District 11 Democratic hopefuls (seated, from left) Michael O’Shea, Gina Collias, Steve Woodsmall, Moe Davis and Phillip Price listen as Western Carolina political science professor Chris Cooper addresses the crowd in the Community Room of the Jackson County Library
PHOTO BY FIONA BUCHANAN
Originally published in The Sylva Herald on Feb. 13, 2020.
The five Democratic hopefuls vying for their party’s nomination for the N.C. 11 congressional seat being vacated by four-term Republican Mark Meadows gathered in Sylva last Thursday to make their case to about 100 people in a forum at the Jackson County Public Library’s Community Room.
On hand were Kings Mountain attorney Gina Collias; retired Air Force colonel and former Guantanamo Bay detention camp prosecutor Moe Davis of Riceville; Mills River music producer Michael O’Shea; Phillip Price, a lumber recycling business owner from Nebo who was the nominee two years ago; and Steve Woodsmall of Pisgah Forest, a retired Air Force major and former senior management consultant for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Questions at the forum, a full house moderated by Western Carolina political science professor Chris Cooper, were posed by community members and covered a wide array of topics ranging from health care, education, the environment, income inequality and more.
Candidates offered big-picture views of their priorities. Collias’ solutions included jobs, restoring the middle class, and repealing tax cuts towards the 1 percent. “We have to lift people out of poverty,” Collias said.
Davis looked at the issue from a military perspective. “I would reorient our fiscal policy to define the requirements and then build up from there and fund what we need,” Davis said. “I think we could cut the defense budget, at least take a quarter of a trillion dollars and still have the strongest military in the world, and we could use those resources for other things like healthcare and broadband and things that we’ve discussed.”
Price described his policy as having four legs to it. Those four are universal healthcare, free public higher education, investing in the environment and infrastructure jobs. He said these ideas will bring “better jobs with better wages to Western North Carolina to bring people out of poverty to build the middle class and make the middle class stronger.”
O’Shea’s most important issues are economic inequality and climate change. He believes in having a “$15 living wage tied to inflation.” He calls for free public colleges and trade schools and eliminating student loan debt. “I’m the only one talking about a universal basic income,” he said. “That’s a great way to really alleviate poverty.”
Woodsmall, a former budget processor in the Air Force, said he’d shoot for “zero based budgeting” and believes in reallocating some of the defense budget towards affordable housing, job creation and universal healthcare.
The forum was organized by Indivisible Common Ground-WNC, which is a small group of area progressive activists affiliated loosely with the larger Indivisible movement.
The race in the 11th has drawn a crowded field of contenders, in part because of Meadows’ retirement announcement and in part because the district map has been redrawn. The former district map split heavily Democratic Asheville, sending many of that city’s voters to the 10th District, which generally ran east to Gastonia. The new 11th includes the entirety of the 16 westernmost counties plus part of Rutherford County.
Four of the five Democratic candidates live in the newly-drawn 11th. State law requires residency in the state, but not in the district.
Shortly after Meadows announced he would not seek a fifth term, 11 Republican candidates entered the race: N.C. State Senator Jim Davis, Lynda Bennett, Chuck Archerd, Meadows’ current deputy chief of staff Wayne King, Dan Driscoll, Joey Osborne, Steven Fekete Jr., Dillon Gentry, Madison Cawthorn, Matthew Burril, Albert Wiley Jr. and Vance Patterson. Tracy DeBruhl is seeking the seat on the Libertarian ticket, as is Tamara Zwinak on the Green Party ticket.
