Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
UPDATE April 2: Brian Turner issued the following statement, in response to N.C. Rep. Tim Moffitt, detailed below in the original post.
After reviewing Rep. Tim Moffitt’s response to the Board of Elections regarding my complaint, including sworn affidavits by both Rep. Moffitt and County Commissioner David King, I am compelled to respond to the outright lies that have been put forth as truths.
I have sent a recording of the phone conversation of March 6th between Mr. King and me, erroneously referenced by Mr. King in his affidavit as occurring on March 9th, to the State Board of Elections as evidence that multiple statements given under oath are patently false and misleading.
While this recording does not address all of the inconsistencies in Mr. Moffitt’s and Mr. King’s affidavits, it does refute several of the specific and incendiary claims given in both of their sworn statements, thereby calling into question the veracity, and the intent, of the entire response to my complaint.
I have called upon the Board of Elections to continue their investigation.
ORIGINAL POST April 1: N.C. Rep. Tim Moffitt has formally denied the allegations of his election challenger, Brian Turner, who last month lodged a complaint with the N.C. Board of Elections, reports the Raleigh News & Observer. From the story:
Republican state Rep. Tim Moffitt of Asheville has asked the State Board of Elections to dismiss a complaint filed against him by Democrat Brian Turner, his opponent in the November election.
In the response, filed with the Board of Elections this week by attorney Roger Knight, Moffitt denies Turner’s allegations that he offered to help Turner get a job at the public television station UNC-TV if he dropped out of the race. Turner filed his complaint with the board on March 13, and the board is investigating it.
The complaint stems from a Feb. 24 meeting between Moffitt and Turner at an Asheville restaurant. Moffitt has said he merely suggested that Turner would make a good candidate to head UNC-TV because of his experience as a producer at MTV and more recent work as a vice chancellor at UNC Asheville. A national search for a new UNC-TV director is expected to begin later this year.
First-time candidate Turner, a Democrat, is challenging two-term N.C. Rep. Moffitt, a Republican, in Buncombe County’s House District 116 election. Ashvegas first reported details of a conversation between Turner and Moffitt, a conversation in which Turner said Moffitt asked him to withdraw from the race.
Buncombe County Commissioner David King, who brokered the meeting and was present during the conversation, provided a sworn statement backing up Moffitt, according to the News & Observer.
In the recording posted on AC-T, David King confirms that during the discussion about trying to get Turner to take a UNC-TV job instead of running against him, Rep. Moffitt suggested how UNC-TV could be moved to Asheville: “Get the Board of Governors to move it.”
The UNC Board of Governors are appointed by the NCGA.
Tim Muppet (he has the hands of ALEC and Art Pope up his ass) is apparently frequently misunderstood when he delivers “deadpan” “bons mots”…
remember his comments (in front of a restaurant full of people) about the NCGA “punishing Asheville” by disallowing the formation of a “cultural authority” because of the city’s lawsuit regarding the water system “take over”…
he denied making that comment, then later amended that denial (claiming he was “joking”) once it was revealed it had been recorded.
And who was it that had tried to cover for Rep. Moffitt, before the tape came out proving that he had in fact attempted to bully the City? Commissioner David King. When news came out that the CRA bill had excluded Asheville, King came forward & said that he had requested the change, and that it had nothing to do with the water lawsuit issue, or bullying from Rep. Moffitt. The tape from the realtors meeting showed that to be false.
Now, Brian Turner claims to have a tape showing that King is once again not telling the truth. Is filing a false sworn statement with a legal body… isn’t that called perjury?
Oh, those pesky recording devices…
June 25th, 2013:
Some members of Asheville city council have accused legislators of using the bill as a bargaining chip in legal negotiations over a measure that would hand control of its water system to the Metropolitan Sewage District without compensation.
However, Commissioner David King says that he took the lead on requesting the change, working with Statehouse Rep. Tim Moffitt to make it happen. King says he has a long list of concerns about allowing municipalities to join the authority. And he maintains that Asheville’s fight with the state over the water system wasn’t a factor in his decision.
http://www.mountainx.com/article/50891/Buncombe-commissioners-split-over-culture-authority-likely-to-delay-budget-vote
August 11, 2013:
“No, we took that away from you,” Moffitt replied. “You filed your lawsuit, OK, so we’re not going to let you file the lawsuit on this side and sue the state and charge your taxpayers money but at the same time be the benefactor of this, because it’s going to cost people outside the city some of their hard-earned money. So until the lawsuit is settled, we took the authority away from the city.”
http://www.mountainx.com/article/51854/Rep.-Moffitt-We-stopped-Asheville-from-joining-rec-authority-in-retaliation-for-water-lawsuit
It really looks like Commissioner King (who owes the very existence of his seat to Rep. Moffitt) tried to shield him from accusations of bullying the City with the CRA, by saying it was all his idea. Rep. Moffitt blew that cover story by admitting the bullying on tape.
Unless you believe that he was “only joking”.
Here’s the Pete Kaliner Show from Tuesday where he talks about the various problems with Turner’s account and his veracity:
http://www.wwnc.com/media/podcast-the-pete-kaliner-show-ThePeteKalinerShow/april-1-2014-hour-1-24564748/
“NC Rep. Tim Moffitt (R-Buncombe) has filed a formal response to his opponent’s complaint with the Board of Elections. Brian Turner (D) says during a February meeting, Moffitt tried to bribe and threaten him into leaving the race. Moffitt denies that, and County Commissioner David King (R) swore under oath that Turner admitted the story was fabricated in order to help Turner’s campaign.”
It was hard to find Moffitt’s affidavit, but here it is:
http://media2.newsobserver.com/smedia/2014/04/01/11/48/K45As.So.156.pdf
It shows that the reason Turner lied about the meeting was because “It is good for my campaign.”
Is that an officially-sanctioned accusation, Mouthpiece?
That was absolutely not what Turner said.
I merely mentioned that Mr Turner had a nice place and it’d be a shame if something were to happen to it.
“Mr. Turner obviously doesn’t have a sense of humor, and therefore can’t recognize a series of jokes delivered in a deadpan manner at a totally inappropriate time, when he hears them.”
Timmy’s such a funny man in his own mind, and yet nobody seems to understand his jokes. “I’m going to kill your cat and burn down your house, ha ha ha!”