Asheville Democracy for America

2008 Endorsements

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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.

Enter our "Why Parkside Stinks" contest!

2008-03-06T20:33:00.004-05:00

Yes, Parkside stinks.

There's no doubt about it. From the apparent unwillingness of the county commissioners to ask what they were voting on when they sold park land, to the mysterious reevaluation of the land in question so that the county sold it for close to half what it's worth, to the Orwellian re-writing of history so it would look like City Council had already tacitly approved the project - well, let's just say it again. Every aspect of the Parkside Condominiums project stinks. (Here are even more details.)

Even the building itself is a nightmare. It would convert a heaping slice of Asheville's most beloved public space into the private preserve of well-to-do condo residents. It would require uprooting the beautiful magnolia that provides shade for musicians during Shindig on the Green. And it would overshadow City Hall, dominating the Pack Square skyline and partially obscuring one of our most distinctive and historic landmarks.

But the condos can't go up unless the project is approved by Asheville City Council. And that's where you come in. We want you to spread the word about this dirty deal to your friends and neighbors in Asheville - and get them to take action. So every Wednesday for the next several weeks, we're going to be awarding one $5 gift certificate from a local coffee shop to the person who writes the best letter to the editor about this whole fiasco - and then forwards it on to his friends and neighbors.

Full contest details are below. But before you start writing, here are some points you might want to include in your self-published LTE:

1. End the Nightmare. The Asheville City Council will soon have to decide whether to approve the Parkside project, and they should reject it as currently proposed. The Parkside Condominiums violate a number of rules that buildings on Pack Square are supposed to adhere to, including limitations on height. So quite apart from the fact that developer Stewart Coleman may not even legally own the property in question, the City Council should reject the project on its own merits.

2. Stop the Swap. Momentum is building to trade a nearby piece of valuable city-owned land for the threatened park land. But the land was given to the county to be used for a park, and a group of the donor's heirs have gone to court to annul the sale. Until that lawsuit is decided, a swap will mean giving something for nothing - giving the developer an enormously valuable piece of prime real estate in exchange for land he may not even legally own.

3. Insider trading. Nobody can be sure, but evidence is mounting that Stewart Coleman may have hatched this scheme - to hold park land hostage to force the city to make a swap - with a member of the staff of the City of Asheville, former Planning Director Scott Shuford. (Coleman has said as much, but Shuford denies it.) However, other aspects of the sale smack of insider advantages and backroom deals. Nobody can say exactly how the assessed value of the land was reduced by about 50%, saving the developer thousands in real estate taxes. Nobody understands why the transcript of a City Council meeting includes a mention of Parkside, but the video of the meeting doesn't. And it certainly looks suspicious that this particular meeting happened on the same day the county sold the land to Stewart Coleman's realty company.

4. Follow the money. Stewart Coleman gave over $5000 in donations to three candidates in the 2005 City Council election. Two of those candidates - Jan Davis (who got $250 from Coleman) and Bill Russell (who got $4000) - will be voting on Parkside. One of those candidates - Dwight Butner (who got $1000) - sits on the downtown commission, and has already voted in favor of the project. And of course various pro-development industry groups funneled more than $40,000 to candidates and to "referendum committees" that were clearly working to elect Davis, Russell, and Butner. If Parkside gets approved, it will show that these groups bought the election. If the swap goes through, it will mean pretty much the same thing, since that seems to have been Coleman's aim all along. Do we really want to sell Pack Square to the highest bidder?

5. "We screwed up." - That's what county commissioner David Gantt has said about the vote to sell park property. So you can make the case that by rejecting Coleman's project outright, the city will be helping the county clean up the mess it created.

6. Take a stand, because others can't. This deal stinks. No doubt about it. But it's a real estate deal, and a number of non-profit organizations that might be natural opponents of the Parkside project have been silent because they depend on realtors and developers for support. Only the City Council has the independence to stand up against this project and the machinations behind it. Unless of course, City Council isn't independent anymore.

So - now for some contest rules and guidelines. Remember, the point is not just to get your letter to the editor published (though that'd be nice, and sending letters to the editors in question will alert them that folks are paying attention to this story).

The point is to self-publish - to express your outrage in words, and then send your LTE to your friends and neighbors in Asheville along with a request that they contact the Mayor and City Council and express their outrage. So check out the links above, distill the stink of Parkside into 200 words or less, and spread the word about this project along your personal e-mail networks. If you do, we guarantee that you'll discover you're more powerful than any newspaper could ever be.

So - the contest works like this:

1. Write an LTE (aim for 200 words or less) opposing the Parkside Condos project and the swap and telling the Mayor and City Council to reject the project. Then send the LTE to either the Asheville Citizen-Times, the Mountain Xpress, or the Asheville City Paper. Also send your entry to as many friends and fellow Asheville residents as they think would be useful. (We won't count in your 200 words any message you add to tell your friends what's going on, and that they should contact city council.)

2. Be sure to cut and paste this contact info into your e-mail:

Asheville City Council:
Mayor Terry Bellamy: mayorbellamy@ashevillenc.gov
Vice-Mayor Jan Davis: jandavis@main.nc.us
Councilmember Bill Russell: billrussell@charter.net
Councilmember Carl Mumpower: drmumpower@aol.com
Councilmember Brownie Newman: newmanasheville@aol.com
Councilmember Robin Cape: rcape@charter.net
Councilmember Holly Jones: hollyj@buncombe.main.nc.us

3. Also send entries to us along with your name, phone number, and mailing address. Serious entries will get posted on our blog for our members to read and discuss.

4. The contest will begin on March 12 and end on April 30: each Wednesday it runs, the DFA-Asheville steering committee will select a winning entry based on the following criteria:

* Economy and forcefulness of expression
* Whether or not the LTE was actually submitted to a local publication
* Breadth of dissemination (i.e., how many addresses we see in your To: or CC: line)
* How hard you push people to take action
* Enthusiasm and number of comments (so direct your friends to our blog - and tell them to post after contacting the Mayor and City Council!)

5. Each winner will receive a $5 gift certificate to a local coffee shop. Gift certificates will be sent via U.S. Mail.

Start writing! And good luck!

80% by 2050

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Coming soon - an exciting campaign to get Buncombe County Government to pledge to reduce its carbon emissions by 80% in the next 50 years!

Donate to Asheville Democracy for America!

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Donate securely to DFA-Asheville through Click & Pledge.

Asheville Democracy for America is a state-level political action committee registered with the North Carolina State Board of Elections. This means that we can endorse, donate to, and spend money independently in support of anyone running for any city, county, or state elected office anywhere in North Carolina. Your donation helps us do that. Your donation also helps us in our mission of informing, energizing and training ordinary citizens through our meetings, issue campaigns, and other efforts.

Donate online here. Please note that state law requires that we get people's occupation and employer, so that's why we ask for it. And if you're worried about anonymity, just don't donate more than $50. Donors giving less than that amount won't appear on our campaign finance reports (though we're still required to collect all your information).

Unfortunately, being a state PAC means that we can't donate to, or spend money independently in support of, anyone running for federal office - that is, for the U.S. House or Senate, or for President. But we encourage you to check out the campaigns featured in our sidebar. And we also hope you'll check out the candidates the national DFA organization is supporting through its DFA-List program.

Joining DFA-Asheville

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It couldn't be simpler. Go to our DFA-Link page and click the big "Join Group" button at the top. To get back here, you'll have to hit your browsers's back button.

Okay, it could be simpler. But thanks for joining DFA-Asheville!