Western North Carolina will host a smattering of county commissioner races next week that could prove significant in identifying emerging trends in local government and politics. Covering all of them in this format would be ludicrous at best, so we’ll be hitting some of the highlights.
Many counties (not just out west) already have a partisan slant and thus winners are often determined at primary time for lack of an opponent in the fall. Cherokee County doesn’t even have a commissioner race this year, choosing instead to elect all of their commissioners every four years. And Buncombe actually runs candidates for the chairmanship rather than having the sitting board elect one.
As far as election issues are concerned, property rights, environmental anguish and the struggle for job creation outside the tourism industry tend dominate the mountain region as a whole. Each of these issues in some way has a bearing on the county races. Ultimately the citizens will have to decide what role they want government to play in the job-creation process at the local, state and federal levels.
Buncombe County is the most populous in the region and, arguably, also the most politically divided. More urbanized, environmentally sensitive Democrats seem to dominate the city of Asheville, while the outlying county is more concerned with property rights and leans Republican. There are four seats up in this cycle, so each party will have to select four nominees to advance to the general election. One anomaly of note is that the chairman of the commission is selected by public vote, thus each party will run a chairman candidate from their respective primary winners.
This year there are six Republicans and nine Democrats each vying for those open seats. The primaries on both sides are filled with a wide variety of candidates. The Republican primary features current chairman and dairy farmer Nathan Ramsey, who expended an enormous amount of money during the 2000 election in which he became chairman. But former NC House member Mark Crawford also brings electoral experience to this primary. Crawford is a West Point graduate and local realtor.
Peter Dawes has no previous elected experience but he is the publisher of the Mountain Guardian newspaper and has covered the city council and commissioner meetings for the past five years. Mike Morgan is a part owner of the same newspaper and also running for office. He has also served on the NC Republican executive committee and has been a local TV host.
Mike Harrison, a former staff director in the Florida House of Representatives, is in the primary. He is currently a management consultant and owns a bed and breakfast. Another small business owner in the race is Bill Reynolds, who does strongly articulate the zoning and annexation issues that have gravity in this area. The top four will move on, so this will an exciting race to watch.
The Democratic primary promises to be no less exciting. Two-term county commissioner and attorney David Grant is running. Bill Stanley, who has served on the commission for a total of 16 years, is running as is three-term commissioner David Young. Elected experience runs even deeper in this primary as six-year Asheville city councilman Ed Hay is now running. Beyond this, party activist Carol Weir Patterson on the ballot. She has served as president of the Democratic Women and as Chair of the Buncombe County Democratic Party. Local activist Don Yelton, who produces a local show called “Citizen Speaks,” is running with a strong environmentalist message.
Political newcomers with business experience, Krishna Murphy and Harold Maroni, round out the list of nine. As with the GOP race, this will be tough call.
Henderson County has two district seats up for grabs. There are no Democratic opponents. The primary will determine the winners. Incumbent District 5 commissioner and current board chairman Grady Hawkins faces Mills River Paving owner Jeff Hart and Falling Creek Camp owner Chuck McGrady. This will be a referendum on Hawkins’ leadership of the county. The other race features incumbent District 5 commissioner Charlie Messer, who is facing a challenge from labor and employment attorney Jon Yarbrough.
Haywood County has two at-large seats up for grabs and features a Democratic primary with four candidates running for two seats. The two top vote getters will face the two GOP candidates who have no primary. Mary Ann Enloe lost her bid for re-election in 2002 narrowly and is thus seeking the chance to return to the board. She is running against current chairman and first-term commissioner Bill Noland. Larry Ammons, who is the former leader of the Haywood Advancement Foundation, and Albert Rhodes, who ran in the 2002 primary, are also on the ballot. Enloe and Noland will probably survive this primary battle.
This is but a sampling of some races in western region of the state, but issues will probably be as important as name recognition in determining outcomes. Concerns about the economy and conflicts between property rights and environmentalist objectives will be first and foremost throughout the area. As I traveled the area extensively in the spring I can testify that sensitivity to both of these issues is high.
Adams is director of the Center for Local Innovation and a contributing editor at Carolina Journal.