Over the past week, Xpress has released interviews with the eight candidates vying for three open seats on Asheville City Council. Here are all the interviews, for citizens looking to make their choices for which candidates they’ll support in the primary. Early voting is going on now thru Oct. 8, and Election Day is Oct. 11.
Mark Cates
Saul Chase
Jan Davis
Lael Gray
Marc Hunt
Tim Peck
Chris Pelly
TJ Thomasson
Consider this post a thread to discuss general topics about the primary election. Who are you voting for? Why? Who do you think will make it to the general election? Feel free to weigh in on all these topics and more, just keep it civil.
— David Forbes, senior news reporter
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Did someone drop out? WWNC News just reported (5 pm Thurs.) that “seven people” were running for CC. Maybe they were referring to the fact that Tim Peck declined to be interviewed by them, but I’m pretty sure that they said that ‘seven’ people were running.
I know that Mark Cates and his spinmeister Fritz Chaleff would like this to go away… But I think that the story of this campaign is a candidate who calls Asheville “the heart of enemy territory”, and that he seeks to “strike a blow from the inside”. His demeanor in recent months has shifted dramatically to a heavy dose of ‘bi-partisanship’ and ‘working together’, etc. (I suppose thanks to his new PR guy). But I know that I am still wondering what is the ‘blow’ that he’s planning to strike if he gets elected to City Council. I think I have a clue in the big economic development proposal that he keeps parrying to. Along with being boilerplate Republican “cut taxes, cut regulations, turn decisions over to private business”, there’s several references to Asheville’s water.
We all know that Mr. Cates fellow Tea Party favorite Tim Moffitt wants to seize our water system and eventually privatize it. Does he need an ally on Asheville’s City Council to accomplish this? There will certainly be possibilities for private companies to profit off of a privatized water system. (Sorry – public/private partnership). What better way to make it even more profitable than to specify water projects as eligible for tax breaks and reduced regulations, as suggested in Mr. Cates proposal?
For Conservatives (like Mark Cates) who feel persecuted and victimized by the majority Democratic Asheville, it would be quite a “blow” indeed to take our publicly-owned drinking water away and turn it into a corporate profit center.
I would like to see the other candidates come out more specifically on what they would do regarding Asheville’s water system, and the threat raised in Raleigh.
Davis, Hunt and Pelly. And, Barry’s right, but I’ll go him one better: How many lawyers would each candidate be willing to hire to protect the reservoirs and water system this city went into practical bankruptcy for almost sixty years to build?
I think this town needs Mark Cates. All of the message boards have gotten boring with people just freaking out about Tim Moffit. We need diversity.
Asheville voters are surely astute enough to easily see how disingenuous Mark Cates has been (to be diplomatic). When he has proudly identified himself with the Asheville Tea Pac, even serving in an official capacity (‘bookkeeper’), and then claim his only political experience was in high school, no hired spin doctor can divert attention from his fundamental dishonesty.
And Tim Peck seems to only know two ways to respond to relevant questions about his, er, ‘candidacy’; one being to testily refuse to answer, the other being the standard ‘visit my wedsite’.
Fortunately there are other candidates running that are more honest and forthcoming.
I’m happy to answer any questions voters may have when I’m not at work. Call me, send me an email, drop by in person and, of course, there is plenty of good information at my website.
What I won’t be doing much, if at all, is responding to questions on comment boards from the perennial progressive peanut gallery.
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“I’m happy to answer any questions voters may have when I’m not at work.”
You’re probably too busy being one Ayn Rand’s ‘producers’ to be diverted by pesky questions by moochers and looters.
“of course, there is plenty of good information at my website”
Of course.
“What I won’t be doing much, if at all, is responding to questions on comment boards from the perennial progressive peanut gallery.”
Acknowledging your intimate knowledge of the peanut gallery, it is puzzling why you pop up continuously on this website, offering your views to readers but when quizzed or criticized about them, you resort to “waaaaaaa, why are you all making this about me?”
Thanks for making this comment thread about me. I am much more interesting than the other candidates.
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“I am much more interesting than the other candidates.”
As you continually claim. Actually, paint drying is more interesting.
State for Sale
A conservative multimillionaire has taken control in North Carolina, one of 2012
Cates campaign treasurer, David King, is also running for County Commissioner:
http://www.mountainx.com/article/4729/And-hes-off-Republican-David-King-starts-commissioners-race