County Commissioners: Three Vying for District 1 Seat

This article was published in The Pilot on May 3, 2022.

With four out of five seats up for grabs on Moore County’s Board of Commissioners this year, competition is high.

The most hotly contested seat is for the District I Commissioner, currently held by Catherine Graham. Graham, who has served on the board since 2014, announced last fall she would not seek reelection. Three candidates — all Republicans — are competing for the open seat: David McLean of Cameron, Angela Vacek of Vass and Jim Von Canon of Lakeview.

While there is no Democratic challenger for the seat, two unaffiliated candidates are petitioning to get their names on the ballot in November: John Misiaszek of Phil Vandercook. If either of the unaffiliated candidates get enough signatures to appear on the ballot, the winner of this primary will face off against them in the general election.

While each GOP candidate has their own unique experiences, they are all unified in one factor: none have experience as politicians.

David McLean

A Moore County native, McLean was born and raised in Vass. He has lived in the county most of his life and now lives in Cameron with his wife. They have two adult sons.

While he does not have any political experience, McLean’s father was the mayor of Vass for several years and its fire chief for over three decades. McLean retired two and half years ago after working for UPS for 36 years, mostly in management. He has also spent several years as a volunteer firefighter.

One of his top priorities has been managing the county’s growth responsibility via a “good, solid growth plan.” He is concerned with the county’s current zoning plan and subdivisions being built in the rural part of the county, where the infrastructure is scarce.

“The growth of housing and even economic development should be near the municipalities that already exist,” McLean said. “Because it's easier to provide that infrastructure out there rather than building 200 homes . . . seven or eight miles out in the country where they all gotta have septic tanks, and they may or may not have city water (or) county water.”

Another priority for McLean is economic development. He wants to diversify the private sector and attract more retail and manufacturing jobs to the county. At the same time, he believes “agriculture needs to stay a very important role here in Moore County.”

McLean is also passionate about supporting the county’s emergency medical services and law enforcement, especially by attracting and retaining workers. “I want to make sure we give them the support they need,” he said.

McLean said his strong suit is financial acumen and strategic thinking, as well as working with people.

“I was a businessman for 32 years, and I understand budgeting . . . five and 10 year business plans, managing a profit and loss statement, financial responsibility and working with people,” McLean said.

Angela Vacek

Vacek lives in Vass with her husband and their four children, two of which are adopted. While not originally from Moore County, she and her husband have lived here for nearly a decade, having been first brought here by the military.

After serving in the Army, Vacek has been “very involved in the community.” She has volunteered for local nonprofits and charities over the years, such as Habitat for Humanity and Lions Club. In the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, she established her own hurricane relief disaster shelter at a cabin she rented. Vacek ran unsuccessfully twice for mayor of Vass.

Vacek is particularly passionate about maintaining the county’s essential services. She sees the commissioner role as overseeing not just social services, but also services people may take for granted, like veterans services and the animal shelter.

“We need to make sure, as we're growing, our services match the growth, and that we make sure we provide a great quality of life for everyone in Moore County,” Vacek said.

Vacek would also like to see more opportunities built for children, such as county-operated recreation centers and facilities. Affordable housing is also among her top priorities. She said it is increasingly difficult for service workers and government employees to afford a home in Moore County.

Overall, she said she brings to the position a broad knowledge of the county’s innerworkings and a familiarity with solving challenges the county is facing.

“I know a lot of people on different levels of government,” Vacek said. “And I know I can just pick up a phone and start calling people to help, because I've done it before.”

Jim Von Canon

Born and raised in West End, Von Canon currently lives in Lakeview with his wife. They have three children who are now in college.

Like Vacek, Von Canon has a military background. He joined the military for the first Gulf War and retired in 2018 as a sergeant major. He also has worked for emergency services in West End and served as a police officer in Durham.

Von Canon has made Moore County Schools a significant part of his campaign for county commissioner. He believes the county’s public schools are in jeopardy of being outpaced by private and charter schools and teachers need to be paid a competitive wage to keep them here.

“We need to bring our schools back up to par,” Von Canon said. “We got some great teachers, but we need to let them teach and step back from the indoctrination and rewriting history right now. We need to get reading grade level (up) to start with and everything else will fall in place.”

Von Canon also feels strongly about security issues. He has “a lot of concerns about our open borders,” which he says exacerbate public safety issues such as human trafficking, drug overdose deaths and the presence of street gangs.

“The sheriff's doing a really good job with what he's got to work with,” Von Canon said. “We just need to make sure that Ronnie Fields has the equipment and the manpower to take care of this in the future.”

Other things at the top of his priority list include making sure the county has infrastructure to maintain the current level of growth and lifting people out of poverty and homelessness.

In general, Von Canon said he is confident in his ability to solve problems and collaborate with others to get things done.

“If I do a great job, it'd be because I'm surrounded by a lot of good quality people. Because you never do it by yourself,” he said.

Early voting for the primary runs through May 14 at two polling locations.

In-person voters will have two locations to choose from: Moore County Agricultural Center, 707 Pinehurst Ave. in Carthage, or Aberdeen Recreation Center, 301 Lake Park Crossing in Aberdeen. Polls at the two locations will be open from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Saturday hours on May 7 and 14 will be 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Registered voters can also vote on the day of the primary, May 17, at their assigned polling place.