Asheville Election Results (All Precincts Reporting)

Asheville City Council Race (Top Six Advance to the General Election)

Candidate	Percent	Votes
Cecil Bothwell	19.63%	3,718
Gordon Smith	18.87%	3,573
Esther Manheimer	17.29%	3,275
Kelly M. Miller	13.09%	2,479
Carl Mumpower	12.30%	2,330
J. Neal Jackson	6.71%	1,270
Ryan D. Croft	5.46%	1,034
Jenny Bowen	2.85%	540
César Romero	2.14%	405
Larry D. Chastain	1.66%	314

Asheville Mayor (Top Two Advance to the General Election)

Candidate	Percent	Votes
Terry M. Bellamy	76.22	5,150
Robert W. Edwards	17.12%	1,157
Shad Marsh	4.19%	283
Denise C. Pendleton	2.47%	167

You can see these results and more on the North Carolina State Board of Elections Website.






Commentary


The turnout was very low in Asheville, with the following numbers telling the tale...



Registered Voters: 64,061
Ballots Cast: 7,113
Voter Turnout: 11.10 %





#1--Voter apathy appears to be at an all time high, and it looks like the candidates will have to engage in some serious Get Out The Vote campaigning if they want to win.


#2--Mumpower and Neal have said that they wouldn't raise more than $3,000. I think they better rethink that if they want to win.


#3--Robin Cape will be in the race as a Write-in Candidate, and should shake things up quite a bit. 


I'll have a more detailed analysis of the race later this weekend.


**10.57pm** Edit--Thanks to an anon commenter who noticed that I forgot César Romero. I have fixed the oversight.


**7.29am 10/07/2009** Update


Leslee Kulba of the JLF Blog Wild West recognizes the primary as a "Progressive Landslide" she comments, in part...

...the semi-progressive mayor beat three contenders with 76.22% of the vote. The top four vote-getters in the city council race were progressives. A progressive who dropped out too late to get her name off the ballot got more votes than two of the nine remaining candidates.

Source: Wild West




The BCGOP posted a very remarkable spin on the story, commenting, in part...

The results are in! Robert Edwards easily made it into the general election with 17.12% of the vote. Carl Mumpower and J. Neal Jackson will also be on the Asheville ballot for City Council. Mumpower was the highest vote-getter in quite a few precincts.

Source: BCGOP Website (I have taken a screenshot in case it disappears down the Memory Hole. 


I hope that that organization can recover from errors made by past leadership, and that they will focus on building their precincts before they toss rocks from their glass house.