How This Mtn Republican Drew a Primary Challenger

 

A disgruntled Mark Pless.

NC House Rep. Mark Pless (Dist. 118, Haywood and Madison) has earned a reputation for putting his thumb in the eye of local government. He gets yelled at (but he could give a shit). Because he's safe (he assumes) in his heavily Republican district. He's never had a primary, and he never gets less than 60% of the vote against weak Democratic challengers. No primary until now.

Like Senator Ralph Hise, Pless likes to mess with "local bills" which can't be vetoed and which always represents some get-even move against local officials who have offended him or one of his buddies.

For example, last February, Pless filed a bill that would have stripped the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority of its ability to collect the county’s 4% room occupancy tax, effectively dismantling the organization. What actually passed upped the room tax to 6% and cut municipal officials out of membership on the board -- sticking it to Waynesville, Maggie Valley, and Lake Junaluska.

In April 2025 Pless introduced two bills that would eliminate county control of ambulance services statewide and change certification standards. Paramedics, medical technicians, and emergency service directors -- not to mention county commissioners -- got loud in their opposition. Rep. Pless doesn't take criticism gracefully (see photo above).

Pless has particularly been at war with Waynesville town government. He tried back in 2022 to get a bill through that would make all town elections in Haywood County partisan, but that failed in the Senate. He later backed a trio of candidates to beat the incumbents and take control, but every last one of Pless's guys lost.

Ken Brown

Cory Vaillancourt: "In 2023, Pless introduced legislation that removed Maggie Valley’s authority to exercise powers in its extraterritorial jurisdiction, effectively eliminating the town’s ability to regulate development in areas just outside its boundaries. This move was seen as retribution for the town’s temporary moratorium on RV parks and campgrounds, which Pless opposed .... Jim Owens, a Maggie Valley alderman, said at the time, 'A junior representative in Raleigh wants to decide what’s best for Maggie Valley. I don’t think that voters and the citizens in Maggie Valley appreciate that.' ”

We'll see next March whether enough Republicans in Haywood and Madison counties are fed up sufficiently with Pless to vote for a primary opponent (there may be up to 5 Republicans against him, according to rumor that Cory Vaillancourt reported, which is both a measure of dissatisfaction and a kind of guarantee that Pless can eek out a victory, with his opposition divided four ways).

A hotshot "sales executive" ("large corporations are my comfort zone" -- he really said that in his announcement) named Ken Brown is the first newbie Republican to announce against Pless for the primary. Brown's campaign theme goes directly to the heart of Pless's arrogance toward local government. Brown said, "I don’t care if local municipal governments are even doing something that I disagree with — if they’re duly elected and the people knew why they voted for these people and what they stood for, who am I to tell them what they ought to do?”

We'll see if that rhetorical question has legs.