Travis Phelps of Durham, 22, has won the Friends of Durham endorsement in the Democratic primary for state House District 50. One of the county's three major political-action committees, the Friends chose Phelps, an employee at Reckless Paints & Accessories, over Orange County Commissioner Valerie Foushee.

In the Republican primary, the Friends endorsed Efland banker W. Lewis Hannah over three rivals: Jason Chambers of Bahama, Rod Chaney of Hillsborough and Thomas Samuel Wright of Mebane.

House District 50, reconfigured in the 2011 redistricting, covers most of Orange County and northern and eastern regions of Durham County.

A third Republican member of the Wake County school board has publicly announced a potential run for higher office this year.

In a press release today, school board member Debra Goldman says she will make a decision by the February filing period about her candidacy. She doesn't say what seat she's considering, but odds are it would be for the General Assembly.

“I have been contemplating a run for higher office for quite some time,” said Goldman in the press release. “This recent $750 million tax hike proposal by the governor just doesn’t make sense. Raising taxes isn’t the answer. The real solution is fiscal responsibility, something Raleigh has not seen lately.”

The issue of Michael Alves' unannounced private meeting with the new Democratic members of the Wake County school board won't seem to go away.

The issue was revisited with some heated comments during Tuesday's board meeting. The discussion, more of which is detailed later in the post, shows the continuing wariness between the Republican and Democratic members.

More recently, Terry Stoops, director of education studies for the conservative John Locke Foundation, brought up the issue in a Thursday blog post.

Veteran Democratic strategist Gary Pearce is offering speculation on why Republicans lost the majority on the Wake County school board.

In this talkingaboutpolitics blog post on Monday, Pearce says a Republican friend told him that school board chairman "Ron Margiotta was an unintended victim of the Republican-run school board redistricting." Pearce writes that the majority gave in to board member Debra Goldman's demand that she get three heavily Republican precincts moved from Margiotta's district into her district.

"With those three precincts in his district, my friend believes, Margiotta would have won reelection," Pearce writes. "He would still be chairman and still command a 5-4 majority."

In this other Monday blog post, Pearce writes that a different GOP friend told him that "the Republicans were doomed from the start on this election for school board." The friend cites a lack of a message and underfunding, calls school board vice chairman John Tedesco "an embarrassment" and says "there just wasn’t much of a vetting process" on candidate Heather Losurdo.

Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker and U.S. Rep. Brad Miller are cheering victories by their fellow Democrats in the Wake County school board elections in interviews with Cash Michaels on his "Make It Happen" radio program.

Excerpts of the interviews were included in this article in the latest issue of The Carolinian. Meeker said Susan Evana overcame "an especially gerrymandered district" for a "remarkable" win over school board chairman Ron Margiotta.

“They rejected not only his style of politics - the secret meetings, the rudeness and all of that - but also the substance, pushing divisive issues, bringing in racial parts, trying to allow under-performing schools…all of that has been rejected by our citizens," Meeker said.

How's this for a what-if scenario from the Wake County school board elections?

During an appearance Wednesday on The Bill LuMaye Show on WPTF, Democratic political strategist Perry Woods speculated on what might have happened if school board chairman Ron Margiotta had faced Jim Martin instead of Susan Evans in the District 8 race.

"They kind of got maybe a little too cute and moved him out of the district," said Woods, who worked for the Democratic school board candidates. "And I think Ron probably had a better chance of beating Jim Martin than he did Susan Evans, who ended up beating him."

Speaking of voting, do you know whether you're eligible to vote tomorrow in  one of the five Wake County school board races?

As noted in today's article by Thomas Goldsmith, the Wake County Board of Commissioners turned down the request from the Wake County Board of Elections earlier this year to spend $120,000 to send postcards to voters letting them know their voting districts had changed.

It's an issue considering a number of voters changed school board districts as a result of new maps adopted this year.

Ron Margiotta has become only the third person to have raised more than $50,000 in a Wake County school board race.

A new campaign finance report filed this week shows that the incumbent board chairman had raised $52,748.31 as of Sept. 26. He has $31,915.55 on hand in the District 8 race.

Margiotta leads Susan Evans, who had raised $37,524.69 as of Sept. 26 with $21,770.23 on hand. But you also have to keep in mind the thousands of dollars spent by outside groups urging people to support Evans or vote against Margiotta.

Candidates won't officially begin filing for Wake County school board until Monday but candidate forums have already been scheduled.

WakeUP Wake County and the League of Women Voters of Wake County has already announced the dates, times and locations for forums that will be held for each of the five school board races.

The District 3 forum will be at 7 p.m. on Sept. 14 at Church of the Nativity, 8849 Ray Road, Raleigh. The District 4 forum will be 7 p.m. on Sept. 15 at Walnut Creek Wetland Center, 950 Peterson St, Raleigh.

Bob Geary is heartened by the announcement today that Susan Evans will contest Ron Margiotta for the District 8 seat on the Wake County school board.

In a blog post today for the liberal Independent weekly, Geary writes that "Evans' announcement fills a hole for Wake County residents who think the Republican school board majority, led by Margiotta, has harmed rather than helped a very school system since four GOP-backed candidates swept into office following the 2009 elections."

"Margiotta was and continues to be an outspoken proponent of neighborhood schools — for the middle-class neighborhoods of Apex and western Wake County especially," Geary writes. "The fact that poor neighborhoods in East Raleigh and eastern Wake County would be left holding the bag with their "neighborhood schools" has not seemed to concern Margiotta all that much."