In a narrow upset in the Haywood County Tax Collector race last week, voters elected a man with a history of delinquent property tax bills and little experience for the job.

A new tax collector has been elected in Haywood County, but when he takes office next month his duties will be substantially less than the outgoing tax collector.

When Jackson County commissioners halted the controversial rewrite of the steep slope development rules earlier this year, critics were both pleased and skeptical.

Pleased that a rollback of the county’s steep slope rules wouldn’t be pushed to the finish line before November’s election, but skeptical that the sitting commissioners would really stop work on the rollback. Instead, many thought the incumbents were trying to save their own re-election chances and would pick up where they left off after November.

Controlling mountainside development is a universal issue grappled with across Western North Carolina.

But Jackson County’s residents have wrestled more passionately, more vocally, more extensively and more heatedly over mountainside development than almost any other county in the region.

Stories from the 2014 midterm election:

Registered voters who can't wait until Election Day to vote now have the opportunity to vote in person across North Carolina.

Two candidates are competing for the job of top legal prosecutor in the seven western counties.

The seat came up for grabs when District Attorney Mike Bonfoey announced his retirement after 11 years in the role. Two assistant prosecutors who work under Bonfoey are vying for the job.

Hicks: Getting off the sidelines

Dean Hicks is still a coach at heart. 

“I’m an old coach, I don’t want to be average,” Hicks said. “No coach could settle for average, and I don’t think North Carolina should either.”

Editor’s note: The Smoky Mountain News spent a day on the campaign trail with Sen. Jim Davis, R-Franklin, as he tries to retain his seat in the N.C. General Assembly representing the seven western counties.

It’s almost dark and North Carolina Sen. Jim Davis, R-Franklin, is sitting in the Ryan’s steakhouse in Sylva. It’s Thursday, another day on the campaign trail with an election only weeks away. 

Editor’s note: The Smoky Mountain News spent a day with Jane Hipps, a Democratic challenger running for the state Senate seat spanning the seven western counties.

8:40 A.M.

Jane Hipps was getting a later-than-normal start on the campaign trail, unless you count the cards she passed out at her crack-of-dawn dentist appointment. In a proud moment of positive thinking, Hipps had diligently made her next dentist appointment as she left, for 7:30 a.m.