Election news for a Thursday

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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WLOSers have finally realized there’s an election coming up. They’ve done a few Taylor-Shuler stories, mostly about the ads the two have been running, but there’s been zero issues-based reporting from WLOSers. Too late now…

Debate Day
WLOSers got the story out that U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor and challenger Heath Shuler will debate on a conservative talk radio station. The two candidates will be in the studio together, going back and forth as host Matt Mattan runs the show. (That show is 3-4 pm Friday on WWNC, AM 570)

The issue for WLOSers was this – they won’t be allowed to have their cameras in the studio, according to debate groundrules. So Cherub Charu was whining about that a bit. WLOSers said an AP photographer will be allowed to shoot some still photos during a commercial break.

This is the first time that Taylor has agreed to debate a challenger since his race 12 years ago against former WLOSer Maggie Lauterer. We’re surprised that this debate is happening.

First, it’s happening on a conservative talk radio show, which has traditionally been Taylor territory. Is Shuler losing ground and debating to keep his momentum going? Does Shuler think he can change some of these people’s minds? He must. Taylor, in showing up, must also must be seeing some opportunity to show Shuler up. Is Taylor just desperate for any boost? Smells like it.

We know one thing for sure – both camps will be recording every word spoken and looking for any chance to throw the opponent’s words back at him in a last-minute attack ad.

Early voting almost over
Russ “Beefcake” Bowen tells us that more than 20,000 people in Buncombe County have voted early, and that’s a record. Trena Parker, the elections director, says she thinks 30 percent of voters in this election will vote early. When early voting first started, only about 5,000 people voted early, Russ said Trena said.

What’s going on? First, there are some close races, races of high interest. Second, people have finally gotten used to the early voting process, which is now in it’s fourth or fifth year (Russ didn’t tell us.) And finally, there are more early voting sites – 10 total in Buncombe County.

At the end of the story, Russ cited a Zogby poll showing it was Shuler over Taylor 48-43 as an illustration of the high-interest, tight race that’s drawing people to the polls.

Russ could have told us how early voting is going in the 14 other counties in the 11th Congressional District.

A clean campaign
In another report posing as an election story, Carolyn “Little Red” Ryan said even though there have been a ton of negative political ads this year, there’s one race where the candidates haven’t run nasty ads. That race – Sheriff Bobby Medford v. Van Duncan in Buncombe County.

Duncan said he was a firm believer in giving people a reason to vote for him, rather than a reason to vote against someone else. And Medford said, “I’d rather lose than get into that. I guess it’s not my personality.”

That was the extent of Red’s report. It told us absolutely nothing about the candidates, the issues in the race, nothing at all.

In other news…
Somebody put up a crane in downtown Hooterville with a sign that says “80 ft. please vote.” Sheraldo told us that was in reference to a height referendum in the county. Voters will have the chance to decide if they want to allow 80-foot-tall buildings in downtown… Jackson County residents feel safe now that John “Woody” Woodring is dead, WLOSers said. Investigators on Thursday went back to the houseboat where his body was found to do more investigating… Buncombe County is going to help the town of Woodfin with a special loan so it can build a new town center… AdvantageWest had a big party at the Grove Park Inn… And RiverLink honored the media Thursday, WLOSers said, but the only “media” they showed was weather-guess Bob Cobweb.