Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
From RoIn, continuing or discussion about the upcoming Ashvegas City Council elections, candidates’ signs and where rich folks live:
Yard signs are generally a poor way to judge exactly how an election is going in a particular area. Yes, in virtually any election Republican yard signs out number Democratic ones on Kimberly Avenue by quite a margin. But virtually all of Kimberly Avenue is located in voting precinct #4 the North Asheville Community Center which regularly delivers hefty margins to Democratic candidates. John Kerry won 71% of the vote there in 2004, even though Kimberly Avenue was full of Bush/Cheney signs. Likewise, although Kimberly had several houses with Dunn, Mumpower, and Hebb sings in the primary, Terry Bellamy finished first in the mayoral primary with Charles Worley in second place. Dunn was back in 3rd.
In the council races the top three vote getters in the primary were, in order, Holly Jones, Robin Cape, and Chris Pelly. Carl Mumpower finished in fourth place just three votes ahead of fifth place finisher, and Jones and Cape’s fellow Match Our Mountains endorsee Keith Thomason, with Bryan Freeborn in sixth. This is in line with the precincts results in past City Council elections — more neighborhood friendly candidates perform better there than CIBO friendly candidates. (Brownie Newman finsihed first there in 2003). Most other north Asheville precincts have displayed similar results over the years. Translation? Republican voters in north Asheville live disproportionally in Kimberly Avenue even though expensive homes are not limited to Kimberly.
Personally I would not want to live on Kimberly Avenue even if I could afford it. The road is a thoroughfare and offers little peace or privacy. But then again, could it be that such appeals to people who WANT to live on a thoroughfare with such expensive houses so that all will know that they have “arrived” and would it come as a huge surprise that many people of that ilk would indeed be Republican?
Here’s my response:
RoIn, interesting comments. I assume your are speaking specifically of Asheville precinct #4 here in listing the top vote-getters, because we know that overall, it was Jones, Cape and Mumpower who finished tops.
In no way are we saying that this north Asheville precinct is representative of the city – we here at Ashvegas just got off on a tangent about where rich folks live.
I do know that the so-called Ashvegas “progressives” – they’re really just liberal Democrats – are getting excited about the upcoming election next week. They’ll be working hard all this week on behalf of their candidates. And they’ve got former presidential hopeful Howard Dean’s brother (I didn’t know he had a brother) Jimmy Dean (isn’t that a sausage?) coming to Ashvegas on Saturday as part of some national tour to pump people up even more.
So we’ll see. And waz, I’ll take you up on that wager when I make my final predictions this weekend.
Ashvegas City Council primary election results
5.79% 1,533 Dwight A. Butner
15.68% 4,156 Robin Cape
9.92% 2,629 Bryan Freeborn
3.96% 1,049 Matthew Hebb
3.52% 933 Jan Howard
21.58% 5,718 Holly Jones
14.58% 3,864 Carl Mumpower
11.36% 3,010 Chris Pelly
5.47% 1,449 Selina D. Sullivan
8.14% 2,157 Keith Thomson
Fair enough. I sent that post after only a quick read of what you were saying.
Nice to know that the progressives are still pumped up about the election. I had fears that they would rest on the laurels since they’ve already won what looks to be a majority in the primary. Any such complacency would benefit Dunn as I suspect that CIBO, developers, and their interests will turn out in droves to at least cut their losses. Given that the progressives have lined up pretty solidly behind Jones and Cape, but seem to be splitting their third votes between Pelly, Freeborn, and Thomson it seems a pretty safe bet that Mumpower waltzes into a second term.
Anyway, has anyone else noticed the deluge of letters in the Citizen Times from people OUTSIDE the city in favor of various candidates? With few exceptions they all seem to back Dunn and Mumpower. Now the new line of attack from the Dunn and Mumpower forces seem to be that some of the candidates have received contributions from Vermont (see letters in today’s ACT as well as Sunday’s). I’m not sure how having Howard Dean’s brother in town will play into their hands, but I do seem to recall that the PAC who backed Dunn and Mumpower in 2001 (which always manages to escape Mumpowers sanctimonous tirades against “special interests”) also got at least some contributions from out of state. Anyone know for sure?
Good point, RoIn. Yes, Ash, RoIn is talking about the top vote getters in precinct #4–my precinct.
I’ve been calling all of Democrats registered with the Board of Elections in precinct #4 in a get-out-the-vote effort (as well as to encourage them to vote for Holly Jones). While I’m not exactly sure of the precinct’s boundaries, there are only a few residents of Kimberly Avenue on my list. Larchmont, Clairmont, and Melrose, however, are democratic strongholds.