Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Ok, y’all know the deal – Ashvegas City Councilwoman Terry Bellamy is running for mayor against fellow Councilman Joe Dunn.
Here’s scare tactic #1 that the anti-Bellamy forces are already putting into play – the return of Brian Peterson.
Here’s the hypothetical, so follow along: Bellamy wins mayor. Bellamy aligns herself with sitting councilmembers Holly Jones (who we expect will win), Brownie Newman (not up for election) and newcomer Robin Cape (who we are projecting as a winner.) That’s four votes – a majority of the seven-member board.
Because Bellamy is a current member of council, the new board would pick a replacement to fill Bellamy’s vacated seat because she takes over as mayor. The new four horsemen pick Brian Peterson to fill that slot. That makes five anti-development, pro-neighborhood council members.
Can’t you just hear the members of CIBO screaming?
That’s the scenario that’s spreading across town as the anti-Bellamy forces start pulling out all the stops to rally troops. But let’s break it down – it’s a bit wacky on several fronts.
First, there’s no guarantee that Peterson, a disgraced former councilman who lost a bid for mayor against current lame duck Mayor Charlie Worley four years ago, would be picked. Council actually voted to censure Peterson after reports that he was cavorting with a prostitute. Bellamy was a member of council who voted for said censure (maybe Jones, too). Why would they taint themselves by voting to bring him back?
If council did make that move, it would be breaking a precedent it set last time around when it picked Jim Ellis to fill a seat – the precedent being that Ellis was the next-highest vote-getter in that election. Council agreed that instead of randomly selecting someone from the community, it should go to the council candidate who finished just out of the running.
Also, would Peterson even be interested?
Can’t wait to hear what the pro-Bellamy people come up with to sully Doc Dunn.
Got to agree about that fourth — no guarantees at all. Seems like it ruffled a few feathers last time the way it was done and will ruffle a few feathers this time if they don’t follow suit. I like to think if the progressives get to make an appointment, it’ll go to the one who earns it. Don’t like the idea of it being all tied up with a bow before the voters have a say any more on one side of the fence than I do on the other.
Screwy and EM: You guys are so cute when you guys get indignant!
RoIn: You are a wise one. My thoughts exactly on Dunn’s possible attack posture. And you’re right – who knows where the CIBO folks were in the primary. I’m sure they’re awake now. And as far as the appointment goes – there’s no guarantee that they’ll pick the fourth-place finisher. No guarantee at all.
Peterson is a delusional option. If Bellamy wins, they’ve got Pelly and/or Freeborn to pull from the fourth slot-though untested-both are pro-hood, development savvy progressives.
Maybe something like this will help rally the CIBO base but it is difficult imagining that it will have much effect beyond that.
What I don’t understand is why the CIBO and developer’s interests weren’t more involved in the primary running only Mumpower, Hebb, (who I don’t think even they ever really considered a viable candidate) and to a certain extent Butner. Could it be they thought that Butner would easily win the primary and then they’d go all out for him in the general? I don’t know, but it seems that this is the only thing that makes sense.
Perhaps it was a complacency similar to what neighborhood and progressive groups went throughout in 2001 when they didn’t seem particularly energized and lost control of Council to the developers — only this time the developers have already lost control in the primary which seems pretty significant. A win by Dunn and Mumpower — their only candidates on the ballot — would result in a flip image of the current council — a 4-3 split generally favoring neighborhoods and environmentalists
As for the Council seat that will come open should Bellamy win, I recall that in 2001 when a seat was going to come open regardless of whether Worley or Peterson won the Mayor’s race, Holly Jones, Brownie Newman and I think also Ed Hay, all said that they would vote to appoint the 4th place finisher. Joe Dunn and Carl Mumpower refused to go on record as supporting that although they happily did so when that 4th slot went to Jim Ellis who lost in his atempt to retain that seat two yers later.
While I often think that Asheville’s reputation as a bastion of progressivism is sometimes overstated (note the make up of City Council for the past four years) I would certainly like to think that playing the race card would not go over well. In any case, should that happen, I strongly suspect that it will be done “off the radar” and left to Dunn’s surrogates and not by Dunn himself who seems to be trying to give himself a touchy feelie makeover citing his admiration of downtown’s “diversity” (see last week’s issue of “Mountain Xpress”) after being quote a few years ago that he was “embarassed” by downtown, many of the people who congregated there, and by camparisons made between it and San Francisco.
Bollocks. If the progressive cabal were to form, then the empty seat would most likely go to Chris Pelly, who has been tight with Jones, Newman, and Cape for some time.
As for Joe Dunn, I hear he’s white. You know how those white people are…