news-record.com

It's that time of year again. Endorsement season.

The News & Record's editorial staff has been pumping them out all week, to culminate with the Natural Science Center bond and the at-large council candidates this weekend.

A couple of observations:

Nancy Vaughan, a former City Council member aiming for another term in office, has gotten a broad variety of endorsements, from the African American George Simkins Jr. Memorial PAC to the conservative Rhino Times newspaper to the firefighters association. It will be interesting to see if all those endorsements help her retain her lead.

Meanwhile, her opponent and Mayor Pro Tem Sandra Anderson Groat did not receive the Simkins PAC endorsement as she had the her last two elections.That could harm her chances in the city's 1st and 2nd districts. To combat that, this week she had a half-page ad in The Carolina Peacemaker, the city's African American weekly. The advertisement includes notes from religious leaders George Brooks and Howard Chubbs, saying that Groat has been a friend to the community.

Also throwing around their endorsements: former candidates Gordon Hester and D.J. Hardy.

Hardy, an at-large candidate who did not survive the primary, said he is backing Danny Thompson, Marikay Abuzuaiter and Gary Nixon. The three candidates are very different, both personally and ideologically. But Hardy says he backs them because they will bring a new attitude to City Council.

Hester has given the nod to Jim Kee, whom he was up against for District 2.