Wisler finishes 1st in council race, along with incumbents Smith, Bothwell

From Staff Reports 

Vice Mayor Esther Manheimer won a decisive victory in the contest for mayor of the City of Asheville. Manheimer defeated contender John Miall, who was a favorite of business leaders.

While serving as vice mayor, Manheimer instilled confidence with her knowledge of the system. Manheimer is a partner with the Van Winkle law firm, and she has vast experience dealing with the state legislature. Manheimer is entirely in-synch with the city’s strategic goals for greening the environment and promoting Smart Growth policies.

And that was the basis for Miall’s platform. Miall complained the city was wasting too much taxpayer money – taking resources out of the private sector to create waste. He held up the $1 million the council allegedly blew on the art museum as his poster child. Miall had a track record of fiscal conservatism, having saved the city millions as its former risk manager. But that wasn’t what the public wanted.

The winners of the seats open for city council were easy to predict. Gwen Wisler was the top vote-getter. She campaigned as a former CEO of a number of corporations including sporting goods supplier Coleman. Although she gained a reputation for evading questions with expressed interest in further investigations before answering, her background appealed to both party lines.

The second highest vote-getter was Gordon Smith. Smith is the champion of West Asheville. In his first term on council, he promoted Food Policy to help with local food deserts and the vast number of children, who in spite of food stamps and food kitchens, are still food-insecure. He also promised to continue his fights for gay rights.

In third place was Cecil Bothwell. Truly an independent thinker, Bothwell knows no middle ground. One either totally agrees or totally disagrees with him, issue by issue. Just before the campaign, Bothwell made a splash in the headlines with a resolution that had the potential to make Asheville a sanctuary city.

Defeated were independent businessman Jonathan Wainscott and former police officer Mike Lanning. 190 people cast write-in ballots.

In the Town of Black Mountain, Michael Sobol won the mayoral race with 52.75 percent of the vote. The current alderman defeated Larry Harris with little more than 100 votes. Sobol said he did not take the victory as a mandate, unless it was that the citizens want more of the same. The two victorious aldermen were also incumbents. Ryan Stone was the runaway leader with 37.72 percent in a five-way race. Carlos Showers received 23.03 percent.

In the Town of Montreat, incumbent Letta Jean Taylor was re-elected to serve as mayor with a whopping 96.09 percent of the vote. She was running uncontested, but 3.91 percent of voters opted for a write-in. The election for commissioners was also a formality. Three candidates, Tim Helms, Mary McPhail Standaert, and Ann Vinson split the votes almost evenly in a three-candidate race for three seats.

Dottie Sherrill, who has been serving on the Weaverville Town Council since 1989, was elected mayor with 63.17 percent of the vote. Sherrill, a retired teacher, sports the image of being a community-minded citizen with all the earmarks of a grandmother, like church, knitting, crocheting, and bridge club. Contender Gene Knoefel only collected 36.46 percent of the vote.

Doug Dearth and Doug Jackson defeated Lou Accomero for two available seats on the board of commissioners.

In the Town of Woodfin, local icon and incumbent Jerry VeHaun waltzed to victory in an uncontended mayoral race. A four-way race for three aldermen seats was settled with Andrea Boyer, the only Libertarian and non-incumbent, being the odd woman out. Boyer had spoken about realigning taxation with normal business and family incomes. She lost to Jackie Bryson, Debra Giezentanner, and Don Hensley.

In Buncombe County, 15,720 voters, or 19.19 percent of the registered total, turned out to cast their ballots.

Official Results for Asheville were as follows:

Asheville Mayor

Esther Manheimer — 8,341 — 68.3 percent

John Miall — 3,790 — 31 percent

Asheville City Council (three seats)

Gwen Wisler — 9,136 — 28 percent

 Gordon Smith — 8,936 — 27.4 percent

 Cecil Bothwell — 8,161 — 25 percent

 Mike Lanning — 3,503 — 10.7 percent

 Johathan Wainscott – 2,653 – 8.11 percent