From Staff Reports 

It was a bad night for incumbents in the May 10 local primary races.

Two incumbents, Commissioners Brownie Newman and Ellen Frost, fared well, winning each of their primaries by sizable margins. By a nearly three-to-one margin (6,003 to 2,221), Newman beat Keith Young, who aspired to become the first African-American ever elected to the commission. Frost whipped former Commissioner Carol Weir Peterson 3,884 to 1,681 votes.

However, Commissioner David King was beaten by Miranda DeBruhl in District 3, so she wins the seat, as there is no Democratic candidate.

In her campaign, DeBruhl ripped King for supporting a county budget that included a tax increase in particular, and for not being enough of a small-government conservative in general.

Regarding DeBruhl’s win, Jason Sandford wrote on his Ashvegas webiste, “I have to confess that I know nothing about DeBruhl. I surmise that King’s campaign was damaged by his involvement in the dust-up earlier this year between N.C. Rep. Tim Moffitt and his challenger, Brian Turner. King brokered a meeting between the two that triggered a controversy over exactly who said what. King was a first-termer.”

Perhaps the biggest surprise was the defeat of 24-year District Attorney Ron Moore, who lost by a 2-1 margin to challenger Todd Williams, despite being said to have solid support from the Buncombe establishment. There is no Republican candidate, so Williams will claim that seat.

Some in the news media, hailing it as  the beginning of a political “machine,” proclaimed Williams’ victory as a sign of the ascent of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party over the more moderate establishment wing.

“District Attorney Ron Moore ran headfirst into the new Buncombe County political machine Tuesday, and it probably felt a lot like a hydraulic hammer, ‘cause he got pounded,” John Boyle wrote in a column in the May 11 edition of the Asheville Citizen-Times.

Boyle quoted UNC Asheville political scientist Bill Sabo as saying, “It’s Weldon Weir reincarnated. (The reference was to the legendary Asheville city manager of the 1950s and ‘60s. “Basically, what they’re trying to do is build a new machine for local politics.”

While Boyle declared that “today, no one individual wields that kind of power (as did Weir), but a very clever, cohesive group of Asheville progressives is putting its stamp on local elections. They backed Democrat Todd Williams in the primary race for district attorney, and he tallied a whopping 12,068 votes to Moore’s 5,0775.

“It’s not like anyone is claiming membership in the ‘New Progressive Democratic Machine,’ and obviously no such organization formally exists,” Boyle wrote. “Sabo and I kicked around some prominent figures who seem to be key to the group, and we came up with these folks: City Council members Cecil Bothwell and Gordon Smith, Buncombe County Board of Commissioners members Holly Jones and Brownie Newman and Buncombe County Register of Deeds Drew Reisinger.”

On the state level, the battle lines are set for North Carolina’s U.S. Senate race, with incumbent Democrat Kay Hagan squaring off with state House Speaker Thom Tillis.

Hagan beat two little-known challengers in the primary, while Tillis won by a wide margin — with 40 percent — over a crowded field that included Greg Brannon, a libertarian with tea party support. Brannon, who finished second, proved to be a contentious opponent, but Tillis was able to collect enough votes to avert a runoff.

Interestingly, in Buncombe, Tillis’ showing was weaker than elsewhere. Tillis won 39.6 percent of Buncombe’s votes, while tea party activist Mark Harris won 43 percent. DeBruhl is also believed to have benefitted from a strong tea party turnout.

The Hagan-Tillis outcome could determine control of the U.S. Senate.

“Hagan is widely perceived as vulnerable by pundits and Republican activists,” Moe White wrote in an election wrapup story in The Urban News.

“Super-PACs affiliated with the Koch brothers and others have already spent millions (of dollars) against her. Although she has a war chest of approximately $8 million, compared to much less in Tillis’ hands, there will be no shortage of money flowing into the state fromm corporate and billionaire interests hoping to oust her,” White wroted.

For November locally, the rematch between Frost with Republican Christina Merrill in District 2 could determine which party controls the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners.