Nine candidates, including two incumbents, will vie for three seats on Asheville City Council this year, as the filing period ended today at noon. Vice Mayor Brownie Newman will not run for re-election, and LGBT activist TJ Thomasson joined the race, filing earlier today.
With one day left in the filing period, the Asheville City Council race is heating up, as the field has grown to eight candidates vying for three seats. After remaining publicly noncommittal for months, Council member Jan Davis filed for another run. Haw Creek Community Association President Chris Pelly and activist Lael Gray also officially joined the race.
With the incumbents still undecided on running for another term, four candidates — local engineer Mark Cates, Haw Creek Community Association President Chris Pelly, Timothy Sadler of RelyLocalAsheville and Greenway Commission Chair Marc Hunt — have so far emerged in this year’s race for Asheville City Council.
After initially declaring he would run against Rep. Heath Shuler as an independent candidate, Asheville City Council member Cecil Bothwell has again changed course. Campaign materials released on his website yesterday revealed he will run against Shuler in the Democratic primary, and an announcement this morning made it official.
Former Buncombe County Republican chair Chad Nesbitt says his attorneys may soon contact Paul Van Heden; Nesbitt claims the Asheville resident ran a Twitter account, @chadnesbitt, that resulted in the U.S. Secret Service investigating possible threats against Pres. Bill Clinton last year.
(On the left is the real Chad Nesbitt. On the right is an image from the fake @chadnesbitt’s Twitter account.)
