Pete Kaliner is the host of a daily radio talk show on Asheville�s WWNC (570-AM) that airs from 3 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. This column features posts from his daily blog.

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The following was posted on Oct. 7:

The Asheville City Council (primary) race results are not surprising. The top six spots in the at-large �nonpartisan� contest were all won by leftists.

That�s not to say there weren�t some non-leftists running. But there is virtually zero chance a non-progressive or non-Democratic Party machine candidate will ever serve on City Council again.

(For the actual numbers, see Asheville primary election news story on Page A2.)

If you are a limited government, low taxes, fiscal and/or social conservative, you will never have representation on this body of �representatives.�

Seriously.

The top six finishers (or �votainers� as I call them) represented the two warring factions of the progressive Democratic Party machine. Combined, they received nearly 17,000 votes. However, everyone gets to vote for three candidates.

Given the results, and given that each of the six votainers were part of one of the factions, we can get a pretty good picture of how many votes it takes to pack the City Council in staggered election cycles.

That number is about 7,000.

About 7,000 voters out of 67,125 total registered voters in the city.

About 10 percent.

That�s it.

This 10 percent of registered voters determines who controls City Council.

And it would take nearly every registered Republican to turn out to vote to beat this bloc.

Roughly speaking, those 7,000 progressives split their votes among the top six progressive candidates. Had there been fewer progressives, the individual vote totals amassed by the candidates would�ve been even greater.

But this race � its politics and the results � gives us a unique insight into the actual strength of the progressive voting bloc.

By comparison, the least progressive candidates (Carl Mumpower, John Miall, Ken Michaelove, and Dee Williams) received about half the support the progressives did.

In a city with only about 10,000 registered Republicans, the GOP would need to get about half of all of their voters to turn out and ONLY support three of these four candidates. (Four candidates actually diminished the chances that any one of them would win.)

This lack of a coordinated strategy is one of the features (or downsides, depending upon your point of view) of these non-partisan races.

So, the kind of turnout needed by a non-leftist is a near impossibility � particularly in a nonpartisan municipal election.

And, again, if there are fewer progressive candidates running, the GOP would have a much more difficult path to victory.

If the GOP was going to try to get a Republican onto Asheville City Council, this was the year � and the race � to do it.

And they should�ve considered a �single- shot� campaign.

What about the unaffiliateds?

There are about 24,000 unaffiliated voters in the city, but studies show these voters turn out in lower numbers than those who are registered with either of the parties. And when they do turnout, they tend to break in the prevailing direction of the party registrations anyway.

In other words, you cannot rely on some �silent majority� of unaffiliated voters to back a non-leftist in Asheville. It�s not going to happen.

As such, in a city with Asheville�s politics, it�s impossible to imagine a non-leftist candidate who could get unprecedented massive GOP turnout (about 70 percent) AND a competitive percentage of unaffiliated support.

And even if this impossibility DID happen, that candidate (or candidates) would NOT win a majority on council unless they replicated the impossible act in the following municipal election two years later.

This system is designed to maintain the status quo, and the status quo does not include non-leftists.

So, if you�re not a leftist and you want representation, you�ll need to convince all your non-leftist friends and family to move here.

Or start having lots of babies. Admittedly, this is not a short-term fix.

Otherwise, you have two options left: Accept that you have no voice in the direction of the City of Asheville. Or move outside city limits.

And in case you couldn�t tell � the leftists in charge don�t really care what you think.

Read more: http://www.wwnc.com/onair/pete-kaliner-46655/nonleftists-should-leave-asheville-14012482/#ixzz3pdzBvIlx