Buncombe County | newsobserver.com projects

Bill: No felons as sheriff

Submitted by ryanteaguebeckwith on March 3, 2009 - 4:25pm.

Stan Bingham A bill would amend the constitution to bar felons from serving as sheriff.

Sen. Stan Bingham, a Davidson County Republican, said he filed the bill after hearing from sheriffs in his district.

"A sheriff cannot hire someone as a deputy — especially that carries a firearm — who is a felon, but he can be one," he said.

The amendment would forbid any sheriff who had been found guilty of a felony in North Carolina or another state, regardless of whether they had their voting rights restored.

It would be on the November 2010 ballot.

The former sheriff of Buncombe County was found guilty of accepting more than $300,000 in bribes from video poker operators last year.

The bill has 23 sponsors, almost a majority of the 50-member Senate.

Correction: An earlier version of this post misstated Bingham's party.

Who was Lillian Exum Clement?

Submitted by ryanteaguebeckwith on December 9, 2008 - 11:19am.

Answer:

The first female legislator in North Carolina and the first female legislator in the South.

Born near Black Mountain in 1894, Lillian Exum Clement went to high school in Asheville and studied at Asheville Business College. Working as a sheriff's deputy, she studied law in her spare time, and was admitted to the bar in 1917.

She was the first female attorney in North Carolina without male partners. A local judge gave her the nickname "Brother Exum," which stuck with her throughout her life.

In 1920, the Buncombe County Democratic Party asked Clement, then 26, to run for a seat in the state House of Representatives.

She beat two men in the primary election, essentially guaranteeing a win in Nov. 2 general election in what was then a one-party state. At the time of the primary, the 19th Amendment had not been ratified, so women could not yet vote in the election.

Taking office in 1921, Clement said she wanted to help women.

"I want to blaze a trail for other women," she said on the day she was sworn in. "I know that years from now there will be many other women in politics, but you have to start a thing."

Clement introduced at least 17 bills, 16 of which passed. They included measures to require testing of dairy herds and lower the number of years of abandonment required before a divorce.

After marrying Eller Stafford in 1921, Clement did not run for office a second time. She died of pneumonia in 1925, leaving behind a 21-month-old daughter, Nancy.

In 1930, Jackson County voters elected Gertrude Dills McKee as the first female state senator.

Until 1972, no more than two female legislators served at one time in the General Assembly. That year, nine women won seats in the legislature.

In 1998, a group of pro-choice Democratic women formed a political action committee named Lillian's List in honor of Clement. In 1999, the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources dedicated a historical marker to Clement in Asheville.

The N.C. Council of Women also offers the Lillian Exum Clement Stafford Journalism Award to journalists who cover issues of importance to women.

SOURCES: North Carolina Collection, UNC-Chapel Hill libraries. "Dictionary of North Carolina Biography," Volume 5. Lillian's List biography.

Brief:

The first female legislator in North Carolina and the first female legislator in the South.

Young's 'Families' ad

Submitted by ryanteaguebeckwith on April 21, 2008 - 4:34pm.

David Young, a candidate for the Democratic nomination for state treasurer, stresses his experience on the UNC Board of Governors and a Buncombe County commissioner.

Young raises $180,000

Submitted by ryanteaguebeckwith on October 26, 2007 - 11:54am.

David Young kicked off his campaign for state treasurer Tuesday.

The Buncombe County commissioner raised $181,250 at a fundraiser at the home of University of North Carolina Board of Governors member Adelaide Daniels Key.

Among those in attendance were state Reps. Bruce Goforth and Susan Fisher, former N.C. Secretary of Revenue Helen Powers and former Court of Appeals Judge Alan Thornburg.

"I'm humbled by the great showing of support from Asheville and Western North Carolina," Young said in a statement. "This is a great start."

He faces state Sen. Janet Cowell and Raleigh attorney Michael Weisel in the Democratic primary.

Elections report bunkum?

Submitted by ryanteaguebeckwith on August 6, 2007 - 4:38pm.

An elections director says a recent report is bunkum.

The report by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University noted in an appendix that there were problems with votes in a 2004 election in Buncombe County.

Citing an article in the alt-weekly Mountain XPress, the report says:

Touch-screen voting machines in at least two precincts did not display one of the races on the ballot. One election official estimated that the error affected at least 600 voters. Because there was no paper record, it was impossible to determine how many votes were lost.

But elections director Trena Parker said that the fault lay not with the Sequoia voting machines, but with the poll workers, who gave voters the wrong ballot, affecting a local school board race.

"There was no problem whatsoever with the machines," she said.

After using the touch-screen machines for nine years, the county replaced them when they were invalidated in 2006. Buncombe now uses optical-scan ballots from ES&S.

(Read the original post here.)