With the primary election out of the way, the candidate pool for three Asheville City Council seats is down to six: Brian Haynes, Marc Hunt, Rich Lee, Julie Mayfield, Lindsey Simerly, and Keith Young.

All six candidates fall into the category of liberal by purple-state North Carolina standards; their positions on issues range from strongly progressive to middle of the road.

Now the fun begins. Listed in order of their primary vote totals, the candidates on the ballot for the General Election are:

Julie Mayfield
Julie Mayfield

Julie Mayfield (3,457, 14.37%), co-director of MountainTrue (formerly WNC Alliance), has chaired Asheville’s Transit Committee and served on the Multi-Modal Transportation Commission. In collaboration with the Sierra Club, she also led the Beyond Coal campaign.

Her platform positions include: closing the Asheville coal plant, focusing on renewable energy and, only then, on natural gas; implementing the city’s initiative of 80% carbon reduction by 2030; more greenways, bike lanes, sidewalks, and bus service; reducing urban sprawl; and using the empty lot across from the St. Lawrence Basilica and from the U.S. Cellular Center for public open space (park or plaza).

She has been endorsed by the Sierra Club and Equality NC as well as numerous elected officials including State Senator Van Duyn and State Representatives Ager and Fisher. Community leaders supporting Mayfield’s campaign include DeWayne Barton, Jennie Eblen, Tyrone Greenlee, Je’Wana Grier-McEachin, David King and Nancy Waldrop, and Al Whitesides.

Brian Haynes
Brian Haynes

Brian Haynes (3,005, 12.49%) is a former downtown business owner (Almost Blue) who now works for Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity. Haynes is an Asheville native who “supports local farming, local food production, local restaurants and shops.”

He supports the living wage movement and is a strong proponent of affordable housing. He is an advocate for the arts community as well as all working class people, whose needs are often overlooked in the city’s rapid growth, upscale development, and gentrification: “the working class who cannot afford to live here and the African American community which has seen little benefit from our recent years of growth.

Marc HuntMarc Hunt (2,929, 12.17%) is finishing his first term on City Council. A retired program officer for a land conservation organization, the Open Space Institute, he chaired the Asheville Greenway Commission and is outspoken on environmental issues.

Like Mayfield, he supports the closing of the Duke Energy coal plant and the city’s 80% carbon-reduction target, advocates for greenways, bike lanes, improved bus service, reduced urban sprawl, and a park or plaza opposite the Basilica.

In terms of actual policy positions, Hunt supports “expanded multi-modal and greenways system”; affordable housing initiatives; “a greatly strengthened conservation easement on our 18,000-acre watershed”; “collaborative community effort to resolve I-26 planning concerns”; “improving strategic and financial planning engagement of City Council”; updated land-use planning strategies; River District redevelopment; and economic development partnerships.

Keith Young
Keith Young

Keith Young (2,749, 11.43%), Deputy Clerk of Superior Court and an Asheville native, has spoken out forcefully against moves by the Republican leadership in Raleigh to prohibit cities from controlling their own destiny, likening the K-Street gang to the old Soviet Politburo.

His platform is built on the concept of “promoting a just society by challenging injustice and valuing diversity.” Young opposes discrimination of every sort, whether based on race, gender, sexual identity, faith, age or any other characteristics.

A strong advocate for a multimodal transportation system that will make Asheville more livable and more accessible for the elderly and disabled and others who rely on public transit, Young’s vision is “to increase ridership and continue to create a more user-friendly system that is prompt and accessible to more areas with higher frequency.”

Young supports greenways and park improvements; he believes that community centers should focus on programing in local communities, and that the city should increase funding for afterschool programing and summer care.

Affordable housing, he says, should always be a priority to fit into a vision of tailoring the city’s growth to meet its residents’ needs. He supports short-term rentals, though “the city should have the right to regulate these rentals.”

Lindsey Simerly
Lindsey Simerly

Lindsey Simerly (2,434, 10.12%), who has chaired the city’s Affordable Housing Advisory Committee since 2011, also managed the Campaign for Southern Equality’s strategies for furthering equal rights for LGBT people in North Carolina.

She lists her priorities as: increasing affordable housing stock; better funding the transit system; replacing or rebuilding the Walton Street pool and improving other city Parks and Recreation facilities; and expanding pre-K and after-school programs. Simerly has been endorsed by a diverse coalition ranging from community advocate Carmen Ramos Kennedy (newly elected as NAACP president) to Sheriff Van Duncan.

Other supporters include former Mayor Terry Bellamy, Register of Deeds Drew Reisinger, District Attorney Todd Williams, and—in proof of the adage that politics makes strange bedfellows, and of Simerly’s broad appeal across cultural lines—the WNC Labor Council, the law enforcement group Police Benevolent Association, and the gay rights group Equality NC.

Rich Lee
Rich Lee

Rich Lee (2,390, 9.93%) who lives in West Asheville, has been active in neighborhood quality-of-life issues. In 2012, he helped lead the response to New Belgium Brewing Co.’s new brewery, negotiating plans for a new, neighborhood-friendly route for delivery trucks and West Asheville’s first bike lane on Haywood Road near the river.

He has advocated for safe biking and walking routes on Haywood Road and residential streets, and led East West Asheville’s advocacy for a greenway connection between French Broad River Park and RiverLink Bridge. A member of the City of Asheville Greenway Committee, he has pushed for the development of East Asheville’s Swannanoa River Greenway. He is also a member of the I26 ConnectUs Project, a group working to advance community concerns around the I-26 Connector.

In addition to neighborhood issues, Rich is chair of Buncombe County Triad, a combined effort by local law enforcement, health providers, businesses, and nonprofits to tackle fraud and criminal exploitation of senior citizens. He is a member of the Senior Volunteer Services Advisory Committee at Land-of-Sky Regional Council, a board member of Western North Carolina Group Homes for Autism, and a past board member of Bountiful Cities Project. Lee moved to WNC in 1997 and, since 2011, has been a financial advisor with Edward Jones Investments.