Archive for Buncombe County
The Moffitt/Muller Connection
Posted by: | CommentsThe image below is an email that Michael Muller sent from the gmail account of Rep. Tim Moffitt. The contents of the message have been obscured.
Sometimes a picture is worth more than a thousand words…
As you may remember, on September 19th Rep. Tim Moffitt Twitter account sent out the following message : ”They should lock up all the gays on their own island. Except for the lesbians. Y’all can have them!” The tweet was deleted shortly thereafter, followed by the standard apology and claim of a “hacking.” (If you need a refresher, here’s Jake Frankel’s Mountain Xpress summary of the events). Two days later Rep. Moffitt filed this police report claiming “Un known person has hacked into the compl Twitter account.” Meanwhile Mr. Muller has used his own Twitter account to viciously attack Rep. Moffitt’s opponent Jane Whilden (here’s just one such instance) and not just Jane Whilden, Muller has spewed his misogynistic and homophobic bile at Susan Fisher as well (link).
The obvious question here, now that it has been established that Mr. Muller is working directly for Tim Moffitt, is how much of this is at Moffitt’s direction? Why go as far to file a phony police report? (I’m no internet lawyer, but that probably ain’t exactly legal). Lots of questions here: What do the campaigns of Nathan Ramsey and Mike Fryar (for whom Muller is also ostensibly working) think about this sort of behavior? I’m sure I’m leaving a few out, but feel free to add your own. I look forward to getting some straight answers for once, and I hope you do too.
A Note On Those Mailers
Posted by: | CommentsI thought I should point out that the constant flood of mailers crowding the mailboxes of people in the 115th district in support of Nathan Ramsey are straight from the Koch Brothers.
Americans for Prosperity is the sister group of FreedomWorks. Both originated from the original Super Pac, Citizens For A Sound Economy. When it split, Dick Armey took control of one group, and David Koch the other. They have operated in synchronous orbit around Washington DC ever since, and they represent perhaps the most powerful corporate lobbying force in the nation. Read More→
Friday Open Thread
Posted by: | CommentsBiden Time – With the Presidential race tied in NC and amazing Dem turnout in early voting, Jill and Beau Biden are coming to AVL.
Nathan Ramsey sent out a mailer touting his opposition to marriage equality, and a Ramsey advisor used an anti-gay slur against Ramsey’s opponent.
Buncombe women running for office threw a press conference:
recent communications coming out of the Buncombe County GOP have gone from heated to downright degrading, despicable, and unethical. It is one thing to oppose someone’s policy, it is quite another for an official political organization to release photo-shopped filth and false insinuations of phony scandals through their official Facebook and Twitter pages.
Donate to the Power of 5 campaign today to support these outstanding female candidates! They need one last financial push to get across the finish line.
UNC-Asheville hosted a Food Day event on Wednesday that was packed! I had the opportunity to appear as a panelist.
I voted six days ago, and I’ve been wearing an I Voted Early sticker every day.
The Pumpkin Pedaller is Saturday. Come ride the city with us.
What’s happening with y’all?
So Rich, So Poor
Posted by: | CommentsTonight! Pisgah Legal Services presents a forum for donors and community members to examine the disturbing trends of deepening poverty and inequality in the United States and in western North Carolina. Join us to explore the public and civic actions needed to make progress on poverty.
Pisgah Legal Services’ 2nd Annual Poverty Forum
So Rich, So Poor
With anti-poverty advocate Peter Edelman
Wednesday, October 24th
Cocktail Reception – 5:30 pm
Forum with Peter Edelman – 7:00 pm
Diana Wortham Theater, Asheville
Pisgah Legal Services is thrilled to bring lifelong antipoverty advocate and Georgetown University Professor of Law Peter Edelman to WNC to stimulate our thinking and challenge our assumptions.
Cocktail reception and forum – $50, Forum only – $15
For more information, contact Betsy Fedder at 828.210.3444 or betsy@pisgahlegal.org.
Defending Our Water
Posted by: | CommentsFrom ye olde email inbox:
Defending Our Water: What You Need to Know Before You Vote
Monday, October 22
6:30-8:00 p.m.
Jubilee Community Church, 46 Wall St.
Free & open to the publicPeople who live in the city limits of Asheville will be asked on the Nov. ballot: “shall the City of Asheville undertake the sale or lease of its water treatment and water distribution system?” A growing list of organizations and businesses is endorsing a VOTE of NO on this nonbinding referendum! Defeating the referendum will give our city officials proof that the residents of Asheville don’t want to lose control of their water system.
