Late shakeup in Lenoir race

Mayor narrowly fends off last-minute challenger

Sunday, Nov. 11, 2007

By Marcie Young
Charlotte Observer Staff Writer

Seven days before last week's election, David Barlow thought his third term as Lenoir mayor was clinched.

No one had filed to run against him, and he hadn't heard any murmurings around town that anyone was planning to seek the seat as a write-in candidate.

But then, with a week to go before the Nov. 6 election, Debra Venti, a downtown merchant, launched an intense write-in campaign, nearly ousting Barlow.

Barlow narrowly won with 661 votes, but write-in candidates got 619 votes. And most of those went to Venti, said Caldwell County Board of Elections Director Sandy Rich, though she won't have the exact totals until the votes are canvassed on Tuesday.

Venti, a political newcomer, began a whirlwind campaign promoting the need for a fresh perspective in city government. She printed hundreds of flyers, posted signs, sent e-mails, took newspaper ads and booked radio spots, and within a week had garnered wide support.

"It just really came down to being motivated for change and being excited about it," she said. "And people were really supportive (of that)."

Barlow, meanwhile, said he hadn't heard about any frustrations or concerns from residents and said Venti's intense campaign caught him off guard.

"We had to respond very quickly," he said. "We were working all day long, and I didn't know if I'd win by a lot or lose."

Venti's decision to run, she said, wasn't motivated by discontent with city leaders, but by her feeling that Lenoir needed new ideas for revitalizing downtown and bringing more business to the city.

Venti, who owns Venti's Casa, She-Sha's and a downtown upholstery studio, moved to Lenoir from Greenville, S.C., more than five years ago and said the city needs to start thinking more about how it is going to adjust as factories continue closing.

"On the edges of our town, it still says, `Welcome to the furniture capital of the world,' but those mainstays are changing," Venti said. "We need to redefine who we are and what we are about today."

But Barlow, who owns a real estate company, said the city is constantly looking for new ways to bring more business to the city, improve downtown and find ways to overcome the exodus of furniture and textile jobs.

"We have a lot of good things here, and a lot more good things are happening," he said.

Bringing Google to Caldwell County, a project that Barlow worked on closely with county officials, will help attract new business, he said, but is only one of many projects the city is looking at.

"Google is not totally the answer. It's a steppingstone," he said. "(Development) just doesn't happen overnight."

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