If you identify as progressive on the political spectrum then you are all too familiar with the famous Pogo quote, "we have met the enemy and he is us." Progressives rarely pass up the opportunity to Gillibrand one of their own and weaken the progressive cause. In the MAGA world, you can incite an insurrection in an attempt to thwart democracy and it's all good. Even locally, you can be the Republican Party chair and get criminally convicted for physically assaulting another party member, and it's just business as usual. But progressives ... not even a catastrophic natural disaster will thwart their zeal for shiving a fellow progressive.
We are three weeks away from a monumental election that will determine the future of America and democracy. Locally here in the mountains of Western North Carolina, we're also in the early days of recovering from the worst natural disaster in our region's history. So how have most of the progressive Woodfin Town Council members been spending their time and energy at this critical juncture?
They've been working on a resolution condemning their progressive mayor Jim McAllister for doing what sensible citizens would expect a good mayor to do in these circumstances ... providing proactive leadership to the community that elected him in response to the catastrophic Hurricane Helene.
The resolution is sponsored by Town Council members Eric Edgerton, Hazel Thornton, Ken Kahn, and Betsy Ervin. In it, they accuse Mayor McAllister of four things, all related to Hurricane Helene.
First, on September 26, after two local business owners contacted their mayor to ask if there was anyway they could remain open to provide food to local residents despite the town ordering the road they were on closed, Mayor McAllister - who was in Europe on vacation and trying to get back home at the time - texted the town manager and police department captain and asked if there was any way these business could remain open longer. The answer was "no," and that was the end of it.
Second, on September 29, Mayor McAllister held a meeting with Woodfin residents at the town hall to update them on the recovery efforts and where they could get food, water and other supplies. He held another meeting with residents the next day in which the town manager participated. Councilman Edgerton expressed his anger to Mayor McAllister, saying these meetings were encouraging Woodfin residents to ignore directions from the Governor and the Woodfin Police not to drive except in emergency situations.
Third, in the days after Helene struck, the petulant progressives allege that Mayor McAllister communicated directly with the Woodfin Police on actions related to the town's relief support efforts.
Fourth, the petulant progressives allege that Mayor McAllister made a statement to a local newspaper, MountainXpress, criticizing the level of support FEMA and Buncombe County were providing to Woodfin residents. The statement appeared in an online article, but after Mayor McAllister contacted the newspaper and informed them that the quote was inaccurate, it did not appear in the print version of the story.
The same four council members are also presenting a second resolution designating the unelected town manager as the sole official spokesperson for the town.
Area mayors - Esther Manheimer, Zeb Smathers, Preston Blaklely, Patrick Fitzsimmons, Mike Sobol, and others - have been out front keeping their constituents informed and working to bring relief to those impacted by Helene. The petulant progressives in Woodfin want to do to their progressive mayor what the rightwing state legislature did to Governor Cooper and render him as powerless as possible. They want a mayor more akin to Mickey Mouse at Disneyland - come out, wave at the crowd, and then sit down and shut up - than a real leader. Is that what Woodfin residents had in mind when they elected Jim McAllister to be their mayor? Did they intend for their mayor to be an impotent figurehead and an unelected town manager that none of them voted for made the town's emperor?
Jim McAllister is a good man and a good friend of mine. He was the treasurer of my campaign when I ran for Congress in 2020. I know that he's been working long days delivering food and water and supplies to Woodfin residents in need. I'm willing to bet that not a single one of the feckless four who've schemed to undermine him have put in as much time and effort serving Woodfin residents as Mayor McAllister during these difficult days.
I'm going to attend the town council meeting Tuesday evening and I hope many others will as well. I hope Woodfin residents demand the feckless foursome explain why they've spent the critical days post-Helene working hard to stab Mayor McAllister in the back rather than being single-mindedly focused on the meeting the urgent needs of their constituents. The meeting will be broadcast, so if you can't attend you can watch it live.
And my pledge is to do all that I can to see that Eric Edgerton, Hazel Thornton, Ken Kahn, and Betsy Ervin never serve in public office again. Public service is a privilege, not a right. Those who choose to spend their time scheming to execute some machiavellian coup while their constituents suffer have proven that they're unfit to serve.
The Woodfin Town Council should be ashamed ... but shame requires an individual to have character and a conscience, and the members of the feckless foursome lack both.
Jim wanted to be the center of attention during all of this.
He lied to a reporter
He was on FB bragging about meeting Chef Andre from WCK while people in his town had no food, water, power, and he had only secured a little over 6% of the food the Town needed that day
He called in person meetings when travel was dangerous, and at one of those meetings told his residents "People, pay your taxes!" after the audience voiced disapproval of the suggestion they "leave town for a few weeks"
He's offended countless people in higher government
If Jim wasn't your friend you would be tearing him apart for his behavior. You're showing your true colors, Moe. At…