Cromartie to seek election to commissioners
By From staff reports
Published in News on February 10, 2014 1:46 PM
Ed Cromartie
Wayne County District 2 Commissioner Ed Cromartie of Mount Olive has announced he will file for election to the final two years remaining on the unexpired four-year term of the late J.D. Evans.
Cromartie is a Democrat.
The filing period for local, state and federal elected offices opened at noon today and will continue through noon on Friday, Feb. 28.
The primary will be held Tuesday, May 6.
Cromartie's seat is the only county commissioner's office up for election this year.
Evans won re-election in November 2012 and was sworn into office, but died before the new board took over. Cromartie was nominated by the Wayne County Democratic Party to fill the first two years of Evans' term and was unanimously appointed by commissioners.
State law requires that the final two years must be decided by an election.
Cromartie said he wants to complete the final two years in order to continue to be an advocate for the county's students, the elderly, those in need of a "hand up" and fair wages.
"As the newly elected (commission) vice chairman, I will work with, and respect, my fellow commissioners, all citizens of Wayne County, and especially District 2," he said in a prepared statement."
A former member of the Mount Olive Town Board, Cromartie is a member of the Wayne County Planning Board, WAGES, the Steele Memorial Library board, Mount Olive Airport Commission and the WISH Foundation.
He also serves on the board of directors for Mount Olive Family Medicine Center and is a deacon and Sunday school teacher.
Cromartie taught in his native Cumberland County's public schools. He has been an educational consultant for the N.C. Department of Public Instruction; vocational education director for both the Goldsboro and Wayne County public school systems, as well as assistant principal, principal, athletic director and assistant superintendent for human resources.
Cromartie is a 1964 graduate of Anne Chestnutt High School and attended Fayetteville Technical Community College. He earned a bachelor's degree from Fayetteville State University in 1979 and a master's degree from the university in 1983.
He earned an EDS-Superintendent Certificate in 1987 from East Carolina University.
His wife, Hilda, is a retired educator.