2008 Endorsements

Like hundreds of other DFA groups across the country, Asheville Democracy for America has been working on endorsements in state and local races since the beginning of the year. Now the process is complete, and we're proud to endorse five progressive candidates - two for Buncombe County Commission, two for the North Carolina Council of State, and one for the state House of Representatives. (For more about the endorsement process, visit our blog.)

Here are our endorsements in the 2008 Democratic Primary:

Buncombe County Commission

Holly Jones

Holly Jones is a native of North Carolina. Holly has been a Buncombe County resident since 1996, when she was hired as Executive Director of the YWCA of Asheville and Western North Carolina. During her tenure at the YWCA, she has led the organization into an unprecedented era of programmatic strength and financial stability. The YWCA of Asheville, whose mission is the empowerment of women and the elimination of racism, currently has a workforce of 100 employees and a budget of 2.4 million dollars. Under Holly's leadership, the YWCA completed a multi-million dollar renovation which came in on time and on budget. Holly's excellent managerial skills were recognized in 2007, when she received the Ken Roberson Award for Management Excellence in the Non-profit Health and Human Service field.

Holly is very actively involved in a broad spectrum of community organizations. She is passionate about children's issues and health and wellness. She is a past member of the Downtown Rotary Club, Asheville- Buncombe Education Coalition, and Buncombe County Board of Health.

Holly was first elected to Asheville City Council in 2001. She ran for re-election in 2005 and came in first place with the highest number of votes. During her tenure on City Council, Holly has served as Chair of the Asheville HOME Consortium, representative to the French Broad River Metropolitan Planning Organization, and has been the council liaison for lots of city committees including Minority Affairs, and the Greenway Commission.


Cecil Bothwell

After a career as a carpenter and building contractor, Cecil Bothwell shifted into writing and since the late 80s has been an investigative reporter, editor and publisher. He has four books in print and has won a handful of national awards for investigative reporting, criticism and humorous commentary. He was managing editor of Asheville's Mountain Xpress for a couple of years and before that, founding editor of the Warren Wilson College environmental journal, Heartstone. Today he's the news editor of the Asheville City Paper and I'm working on a couple more books.

Cecil tutors twice a week at the W.C. Reid Community Center (with the Partners Unlimited program); he participates in a weekly Buncombe County jail ministry which he started; he's a board member of two charitable organizations which fund educational projects in Guatemala and Bolivia respectively; and he lectures on sustainable energy and sustainable communities at schools, colleges and the annual Southern Energy and Environment Expo.

Cecil has won the endorsement of the Asheville chapter of the National Organization for Women, and the Buncombe County chapters of the Green Party and the Progressive Democrats of America.


North Carolina Council of State

Lieutenant Governor: Dan Besse

Dan Besse serves as a City Council Member in Winston-Salem (our state’s fourth-largest city with a population of more than 220,000), first elected in 2001 for a four-year term, and re-elected overwhelmingly in 2005. In addition to his direct work for citizens, he represents Winston-Salem in key regional leadership roles, including serving on the board of the Piedmont Triad Partnership (economic development), chairing the Piedmont Triad Early Action Compact (clean air), and the Winston-Salem Urban Area Transportation Advisory Committee.

For more than 20 years, Dan has also played a leading role in North Carolina's efforts to protect public health and the environment, and to wisely manage our natural resources. He has served, or is currently serving, on the NC. Climate Action Plan Advisory Group, the N.C. Environmental Management, the N.C. Sedimentation Control Commission, the N.C. Coastal Resources Commission, and the N.C. Emergency Response Commission.

Dan has focused his professional career as an attorney on public service, aiding the disadvantaged, promoting public health and good health care, and conserving our land, water, and air. His experience includes a decade of work providing legal service for poor families in eastern North Carolina, and nearly two decades of work with leading state environmental conservation groups. Dan has also taught environmental law and policy, as well as general political science, as an adjunct or visiting faculty member at N.C. State University, Guilford College, Duke University, Winston-Salem State University, and Forsyth Technical Community College.

Commissioner of Insurance: Wayne Goodwin

Wayne Goodwin is a native of Hamlet, North Carolina, where his family was active in agriculture and banking. He excelled in the local Richmond County public schools and became both the first Morehead Scholar and William Randolph Hearst / U.S. Senate Scholar from Richmond Senior High School.

Wayne graduated from the UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL with Honors in Political Science, including receipt of the Terry Sanford Award. He then went on to graduate from the UNC School of Law. After returning full-time to Richmond County, he worked in private legal practice for 13 years.

In 1996, he won election to the North Carolina House of Representatives, the youngest State Representative at the time. During his eight years in the North Carolina Legislature, he represented all of Richmond, Scotland, Montgomery and Stanly counties. He sponsored legislation that led to greater incentives for economic development in rural areas, increases in education spending, improved health care, and enhanced public and occupational safety, security, election and campaign finance reforms, and consumer protection. Among many other honors, he was presented the Leadership in Government Award by Common Cause and the A+ Legislator Award by the NC Association of Educators. Pfeiffer College named him an honorary alumnus.

In 2004, after a failed bid to become NC Insurance Commissioner, Wayne was appointed Assistant Commissioner of Insurance for North Carolina. In this role he has worked hand in hand with the Commissioner to protect consumers and to promote a fair insurance market. And as State Fire Marshal Wayne successfully fought for increased annual grant funds for volunteer fire departments statewide.

In August 2007, the General Assembly appointed Wayne to serve on the e-NC Authority Commission, where he will focus on enhancing job growth and economic development related to the expansion of the Internet in today's marketplace.

Wayne teaches his Sunday School class at First United Methodist Church in Rockingham and is a member of the Kiwanis Club and various civic, non-profit and other Boards including the NC Center for Voter Education and the Methodist Home for Children. His wife, State Rep. Melanie Wade Goodwin, continues to serve in the legislature in what is now her 2nd term. The couple has a daughter, Madison, who is five years old, and anticipates their second child in Spring 2008.

North Carolina General Assembly

State House District 119: Avram Friedman

Avram Friedman was born in the Bronx, NY, on February 11, 1950. He attended Hunter College, studying political science in the late 1960's. He became involved in politics, social and environmental causes in the years of the civil rights movement, Eugene McCarthy's presidential campaign and events revolving around the first Earth Day in 1970.

In 1979, he organized the 900-mile Walk for Clean Energy, in Oregon, and was instrumental in campaigning for the first successful anti-nuclear referendum to pass in this country. His wife Jody, and one-year old son, Zev, moved to Sylva, North Carolina in 1983 where he attended Southwestern Community College and received an Associate of Applied Science Degree in Alternative Energy Technology. He also received a plumbing license and went into the business of installing solar hot water systems, along with general plumbing contracting.

In 1986 he successfully lobbied state legislators to place a referendum on the ballot concerning a proposed high-level nuclear waste repository in North Carolina. 93% voted against the dump. He ran unsuccessfully for Governor, in 1988, to stop North Carolina from hosting a regional low-level radioactive facility. The waste facility was never built.

In 2000, he co-founded the Canary Coalition and was instrumental in passing the NC Clean Smokestacks Act in 2002. Friedman was recognized as 2007 Air Conservationist of the Year and received a Governor's Conservation Achievement Award from the NC Wildlife Federation in recognition of that title.