DeBruhl announces run against Newman for chair of Buncombe Commissioners

Buncombe County Commissioner Miranda DeBruhl was sworn in on Dec. 1, 2014. DeBruhl won the district three seat formerly held by David King. Photo by Pat Barcas

Buncombe County Commissioner Miranda DeBruhl announced today on Twitter and Facebook her choice to run for chair of the Board in 2016.

“Walking in the Board of Elections to file for chair of Buncombe County,” DeBruhl wrote on social media.

This means that DeBruhl will likely face off against Commissioner Brownie Newman, who was elected vice chair of the Board earlier this week and announced his intent to run for chair earlier this year.

Newman, a democrat, has served on the county board since 2012 and previously served on Asheville City Council, while DeBruhl was elected to the commission in 2014 and has no previous experience in elected office. Since earning her spot on the commission, however, DeBruhl has made her opinion heard, often against the grain of her democrat colleagues, for a number of different issues. DeBruhl is one of three republicans, the minority vote, on the Board.

While DeBruhl announced that she had filed for the election earlier today, Newman has yet to make his candidacy official — or at least he hadn’t filed as of 4:48 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 3, the timestamp from the most recent list of candidates available.

In August, Newman wrote on Facebook: “Two weeks ago our County Commission Chairman David Gantt announced he would not seek re-election next year. David is serving his fifth term on the commission and has done a great job. I want to let my friends and community know that I plan to run for county commission chair in 2016.

“I truly enjoy serving on the commission and have found it to be a place where we can make a difference,” Newman continued. “During the time I have served, we have made major new investments to rebuild our public schools. We are creating a Family Justice Center to confront domestic violence.”

DeBruhl has not yet publicly announced any other details about her candidacy.

The primary election takes place on Tuesday, March 15, followed by the general, as usual, in November. The vice chair position, which Newman was just elected to in a 4-3 vote, is picked every December by the Board — at or around the same time the new commissioners and/or chair are sworn in.

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About Hayley Benton
Current freelance journalist and artist. Former culture/entertainment reporter at the Asheville Citizen-Times and former news reporter at Mountain Xpress. Also a coffee drinker, bad photographer, teller of stupid jokes and maker-upper of words. I can be reached at hayleyebenton [at] gmail.com. Follow me @HayleyTweeet

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8 thoughts on “DeBruhl announces run against Newman for chair of Buncombe Commissioners

  1. Brad

    Why vote for someone as crooked as her, her husband runs a crooked dealership. They don’t even have any vehicles registered to them, they run their vehicles on dealer plates, which is illegal unless you’re doing it for dealer business. Why are they any different than I am when I have to pay taxes and insurance on my vehicles

    • Lulz

      LOL, but it’s OK for south of the border immigrants to run around in cars with Tennessee tags lulz. And this is a big LOL, Newman is as crooked and corrupt as they come. Does it not occur to you that he has a huge conflict of interest when his company is being used by local government for solar panels lulz?

  2. NFB

    How did this article make it past the proofreader? I’m thinking paragraph four in particular.

    • bsummers

      Please point out any indication of the bias you suggest is in there. Seems pretty fair to me.

      Oh wait – I see it now. The glaring absence of anything bad about Brownie.

  3. James

    Love ya Miranda but this is a waste of your time. Buncombe County is gone. The voting majority in Buncombe now are the kind of people who literally hate you simply because you dare to be a conservative. I’d love to see you win but can tell you with total and unfortunate confidence, it’ll be brownie.

    • Yep

      Brownie the solar millionaire one percenter who got wealthy off the taxpayers of NC.

  4. I backed DeBruhl with 2 grand before I knew she would be going up against Newman, who I volunteered for in his first run for city council, though not since he took office. I backed Newman in hopes he would fund contraception, thus reducing rental demand, but was soon disappointed when he spent much more energy backing zoning, which reduces rental supply, than he sent backing contraception. I support Debruhl because I have seen her support rental supply, so that is not just a hope. However if I stay a registered Libertarian, I will be unable to vote in either primary.

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