Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Asheville City Council members running for re-election are starting to sweat after the backlash they’ve seen from their vote to change city elections from non-partisan races to partisn races just months before the next election. Council members Brownie Newman and Bryan Freeborn are particularly nervous, having voted for the partisan elections and now grasping at straws to get back in the voting public’s favor. They’re both up for re-election this year.
Freeborn decided the best route to that end was to suggest that speed limits in neighborhoods be reduced to 35 mph citywide. And Newman and Freeborn, along with council member Jan Davis, have been pushing along talks to bring back a race track to the area. Davis, who voted against partisan elections and who is also up for re-election, has also been the main force behind an effort to raise $50,000 to put up a monument to racing at the city park on Amboy Road, which used to be Asheville Motor Speedway.
But back to the partisan elections issue. The change has caused so much heat that Freeborn has signed the petition calling for a public vote and Newman sent out an e-mail to fellow council members proposing a “citizens commission” on the issue:
While I still believe that the political parties have a constructive role to play in local elections and that there are some significant downsides in our so-called “nonpartisan” structured elections, I have been persuaded that we need some type of community process to discuss what are the best ways to structure our municipal elections in Asheville.
To that end, I would like to propose the creation of a citizens commission on local elections to explore the pros and cons of several different ways that our municipal elections could be structured and carried out, and to make recommendations to City Council on these matters.
O, so now you’ll ask the people you represent what they think? Hey everybody! Brownie Newman suddenly thinks it’s a good idea to see what the people think! Ahhhh.
Newman addresses the point in his note:
If I had known how much interest the question of what role political parties should play in municipal elections would spark, I would have supported the creation of a citizens commission on the front end of this process.
Give us a frackin’ break. If you’d known? Isn’t it your job to know what the people you work for think before you go off and make an important decision about how the democratic process is conducted in our fair city? Isn’t it??? This sort of capitulation really makes us sick.