The Asheville City Council advanced the referendum after a proposal was made by the NC State legislature which would remove control of the water system from the city of Asheville and turn it over to the Metropolitan Sewerage District (MSD), which is administered by an unelected regional board.
Guest speakers include:
- City Councilwoman Esther Manheimer, who will explain the wording and purpose of the referendum and the status of ongoing studies by local governments;
- Renée Maas & Mary Grant of the consumer organization Food & Water Watch, on the pitfalls of reduced local control of water systems in other areas across the country;
- Local activist Barry Summers, who will present a brief historical overview on the issue and update us on where we go from here.Of all the utility services, water is the one we simply can’t live without – that’s why it’s urgent that decisions about water be transparent, local, and with plenty of opportunities for the public to participate. Let’s send a message loud and clear that our community’s drinking water is too important for decisions to be made behind closed doors in Raleigh while local residents’ voices are ignored!
A Q&A session will follow the presentation. The forum is free and open to the public and is co-sponsored by Mountain Voices Alliance, Clean Water for NC, Food & Water Watch, WNC Alliance and WENOCA Sierra Club.
Employment Equality Survey
Posted by: | CommentsNow that early voting is upon us, we wanted to share this handy resource for Buncombe County voters who care about employment equality for LGBT people.
Will Buncombe County adopt equal employment policies for LGBT employees? The answer depends largely on the outcome of our County Commission races. Below you’ll find information about how County Commission candidates responded to questions about equal employment policies.
| Candidates (District) | Question #1
|
Question #2
Do you support extending same-sex domestic partner benefits to Buncombe County employees? |
| David Gantt (chair) | Yes | Yes |
| J.B. Howard (chair) | No response | No response |
| Don Guge (1) | No response | No response |
| Holly Jones (1) | Yes | Yes |
| Brownie Newman (1) | Yes | Yes |
| Ellen Frost (2) | Yes | Yes |
| Mike Fryar (2) | No response | No response |
| Christina Kelley G. Merrill (2) | No response | No response |
| Carol Peterson (2) | No response | No response |
| Terry Van Duyn (3) | Yes | Yes |
| Joe Belcher (3) | No response | No response |
| David King (3) | No response | No response |
| Michelle Pace Wood (3) | No response | No response |
Paid for by Equality NC Action Fund
A Tim Moffitt Retrospective, Part 2
Posted by: | Comments
When Rep. Tim Moffitt was elected as part of the Tea Party wave of 2010, I think most of us knew that a new day had dawned in Raleigh. With the Republican Party controlling both houses of the legislature for the first time since Reconstruction, citizens had the good sense to recognize that the landscape had shifted. We expected a philosophic turn that would result in cutting revenues and reducing services. What we didn’t expect was the radical degree to which the Tea Party ideology would be executed nor the aggressive bullying and the absence of intergovernmental cooperation that would be the hallmarks of Rep. Moffitt’s term. After the jump you’ll find a brief history of Rep. Moffitt’s second dramatic overreach, unilaterally seeking to seize the public’s water system over the objections of most of the people and of every other elected official in Buncombe County, putting our most precious natural resource at the center of another Moffitt initiated controversy.
2012 Democratic Candidates
Posted by: | CommentsYou probably know just who to vote for in the Presidential race and the Congressional race. Maybe you even have your legislators and County Commissioners figured out. How many of you have the County School Board or statewide judicial races sussed? To help you sort out who’s who, the Buncombe County Democratic Party has put together a handy list of Democratic candidates. Use it if you want it, leave it if you don’t!
Susan Wilson for NC 115
Posted by: | CommentsSusan Wilson has been running a strong race against Republican Nathan Ramsey, whose Moffitt-like mini-billboards are all over the highways. Ramsey’s been running a generally low-energy campaign, and Susan’s tirelessness has put her in a position to win this thing. She needs your help at the early voting sites to let voters know that she will stand up for education funding and stand against GOP efforts to tear down environmental protections.
A Tim Moffitt Retrospective, Part 1
Posted by: | Comments
When Rep. Tim Moffitt was elected as part of the Tea Party wave of 2010, I think most of us knew that a new day had dawned in Raleigh. With the Republican Party controlling both houses of the legislature for the first time since Reconstruction, citizens had the good sense to recognize that the landscape had shifted. We expected a philosophic turn that would result in cutting revenues and reducing services. What we didn’t expect was the radical degree to which the Tea Party ideology would be executed nor the aggressive bullying and the absence of intergovernmental cooperation that would be the hallmarks of Rep. Moffitt’s term. After the jump you’ll find a brief history of Rep. Moffitt’s first dramatic overreach, unilaterally forcing changes in how we elect our representatives.
