Recruiting Buncombe Commission candidates (Asheville NC)

Written by: Alan Ditmore on Nov 9, 2007 1:45 PM EST

Now that the municipal races are over, it is finally time to start recruiting candidates for 2008 (the presidency being quite premature) notably those for Buncombe (Asheville NC) County Commission.

The field of 15 Asheville City Council candidates was noticable for the absence of a real affordable housing advocate especially in such a large group and especially when the main "progressive" candidate was notably weak on housing shortage issues.

I mentioned at last nights "drinking liberally" gathering (also interesting since I just suggested Buncombe go dry for the homeless) That I was not impressed with anyone in the field of 15, but that is only partly true. I am only moderately dissapointed with Brownie Newman, I felt Dee Williams was pretty solid and that Chris Chiaromonte and Lindsey Simmerly had potential to learn in office. Simmerly's biggest problem was her tendency to defer to Lite.

But back on topic, we need to recruit a solid affordable housing activist to run for County commission as the only way to adequately counter the anti-zoning right, and qualified individuals include the heads of Mountain Housing Opportunities, Affordable Housing Coalition and Homeward Bound/AHOPE, Scott Dedman, Phillipe ? and Walter ? respectively.

Also, although I usually oppose environmental "experts" as diverting environmental attention and funding away from overpopulation, contraception and abortion, the CTS plant toxic waste brownfield and associated government and corporate neglect is bad enough to deserve attention even when compared to environmental contraception. So recruiting a County commission canditate who really knows about brownfields and brownfield law might also be worthwhile.

PS pardon me while I try to figure out how to post this locally only so that I don't get a million off topic federal replies from federally fixated DFA activists.

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Location: Asheville, NC