He's well known among his political peers around the county, which will no doubt be of benefit as he squares off against Cornelius Mayor Jeff Tarte in this spring's primary election, which will be held Tuesday, May 8.

That's because the serpentine District 41 — with its bulbous head covering all of north Mecklenburg and its tail encompassing all of Mint Hill and much of Matthews, connected by a snake-like midsection that follows I-485 in the eastern part of the county — encompasses a good bit of suburban Mecklenburg, where the majority of the county's Republicans live. Despite the distance between the two population centers of his district, the issues and desires in north and southeastern Mecklenburg, Aneralla says, are pretty much the same.

"People who move to a town near a city do so because the taxes are lower and they don't want to be crowded but still have access to Charlotte," says Aneralla. "Also, they are moving to these areas where they don't have to be involved in continual school issues."

A resident of Huntersville, Aneralla is most familiar with those who would be his most local constituents. But, he's been spending a great deal of time in Mint Hill and Matthews, and he intends to open a satellite campaign office there. His primary campaign office will be in Cornelius.

"We need an office down there so we will have a place where volunteers can pick up signs and make phone calls because it's difficult enough to volunteer to help with a campaign without having to drive 45 minutes to an hour to do it," Aneralla says.

Until last week, Aneralla had no competition in the primary in what is a heavily Republican district. He was, however, aggressively campaigning, in part because he anticipated other candidates entering the field, and in part because Tarte has been discussing making a run for a few months.