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DURHAM -- Here is at look at some of the individuals running for local office who have recently made their candidacies official. The filing period ends Feb. 26.
Larry Hall
Hall, 55, who joined the state House of Representatives in 2006, is seeking his third full term.
Gov. Mike Easley appointed the Democrat to District 29 after the resignation of Paul Miller, who had been indicted for fraud. The district begins north of Main Street and moves southwest until it stops at the Orange and Chatham county line.
"The priority is going to be trying to do things that are going to create jobs, especially in our district and in the state of North Carolina," Hall said.
Hall, an attorney, served 20 years on active and reserve status in the U.S. Marine Corps. He is chairman of the House's committee on homeland security, military and veterans affairs and vice chairman of the committee on financial institutions.
-- Matthew E. Milliken
Mickey Michaux
This veteran Democratic legislator is pursuing his 32nd term in the state House of Representatives.
Michaux, an attorney, real estate agent and insurance agent, serves in District 31. The area includes parts of southern and central Durham and most of the eastern portion of the county.
As senior chairman of House appropriations, Michaux holds one of the most important posts in the legislature. He is also vice chairman of the election law and campaign finance reform committee.
-- Matthew E. Milliken
R. Miles Standish
Democrat Standish, 61, is a vice president of corporate development for Lee Air Conditioners, a Durham company with about 100 workers and nearly $12 million in annual revenue. He is running for N.C. House District 55, a seat currently held by fellow Democrat Winkie Wilkins. Another Democrat, Fred Foster Jr., is also running for the seat.
"My priorities are centered around fiscal conservatism," Standish said. "I want to be a part of ... controlling the budget, making sure that we eliminate any waste in state government."
He added that he wants state government to help create jobs and provide health care.
Standish has a bachelor's degree from Cal State Long Beach. He served in the Air Force in the late 1960s and participated in the Vietnam War.
He moved to the state in 1981 and came to Durham in 1984 when he served as employee relations manager at Duke. He joined Lee Air Conditioning in 2005.
-- Matthew E. Milliken
Michael O'Foghludha
Local lawyer Michael O'Foghludha has filed to make a run to become a Superior Court judge.
"I have handled a wide range of cases, building experience in those matters that come before a Superior Court judge," said O'Foghludha. "As a trial attorney, I have been in courtrooms in the far corners of North Carolina."
Candidates for Superior Court judgeships don't run for a particular seat. The top three vote getters get the nod.
O'Foghludha in 1978 graduated from Duke University and in 1982 earned his law degree at UNC Chapel Hill.
In 1987 he returned to the Bull City to join what is now Pulley, Watson, King & Lischer, of which O'Foghludha is the managing partner.
Away from the courthouse, O'Foghludha, 53, serves on the board of directors for the Council for Senior Citizens. The lawyer used to coach youth soccer in Durham when his sons were growing up.
-- John McCann
Dan Read
Durham lawyer Dan Read has filed to run for the Superior Court bench.
"Law is a helping profession," Read said. "That's why I became a lawyer, and why I want to continue serving Durham as a judge."
Superior Court judgeships go to the top-three vote getters among the candidates.
Read in 1983 earned his law degree at UNC Chapel Hill. He spent two years stationed in Germany with the U.S. Army.
The lawyer, who began his legal career as a staff attorney for the N.C. Court of Appeals, has been practicing trial law in Durham since 1986. He's done both criminal and civil cases in District Court and Superior Court.
Read, 56, is president of the Duke Park Neighborhood Association.
Read is a local precinct chairman for the Democratic Party, teaches Sunday school and, along with his wife, counsels couples engaged to be married. The counseling is particularly refreshing because he sees enough bad stuff during the day in courtrooms, the lawyer said.
-- John McCann
Freda Black
Freda Black, an assistant prosecutor in 2003 when Durham author Michael Peterson was convicted of first-degree murder in the slaying of his wife, Kathleeen, has filed for the District Court seat expected to be vacated by retiring Judge Ann McKown.
Black will face county Magistrate Steven Storch, county Assistant District Attorney Doretta Walker and local lawyer Kerry Sutton for the McKown seat.
In 2008, Black was a candidate for district attorney but came in second to Tracey Cline.
-- John McCann
Shea Neville
This 39-year-old Duke University Health System employee has a family connection to the school board. His grandfather, Thomas Bass, spent three decades as a member of what was then the city Board of Education. "I grew up around it, around school policy and that sort of thing ... I guess it's in my blood," said Neville, who works with patient insurance claims.
Neville said his top priorities as school board member would be to add counselors to help students with personal and social issues, to improve the school system's public image and to give teachers appropriate support. Among other things, that means ending the practice of having them pay for school supplies out of their own pockets. "If parents are sending kids to school without school supplies, that's a form of neglect, and these are social services that we're asking our teachers to take on," Neville said.
Neville is running for the District 4B seat held by two-term incumbent Stephen Martin.
A Durham native and Hillside graduate, Neville served in the Army from 1998 through 2006, working as a medic and becoming staff sergeant. Neville holds a bachelor's in sociology from North Carolina Central University and has no children.
He sat on the county's Juvenile Crime Prevention Council for one year and coaches youth baseball for the city Parks and Recreation Department.
-- Matthew E. Milliken
Donald Hughes
Hughes, 22, is making his second run at public office less than a year after he earned a bachelor's degree from UNC Greensboro. He unsuccessfully challenged Councilwoman Cora Cole-McFadden in 2009.
Hughes is launching a new organization called Durham Youth Community Action and Advocacy Network, or Durham Youth CAAN. He spent time last year working on a Duke-sponsored community health project focused on adolescents.
As a potential school board member, he wants student achievement to be a top priority.
Hughes also expects disparities in the educations received by minorities and other students to be a campaign issue. "I personally want to figure out a way ... to open the discussion and be truthful about what we need to do," Hughes said.
Hughes, who is seeking the District 1A seat held by one-term incumbent Omega Curtis Parker, is the son of controversial former City Council and school board member Jackie Wagstaff. Ironically, Wagstaff was ousted from elective office in 2001 and 2006 by the two people her son is facing in consecutive campaigns, Cole-McFadden and Parker.
-- Matthew E. Milliken
Editor's note: This is one in an occasional series of looks at 2010 election candidates throughout the filing season.
