Gov’t

Part 2

Asheville City Councilman Vijay Kapoor, who plans to resign this summer and move to Philadelphia, spoke in-depth to Asheville Watchdog founders Sally Kestin and Steve Keeble about the pandemic and lean times ahead for city government, the controversy surrounding tourism and hotel development, and Mission Hospital. Q: Asheville’s economy is so heavily dependent on tourism. How do you think that’s going to help and hurt our economic comeback? A: Contrary to what a lot of people believe in Asheville, we actually have a fairly diversified local economy with respect to tourism, which has been hit very hard. I think what we need to be doing right now, frankly, is working together, both local leaders, elected officials, as well as those folks who are in the tourism industry to figure out a way forward that helps a lot of these groups kind of get back on their feet.

Part 1 of 2

Asheville City Councilman Vijay Kapoor, who plans to resign this summer and move to Philadelphia, spoke in-depth to Asheville Watchdog founders Sally Kestin and Steve Keeble about who holds the power in local government, why the council isn’t serving the needs of many residents and what’s needed to prevent undue influence over politicians in development decisions. 

Q: What can you tell us about serving on the City Council that would perhaps surprise us the most? 

A:   We have a lot of incredibly passionate people for a city of 90,000. The kind of community interaction that I’ve experienced as a council member is something that I think is usually more reserved for cities that are much larger. And I think there are both positives and there are, I would say, drawbacks. 

In Asheville’s case, there are groups here in the city who you can reliably expect to hear from. And I think sometimes that actually drowns out the voices of people who are perhaps less organized and kind of have less of a niche area that they’re focused on. 

One of the things that has surprised me is how much power advocacy groups have in the city versus the average resident and frankly, how little time you see council members doing what I would consider to be general constituent services, like, ‘I’ve got a problem with the sidewalk. I’ve got a problem with my road.

Republican congressional-candidate Lynda Bennett, who hopes to win the District 11 seat recently vacated by her political patron Mark Meadows, is calling for an immediate end to North Carolina’s stay-home order, calling pandemic restrictions an infringement “on our rights and freedom.”

GOP congressional candidate Lynda Bennett is calling for an immediate end to North Carolina’s Covid-19 restrictions

In a radio interview with ultra-conservative Breitbart News last weekend and infrequent follow-up comments on her Twitter and Facebook feeds, Bennett has sharply criticized Gov. Roy Cooper’s decision to extend the restrictions through May 8, referring to them as “politics.”   Yet the governor’s policy is in alignment with guidelines issued by the federal Centers for Disease Control and President Trump’s coronavirus task force, which set benchmarks to be met indicating the contagion is slowing and deaths are trending downward before lifting the restrictions. 

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows endorsed Republican Lynda Bennett to succeed him in congressional district 11.  

“Our governor must put politics aside and do what is best for North Carolina,” said Bennett, a Maggie Valley real estate businesswoman.  “We must get back to work and restore economic prosperity for our families and small businesses. We will not let big government dictate our rights and freedom like this!”

Bennett has been endorsed by Meadows, who earlier this year resigned the seat encompassing Asheville and surrounding counties to become President Trump’s chief of staff.  Despite Meadows’ backing and that of the House Freedom Caucus and other conservative groups, she fell short of amassing the votes needed in the state’s March 3 primary to win the GOP nomination.  She faces Henderson County real-estate investor Madison Cawthorn in a June 23 run-off.  The winner will face Democrat Morris (Moe) Davis, a retired Air Force colonel and military judge from Asheville.  

Both Cawthorn and Davis criticized Bennett’s move and said they supported the governor’s adherence to the federal guidelines, which Cawthorn called “wise and smart. “We haven’t likely hit the peak in North Carolina,” he continued.  “Throwing all caution to the wind is not right.”

Davis said he anticipated that voters will take the candidates’ positions on reopening the economy into account when they cast ballots in the Nov. 3 general election.  The Democrat said a rebound of the COVID-19 virus in the fall could impact those decisions.  

“I’d rather go through this one time than to prematurely lift [the restrictions] and have to go through it again,” Davis said.

Morris “Moe” Davis had hoped to spend this spring roaming Western North Carolina, meeting voters one on one and building a campaign organization able to flip to the Democratic Party the congressional seat recently vacated by Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows. Retired Air Force colonel Moe Davis is the Democratic nominee for Congress in District 11. Instead, the Democratic nominee in the 11th Congressional District is stuck tweeting regularly and spending some time conversing with mountain residents on Facebook, plus keeping track of the bears he often sees near his home in Asheville’s Chunns Cove neighborhood. “Not a replacement for traditional campaigning,” Davis readily admitted in a telephone interview, “but you’ve got to work with what you’ve got.”

With baby kissing, hand shaking and door knocking out of the question, candidates in key races from Congress to the County Commission are sidelined and struggling to connect — virtually –with voters.  Campaigning in the era of COVID has been upended. A candidate walking neighborhoods to solicit votes these days probably wouldn’t have doors slammed shut in their face only because “I don’t think the door would even open,” said Michael Bitzer, political science professor at Catawba College in Salisbury, N.C.

“The classic notion of campaigning is knocking on doors, grassroots mobilization.