Who Would You Vote For: Haney, Smithson, Woodruff, Sheer, or MANIMAL?

With most of us focused on the need to have a strong top of the ticket and a great Senatorial contender in 2008, it's easy to forget that the 2007 municipal election cycle is about to get into full swing. As I write this, there is less than 24 hours for a candidate for municipal office to file.

Our local newspaper, The Pilot, noted recently what a thankless job it is to be an elected municipal official.

Few town dwellers understand, much less appreciate, the services of the men and women who lead their communities. Yes, it takes a degree of egotism and assertiveness to stand for public office, but it also takes a higher degree of dedication.

Mayors and town leaders are not paid handsome stipends. Expense compensation is rarely sufficient to cover costs. If hours of service were calculated, their stipend would probably equal pennies an hour.

This year, two long-term mayors in Moore County have announced that they will not run for re-election. One resigned from his post in order to take a seat on the County Commission. Another resigned because of a change in the structure of the town government and strain in the town itself. Another is running for re-election even though he is under investigation by the SBI. Certainly going to be an eventful campaign season here!

The largest town affected by this is Southern Pines. Three of the candidates are current town council members, a fourth is the President of the Southern Pines Business Association. With a primary assured, it's not surprising that many of us are looking forward to the campaign of someone that most of us have only known as "Manimal". If you've spent any time at all in Moore County, you've seen his white van with his logo, "Got Manimal?" on the highways or back roads.

It took this colorful character, who drives a cab around town, three tries before he could successfully file his candidacy. Talk about determination!

I'll let Pilot writer Matthew Moriarty tell you the best parts of this. It's worth reading his whole column on this, honestly. We're in for a lot of fun this year.

The story I've heard -- and believed -- is that Manimal shot and killed a man last year over a chicken. The man was trying to steal the chicken from Manimal's farm near Laurinburg, the story goes, so he shot him with a rifle. They say it wasn't his first kill.

I asked Manimal about the story. He says that, yes, he caught a guy two years ago trying to steal from him and when he confronted him, the man threatened him, so Manimal shot him twice with a shotgun. But, contrary to legend, the man is alive and well.

"He's got a bunch of holes in him and he's got birdshot that will be coming out of him for a long time," he said, "but he'll think twice before stealing from somebody again."

Supposedly, Manimal's cab isn't legal. He couldn't get the paperwork for some reason. He gets around it by not charging people. He just gives rides, and if people want to pay when they get out, that's up to them.

(...)

I ran into him at O'Donnell's Pub while I was having a beer with my dad. Manimal announced his candidacy to me and said that he wanted to sit down and reveal all his skeletons before someone else got a chance to. I was positively giddy.

One of those skeletons is an Aug. 30 court date on a charge for driving with license revoked. Manimal said that it stemmed from a speeding ticket in Raeford. He sent in the money to pay for the ticket but accidentally paid too little. He said that his license was revoked for a grand total of one day.

Manimal is serious about running, apparently. And as Matt points out at the end of his column, at the very least, we all now know his name. Greg Lawrence Prochaska.

I'm not sure that's the best part of all this. I think the best part is that someone like Manimal has the right to get his stuff together and file to run for mayor. And who knows? There might be quite a party on election night.

Go Democracy, go!