changing Asheville's direction

Hey folks,
Last year, progressives in Asheville made waves. They endorsed Dennis Kucinich in the presidential primary with a 40 percent vote. They carried the city precincts for Kerry (okay, not progressive, but the only choice in town) and in other races consistently voted for the more liberal or progressive candidates in each race.

So why do we have a city council that never sees an outside developer it doesn't want to sleep with?
(and how much money, exactly, has Charles Worley made on all this development? he is, after all, the attorney for the Board of Realtors)

We need to pull together to elect a city council that cares about the people already here, not the wannabes who come here to scalp us (WalMart), extract money from our community and go somewhere else to do it again. (Ball Jars, etc. and etc.)

Seats up for election this year include Mayor Worley, Carl Mumpower, Joe Dunn and Holly Jones.

So far, Robin Cape and Bryan Freeborn are the only progressives running for council. Holly Jones may not run for reelection.(!)
We need to encourage Holly to stay the course . and support Robin and Bryan.

Councilor Terry Bellamy is going to run against Worley, and while it wouldn't make a whole lot of difference in policy if Bellamy won, it would free up her seat. (For newbies, the city council is elected on a staggered system. They hold office for 4 years, but not all are up for election each time. If Bellamy wins the mayoralty, her seat will be filled by vote of the council. If the council were then composed of Bellamy, Brownie Newman, Holly Jones, Robin Cape, Bryan Freeborn and Jan Davis, we could assume that Brownie, Holly, Robin and Bryan could pick a suitable replacement for the seat Bellamy vacates.)

The Asheville Coalition, which is seeking change in Asheville's politics, will hold its next forum Monday, June 20, 6-8 p.m at the North Asheville Library, just north of Fresh Market.