

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“I think I got a 10-point bump because of those comments he made,” Corbin said.

Southworth, however, said he is not disappointed with the results and doesn’t regret any of the charges he made during the campaign — “I don’t think it’s negative to tell the truth,” he said. He very well may run again in 2018.

“I’ve been contacted a number of times by people higher up the food chain in the Republican Party that I ran a good campaign,” Southworth said. “I’m sitting here with a smile on my face.”

Southworth said he has not yet decided whether he will support Corbin over the Democratic candidate in November.

“I don’t have any ill will toward Kevin,” Southworth said. “Kevin is probably a fine individual, but I think he’s very wrong on several issues.”

It’s not an “Obama’s enemy list-type thing,” Southworth said, but any decisions Corbin makes in the legislature will be “something I and others need to watch carefully.”

Corbin’s path to Raleigh is not yet complete, however. In November Corbin, 54, will face opposition from Democrat Randy Hogsed, a real estate broker from Andrews. Hogsed, 53, has lived in Andrews his whole life save four years spent in the Army, when he was based in Fort Bennings, Georgia.

Hogsed takes issue with changes to tax laws made during Republican leadership, believing they favor the wealthy and hurt working families. If elected, he said, his priority would be to make Western North Carolina a priority in Raleigh.

“Roger (West) spent 17 years in the state legislature, and Roger has never voted against his party,” Hogsed said. “Kevin (Corbin) is proud of all the politicians that are supporting him. That tells me he is going to represent the politicians and the Republican Party. I’m not a politician, and I don’t want to be politician. I want to be a representative and I want to represent us.”