Gastonia city leaders under pressure to fill Ward 1 council seat with runner-up

Gastonia city leaders are under pressure from a GOP state representative to advance the "conservative agenda" by appointing Republican Robert King to fill the Ward 1 council seat left vacant in the wake of Robert Kellogg's April resignation.

Kellogg, who is unaffiliated, stepped down after accepting a job two hours northeast in Orange County.

In addition to public comments made by two residents from Ward 1 at an April 16 meeting, Rep. Donnie Loftis, who represents Gaston County in the North Carolina General Assembly, recently sent an email to the council urging them to choose King as the replacement without debate.

In November 2020, King and Kellogg opposed one another in the race for the Ward 1 seat on Gastonia’s City Council.

At that time, the city did not conduct voting using the ward-based voting process but used at-large voting to fill council seats.

Although the at-large voting system in Gastonia has since been changed to ward-based voting after an unidentified house representative added the motion to Senate Bill 169, Kellogg got more votes than King in the at-large race in 2020, which cemented his role as a city councilman.

Loftis and others who have spoken in support of King said that when looking at votes from just Ward 1, King beat Kellogg in the race.

Additionally, Loftis said in the email, installing King in Kellogg’s empty seat would help, "move the needle to the conservative side without having to win an election."

The May 7 email reads in its entirety:

“Honorable,

Thank you for all you do to move our city forward.

I am contacting you today to share my thoughts on filling the open seat in Ward 1 from the recent resignation of Robert Kellogg.

The results for Ward 1 during the municipal elections on November 2nd, 2021, clearly reflected the will of the voters in Ward 1. The Ward has already clearly signaled that they identified who they wanted to represent them, Robert King.

In votes from just Ward 1, Robert King (949) beat Robert Kellogg (818) by 131 votes. However, because of plurality voting the will of the voters in Ward 1 was overridden and silenced with Robert Kellogg winning the seat. And “if” Walter Kimble hadn’t run, I would suggest his 693 votes would have still made Robert King the winner.

Since there are no council approved process steps to fill an open position other than what was used when Councilman Slug Watson died in office many years ago, I would recommend the following process.

• I would suggest the candidate who came in second (Robert King) should be the next seated council member even if you have interviews. You already have the voice of the voters registered by the voters in that Ward.

For many years the City of Gastonia has been led and dominated by Democrats in a very Republican City and County. Now we can move the needle to the conservative side without having to win an election. I know this will be a BIG step towards the conservative side and you may feel the pressure. However, the sun will come up the next day and you will then be able to move the conservative agenda forward. Many of us have said “if we just had that one other seat, we could move this city forward” … Here’s our opportunity.

I’m aware that others are interested in filling this seat also. I’ve heard Rev. Pierrie Crawford, Pastor at Center Baptist is interested. I’ve heard the former Councilman Keith Tidwell is interested and I saw a gentleman on Facebook who was interested. I checked and Crawford is Unaffiliated and Tidwell is a registered Democrat. Surely, you wouldn’t bring a former Democrat council member who had an unfortunate public incident in the past and who ran for reelection and lost, back again. In my opinion Keith Tidwell’s season has passed and he was good for Gastonia during his tenure, and Rev. Crawford tried unsuccessfully but failed to get enough signatures to become a write-in candidate for county commissioner from across all of Gaston County. Robert King was elected by the voters of Ward 1.

In my opinion there is only one candidate I support and that is Robert King. If the former Mayor Walker Reid was still in power, let’s not kid ourselves, a “good Democrat” would be filling that seat. This is a political appointment, and I would frame the discussion that the voters in Ward 1 have already spoken on the person they wanted to fill this seat. Robert King.

And I wouldn’t negotiate or give in even if the seat had to remain empty for some time. However, with the seat empty you will have three to two majority Democrat control. This is the time to change history and hold firm for Robert King to backfill this seat.

Thank you for your time,

Donnie”

At its April 16 meeting, the city approved a plan to fill Kellogg’s seat using an interview process that will be open to the public.

The application window closes May 22 and the council plans to vote on who will fill the seat at a regular meeting on June 18. Interested residents can apply for the position on the city’s website at www.gastonianc.gov.

The city of Gastonia declined to comment on the content of the email.

Loftis could not be immediately reached for comment.