By Elizabeth Cook
ecook@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY ó Seventeen candidates filed at the Rowan County Board of Elections Friday ó enough to fill the slate in every municipality except Faith.
Faithís filing deadline has been extended to Wednesday in hopes that at least one more candidate will file for that town board.
Noon Friday was the original filing deadline for the 10 municipalities in Rowan.
The most crowded field is in Salisbury, with nine people running for five seats, but thatís modest compared to the 13 who ran in 2009.
Hereís the breakdown, town by town:
China Grove: Mayor Don Bringle is unopposed in his bid for re-election, but six people have filed for the two alderman slots up for election ó including some former aldermen who want to get back on the board.
Incumbents Lee Withers and Ronald Overcash are in a race with Donnie Herring and former board members Butch Bivens, Steve Stroud and Allen Welter.
Cleveland: Leonard West filed Friday for the Cleveland Board of Commissioners, joining Richard Taylor and incumbents Mary Frank Fleming-Adkins and John Bradford in the race for two seats. Mayor John Steele is running for re-election without opposition.
East Spencer: Part of the news in this race is what did not happen. Mayor John Cowan is not seeking re-election. Robert Smith and Barbara Mallett are the candidates in that race.
Three more people filed for election as alderman, doubling the size of that field. Candidates for the three seats up this year are the incumbents ó Carlton Ellis, Theodore Gladden and John Noble ó challenged by Curtis Cowan, former alderman Titus King and former mayor and alderman John L. Rustin.
Faith: Four of the five incumbents have filed for re-election ó Mayor Keith Deal, Mayor Pro Tem Todd Peeler and aldermen Bill Johnson Jr. and Gary Gardner. That leaves one more seat to fill, the one now held by Mark Shores.
Granite Quarry: Two more people filed for this town board, bringing the field to eight. The three seats up for election are held by Mayor Mary Ponds, Mayor Pro Tem Bill Feather and Alderman Jake Fisher. They all filed for re-election and face five challengers: Robert Anderson, Michael Brinkley, Robert Gay, Jim LaFevers and Buddy Miller.
Kannapolis: Six people vying for three seats on the Kannapolis City Council. They include incumbents Ken Geathers, Roger Haas and Tom Kincaid and challengers Ryan Dayvault, Amos L. McClorey and Michael Mishkin.
Landis: Dennis Brown now faces a challenge from James Furr in his bid for re-election as mayor. Thereís a three-way race for alderman, including incumbents Tony Hilton and Roger Safrit and challenger Tony Corriher.
Rockwell: Mayor Beau Taylor is unopposed and only one challenger filed in the race for four aldermen slots. That was Charles Stiller, who will face incumbents Tim Draper (mayor pro tem), Chuck Bowman, Timothy Crews, Eric Moore and Charles Wingerson.
Salisbury: All five incumbents filed for re-election to City Council, as they said they would ó Mayor Susan Kluttz (who is seeking her eighth term), Mayor Pro Tem Maggie Blackwell, Pete Kennedy, Brian Miller and Paul Woodson.
They face four challengers ó Blake Jarman, Rip Kersey, Benjamin Lynch and Dale Stephens.
Spencer: Five more candidates filed in this race Friday. Mayor Jody Everhart was the only person to file for that slot. With six other seats on the board up for election, Scott Benfield and Reid Walters joined fellow incumbents Jeff Morris and David Smith in seeking re-election. Three challengers filed Friday ó former police chief Robert Bennett, Jim Gobbel and Kevin Jones.
Tracy Aitken and Delaine Fowler did not file for re-election.
Election Day is Nov. 8.