The big news is irrelevant. Asheville picked six candidates out of fifteen to move on to the general election November 6. This isn’t news because only 13.36% of registered voters showed up. Further, Democrat activist David Roat recently warned council that he would be taking advantage of same-day registrations.
The six hopefuls-turned-candidates include three progressives Brownie Newman (D), Bryan Freeborn (D), and Elaine Lite (D). Newman and Freeborn are incumbents, and Lite appears to have the same anointing from organized progressives that Robin Cape had in her successful bid for a seat on council two years ago. The other three candidates are incumbent Jan Davis (D), Bill Russell (R), and Dwight Butner (U), all moderates who independently ran on platforms of balance and “normalcy.†No conservatives entered the race.
The funny thing from a limited political science perspective is that in democratic processes, when one party’s pipedreams prove a disaster in public opinion polls, a movement touting a philosophy diametrically opposed to the first is supposed to gain traction. Now, if “normal people,†represent the counterinsurgency, what would define the status quo?
