The Templetons Strike Back at Boone

Anne Marie Templeton Yates, Chair of the Watauga GOP,
trying to block video coverage at the Dan Soucek
forum on education, Dec. 5, 2013

Senator Dan Soucek has introduced a "local bill" in the General Assembly (S865) to strip the Town of Boone of its extraterritorial powers to control and regulate development. The bill contains one primary sentence: "Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Town of Boone shall not exercise any powers of extraterritorial jurisdiction as provided in Article 19 of Chapter 160A of the General Statutes." Boom.

If the senator didn't introduce that pluton bomb at the behest of the Templeton family, the Templetons certainly stand to profit handsomely by the elimination of the "steep slope" regs, among other ordinances that keep them from doing exactly as they please. Let's call S865 what it is: "The Templeton Family Enablement Act of 2014."

(NOTE: Jonathan Jordan is a part of this, because the rules governing "local bills" in the "short session" of the General Assembly -- now underway -- is that no local bill can move forward without the support of both House and Senate representatives. Voters in the Town of Boone and in the ETJ need to know that both Soucek and Jordan, who are both also up for reelection this fall, have targeted Boone -- and only Boone -- for this particular abuse of power.)

Senator Soucek tried this same move almost exactly two years ago in the short session of 2012. He stirred up a hornet's nest of opposition, and his bill ultimately got shelved in the House, primarily because of the opposition of Rep. Ruth Samuelson of Charlotte. Samuelson is still in the House and still powerful (though she announced last year that she wouldn't be running for reelection in 2014. Perhaps some skullduggery has gone on out of sight down there, and Soucek thinks he'll slip this one through. At any rate, he seems perfectly willing to stick his tongue on that frozen lamp-pole again. Has he forgotten the significant backlash two years ago among voters living in the ETJ?

The Templetons have now lost two historic elections in their lust to take over the government in Boone. Their last trump card is Senator Bobblehead and his co-conspirator, Rep. Jordan. Toadying to the rich is not a good look for these lawmakers in an election year.