Bellamy, Manheimer, Smith, Bothwell appear to be in (Asheville Citizen Times)
STAFF REPORTS Challengers Esther Manheimer, Gordon Smith and Cecil Bothwell are virtually assured of election in the race for three open seats on City Council with all but one of the city’s 37 precincts reporting.
Both Councilman Carl Mumpower and Councilwoman Robin Cape are in line to lose their seats.
With 78.8 percent of the vote, Mayor Terry Bellamy is coasting to an easy victory over political unknown Robert Edwards.
Manheimer is leading the race with 19.2 percent of the vote, Smith is in second at 18.5 percent and Bothwell is third at 17.3 percent. Mumpower has 13.9 percent of the vote and all write-in votes combined account for 13.5 percent. Cape mounted a write-in campaign after deciding to run for another term after the deadline to be listed on the ballot passed. J. Neal Jackson has 10.2 percent of the vote and Ryan Croft is last with 7.4 percent.
Cape appeared Tuesday night to be considering a challenge of the results. The Buncombe County Board of Elections is counting write-in ballots for Cape only if voters colored in an oval space on the ballot saying they wished to vote for a write-in candidate then wrote Cape’s name in a space provided. Cape questioned in an interview with the Citizen-Times whether that process captures voters’ intentions.
Asked if she’ll contest the results, Cape said, “We know about protest – let’s put it that way.” The returns would result in the election of the top three voter-getters in the Oct. 6 primary, although their order of finish changed.
Bothwell led all candidates in the primary, followed in order by Smith, Manheimer, Councilman Kelly Miller, Mumpower, Jackson, Croft and three other candidates. Miller dropped out of the race shortly after the primary, saying he needed to help his wife, who is battling cancer.
