City of Asheville Election results

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Mayor

Terry Bellamy......10,534
Joe Dunn............8,004

City Council

1...Holly Jones.......11,942
2...Robin Capes........9,737
3...Carl Mumpower......8,498
4...Bryan Freeborn.....7,319
5...Chris Pelly........6,272
6...Keith Thomson......4,975

The top three vote getters will join ulta-liberal Brownie Newmamn and mostly middle Jan Davis on the Asheville City Council. Since terry Bellamy already had a seat on the council, the first order of business when the council next meets will be to select someone to replace Bellamy. the last time that was done, the council chose the 4th place finisher in the City Council race. This time, that would be Bryan Freeborn.

Commentary

Here are the political leanings of the City Council members as I understand them, painted with a very broad brush:

Ultra-Liberal
Brownie Newman
Holly Jones
Robin Capes

Standard Liberal
Terry Bellamy
Jan Davis

Conservative
Carl Mumpower

I understand that Bryan Freeborn is of the Ultra-Liberal stripe, since he accepted money last week from the Dmocracy Now PAC delivered by the person of Jim Dean, brother of the DNC Chairman, Howard Dean. If Bryan is chosen, that would make Brownie Newman the de facto mayor of Asheville. Let The Freak Show Begin!

Since I know little of the other candidate leanings, it may all be moot, at this point. One good thing to come out of this is the possibility of a backlash by the voters in 2009, a loooong way off in the world of politics.

Here are current voter registration numbers in the City of Asheville:

Democrat........28,117
Unafilliated....14,097
Republican......12,933

The only way for conservatives to advance is to conduct a long term voter registration drive to gain a few votes. By demographics, Asheville is a Liberal City. I'm just glad I live over 50 miles to the west, I can enjoy the show without having to deal with the repurcussions.