Mumpower

The editorial board of the Hendersonville Times-News enjoys lambasting Republicans in general and 11th District Republican candidate Carl Mumpower in particular, Mumpower charged in a press release issued at 6:25 a.m. Tuesday.

Headlined “Hendersonville Times-News bulldozes Mumpower on North Shore Road,” the statement from Mumpower, a member of Asheville City Council, complained that the Times-News was misstating the facts and a misusing its clout when it disagreed with his stance on completing the North Shore Road in Swain County.

Specifically, Mumpower was contesting an editorial headlined “Road in Park Nothing But a Boondoggle” that appeared in Monday’s Times-News.

“I am a fiscal conservative, and have a consistent voting record to prove it, but the value of your word supersedes that consideration,” noted Mumpower. “What it amounts to is ‘sure we’ll keep our word, but only as long as it’s convenient.’”

Meanwhile, Bill Moss, executive editor of the Times-News, who was contacted by the Daily Planet later Tuesday, said in response to Mumpower’s charges, “The editorial board (of the Times-News) has consistently been against a road that certainly most of the 11th District doesn’t support.”

Moss said his paper has researched the road’s projected costs since its editorial appeared Monday and has found that it “would cost at least $700 milllion, before construction over-runs.”

Regarding Mumpower, “We were puzzled that the self-professed fiscal conservative would be in favor of this sort of open-ended project that would have to be passed by a Congress that already bounces checks” that cannot now be covered by American taxpayers.

The unfinished road, nicknamed the “road to nowhere,” has long been a focus of controversy between residents who support its being built to a cemetery where family members are buried and those who support a settlement payment instead. The road’s completion was promised by the federal government when Fontana Dam covered up the local community in the 1940s, but the project has been delayed by environmental and cost concerns.

Mumpower, who bills himself as a “persistent proponent” of completing the road project, asserted that “the practical arguments offered in the Times-News article follow the same train of thought as those who find justification for sidestepping our promises to veterans.”

“The editorial board of the Hendersonville Times-News seems to love tweaking the nose of Republicans — especially those of us who put principle above politics, party, or self-service,” Mumpower stated. “I find it interesting that a paper in Henderson County — owned, mind you, by The New York Times — would show such a strong interest in the affairs of Swain County. That was, until I realized that they support a team led by Sen. Lamar Alexander, who is obviously supporting Tennessee’s interests; his back-up quarterback Heath Shuler, supporting who-knows-whose interests; and environmentalists and National Park Service who, with their own interests in mind, never saw a piece of land they didn’t want to claim.”

He added, “It may not be very politically smart to joust with folks who buy ink by the barrel — especially when they are preparing to hand out endorsements. But the Times-News editorial staff sometimes grabs headlines before they grab facts. It is easy for folks who do not live in or near Swain County to blow-off the promise to build the North Shore Road.

“The naysayers are not affected by the loss of jobs and opportunities that occurs when,” he claimed, “80-plus percent of your county is owned by the government — much less the loss of community identity that comes with that honor ....

“The proposed buy-out amounts to one-half of the annual budget for just one WNC city — Asheville — in a ‘pennies-on-the-dollar’ settlement with a small-down payment and a promise to pay later,” said Mumpower.  “And, I would add, that is a promise that’s backed by the same government that’s violated its word to the people of Swain County in the first place.” (Asheville’s official 2007-08 budget totals $129,749,448.)

Mumpower concluded, “The real ‘Road to Nowhere’ ends in Washington ... and begins any other place that puts dollars, convenience, and politics before promise and principle. That includes, apparently, the doorstep of (the) editorial staff of the Times-News.”