On June 22 Tom Sobol, grizzled Democratic candidate for re-election as
County Chairman, defended his record before a business group in Asheville.
Also in the ring  was his young  Republican challenger: accountancy-trained
lawyer and dairyman, Nathan Ramsey. Each made a case that he is the  better
man to  become  the next Chairman of the Buncombe County Board of
Commissioners.

Nathan Ramsey spoke first, citing  his undergraduate degree in accounting.
On budget and tax matters he shone. County debt has risen 400% in 12
years. Property taxes seem likely to rise 8% a year. The county is more
heavily taxed than it need or should be and  more than similar North
Carolina counties. Its  budget relies too much on an uncommitted fund
balance meant only for emergencies. Ramsey also hammered away at Chairman
Sobol's recent rebuke by  voters in a referendum rejecting zoning. It was
Nathan's success in leading the anti-zoning forces that had propelled  him
into becoming a believable challenger to the battle-scared veteran Sobol.
Ramsey's accounting skills now probe for  every tiny chink in the
Chairman's armor. On other issues, however, such as economic development
Ramsey does not yet sound like a leader.

But then neither does Tom Sobol. Both seem clueless about high paying jobs:
how to  retain those already here  and  how to attract new ones.

Current county chairman Tom Sobol is an experienced if weary manager,
putting in 35-40 hour weeks in a low-paid, essentially volunteer position. He is hands-on, down in the trenches. Tom focuses on delivering services to people who need them most. He is proud that 81.2% of the county budget goes to human needs--a percentage which Ramsey finds excessive.  Sobol believes that the health of every child in the county is now being addressed better than elsewhere. Nonetheless, Sobol
foresees a looming, inescapable crisis in mental health care funding. He admits that county government is more complex and its problems more intractable than he had imagined when he went into politics nearly two decades ago. Alas for Sobol: "What will be will be"  is not a promise likely to win an election.

Nathan Ramsey, too, was better at noticing problems and pointing to the
Chairman's weaknesses than at suggesting what he would do differently or
better.

Both candidates are superior problem identifiers. But Tom seems  tired and
not really (despite protests otherwise) looking forward to ever new, ever
bigger challenges.

Nathan, by contrast, is energetic, self-confident and eager to try his
hand. That youthful energy just might be enough to push the contender over
the top. For CountyChairman should be an early stage in a political
career, not some Mount Everest to sit around year after year gloating that one conquered it. Nathan's challenge is to convince voters that "Ramsey will  do more for Buncombe County." That candidate will win in November  who persuades voters that he and he alone will solve the big tough problems--beginning with inducing great  companies to invest here in Buncombe County.

-OOO-

for INDEPENDENT TORCH

[NOTE: Nathan Ramsey, the young challenger, narrowly won the November 2000 political contest. He sits as the only Republican among otherwise Democratic Commissioners of Buncombe County, NC. TPK 06/24/2001]
 
 

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