As North Carolina’s candidate sign-up period approaches its midway point, preliminary indications in Haywood County point toward some big changes, especially in Canton.

As the candidate sign-up period for November’s municipal elections opens at noon on Friday, July 7, voters in most municipalities will start to learn who’s in, who’s out, who’s moving on and who’s moving up.

The September ballot could include a special election for vice chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, pending a decision by the Cherokee Supreme Court. 

By Martin Dyckman • Guest Columnist

It’s easy to make a mistake, particularly when relying on another person’s promises or character. It’s harder to admit one. That’s just human nature.

A lot of good people who put their faith in Donald Trump still can’t accept that it was misplaced. But if they care to be good citizens, there are some hard questions to ask themselves in the light of James Comey’s testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee:

North Carolina’s efforts to change the elections process to help keep its GOP majorities in office have been declared illegal by the U.S. Supreme Court in three separate decisions in recent months. 

One can only hope that this will be the death knell for such a politically corrupt agenda, but I’m not holding my breath.

A “Mark Meadows Town Hall” meeting on health care in Waynesville April 23 doesn’t promise U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows will be there, but it does promise that an unnamed Democratic challenger will be. But who is it?

A shake up in the Haywood County Republican Party has pitted mainstream party members against an ideological “patriot” faction.

The patriot faction recently lost its grip on the party, following a mass ousting from the party’s executive committee during this year’s annual precinct gatherings. But what drove the two branches of the local party apart and resulted in the patriots’ ousting isn’t easy to sum up.

A power struggle has embroiled the Haywood County Republican Party over the past several months, culminating in the mass overthrow of a conservative “patriot” faction by the mainstream branch of the party.

SEE ALSO: Patriot faction of Haywood GOP blindsided by ousting

The story of internal turmoil within the Haywood GOP is a familiar one. Feuding factions have been at loggerheads for several years running. But the latest commotion is more than just another chapter in the same old tug-of-war.

Eddie Cabe suspected something big was afoot in the weeks leading up to the annual precinct gathering of the Haywood County Republican Party. 

After expressing his outrage early last month over a bill that would make school board elections partisan in Haywood County, Chairman Chuck Francis and the Haywood County School Board have formally spoken out against it.