By Ray Gronberg

gronberg@heraldsun.com; 919-419-6648

DURHAM – Four people are in the mix for an appointment to fill out the balance of City Councilman Mike Woodard’s term after he moves on to the N.C. Senate early next year.

City Clerk Ann Gray said she’d fielded applications for the Ward 3 seat from would-be appointees Anita Daniels, Edward Kwon, Jason Melehani and Don Moffitt.

A fifth person, Alvis Tinnin, applied but appears ineligible because he lives in Ward 2, Gray said. Ward 2 is represented by Councilman Howard Clement.

Woodard is resigning his council seat effective Dec. 31, in line with state law that prohibits dual office-holding. He will represent suburban Durham County and all of Person and Caswell counties in the State Senate.

Council members have signaled that they want a replacement for Woodard on board by mid-January. They intend to meet Dec. 20 to begin discussing the applications.

Daniels is making her first try for city office after bidding for a County Commissioners seat earlier in 2012. She is a former employee of both the city and the county.

She ran eighth in a Democratic Party primary that saw nominations go to just five candidates.

Moffitt, a former chairman of the Durham Planning Commission, is the only other applicant with a previous try for elective office on his record.

He ran for county commissioner in 2008, finishing eighth in that year’s Democratic Party primary behind, among others, perennial candidate Victoria Peterson. Moffitt is a former executive with the Whole Foods grocery chain.

Kwon, an administrative support associate in N.C. Central University’s library, is a political newcomer who served on a human relations commission in California. He like Daniels and Moffitt is a registered Democrat.

Melehani is a UNC Chapel Hill medical student and is 24. He is a registered Libertarian.