Does It Take a Know-Nothing Party To Invite This Pariah?

 

Mark Robinson has stopped listing events on his website. The invitation below is reportedly being sent out by the Ashe GOP, of which our former House Rep. Jonathan Jordan is an impotent member.

Ashe County Sheriff Resigns

Terry Buchanan

Sheriff Terry Buchanan submitted his resignation to Ashe County commissioners this morning in a deal that both dismisses the criminal charges against him and puts Buchanan's legal fees (some $71,000) on the backs of Ashe taxpayers. Watauga's Stacy C. Eggers IV ("Four") was hired as Buchanan's private lawyer, and it appears that Ashe County will be paying those bills in exchange for Buchanan and his wife's releasing the county from any potential future legal claim.

If you're behind on this drama in Ashe, you can catch up here.

Democrat Bucky Absher will be filing to run for sheriff in Ashe next Monday at 1 p.m.

Ashe County Sheriff Race

Sheriff James Williams (retired) and
Chief Deputy Bucky Absher.
Ashe Post and Times

Democrat Bucky Absher will be announcing his candidacy for sheriff of Ashe County at 7pm next Wednesday, January 10, at Smoky Mountain BBQ in West Jefferson. Incumbent Republican Sheriff Terry Buchanan is currently suspended from office and under indictment for felony obstruction of justice.

Bucky Absher was a chief deputy in the Ashe County sheriff's department under long-serving Sheriff James Williams. When Williams retired a year ago, Absher was a leading contender to replace him by appointment of the Ashe County Commission, but in a split 3-2 vote, the County Commission chose Terry Buchanan instead. That's when the trouble in the Ashe sheriff's office began.

Events following a public records request from WBTV in Charlotte for Buchanan's cell phone records, as well as those of the commissioners who voted for him, and the stonewalling by Buchanan, were detailed in a petition to the court for Buchanan's removal produced by District Attorney Tom Horner. One of the commissioners who voted for Buchanan, Gary Roark, resigned his office back in November.

With Absher in the race, Ashe County Democrats are poised to make a strong showing up and down the ballot in November.

Four Eggers Helped Ashe Co. Sheriff Terry Buchanan Build That Stone Wall

Stacy C. "Four" Eggers

We reported here on October 24 that Ashe County Sheriff Terry Buchanan had been suspended from office and is under indictment for obstruction of justice (et cetera) and that Watauga County attorney Stacy C. "Four" Eggers is in the middle of it as Buchanan's lawyer.

Just how much in the middle is revealed in District Attorney Tom Horner's petition outlining the case against Buchanan (thanks for the link, JS). Four Eggers appears in this petition in a significant way (and you can see for yourself by following that link).

May 12, 2017: Four Eggers announces to the Ashe County IT department that he's been hired by Sheriff Buchanan "to help fulfill" the Public Records Request (PRR) from WBTV and its investigative team led by Nick Ochsner.

(In the meantime, Buchanan carelessly gives his personal cell phone number to the Ashe IT department, then claims it is his wife's cell phone number, and then launches a campaign of public intimidation against county employees trying to fulfill the WBTV PRR. The intimidation actually works.)

June 16, 2017: Upon receipt of partial compliance of its PRR, WBTV wants to know when it will get any production from Sheriff Buchanan's work cell phone (not knowing at that point that Buchanan was also using his personal cell).

June 19, 2017: Ashe County public records custodian Ann Clark responds to WBTV that she's under investigation by the Sheriff's department for trying to fulfill WBTV's PRR.

June 22, 2017: Nick Ochsner sends second PRR directly to Sheriff Buchanan, including in the request any "written communication regarding the Ashe County Sheriff's Office and the Eggers Law Firm."

June 23, 2017: In response, Four Eggers sends "partial production" of PRR to Ochsner. According to District Attorney Horner, "Eggers claimed it to be 'all responsive text messages and email in the possession of Sheriff Buchanan.' Eggers attached the two Public Records Requests, a brief email exchange between Buchanan and [Ashe County] Board [of Commissioners] Chairman William Sands, text messages between Buchanan's work cell phone and [Ashe County] Commissioner Jeff Rose's cell phone, and an invoice from the Eggers Law Firm. The production contained no text messages from Buchanan's personal cell phone. Nevertheless, based on this production, Ochsner learned that Rose had used another phone for public purposes. Like Buchanan, Rose was not providing information requested by the PRR, and the June 23 production by Eggers was the first time that Ochsner learned about Roses's personal cell phone and its use for public purposes." [emphasis added]

June 29, 2017: WBTV points out that Eggers had inadvertently spilled some intriguing beans on June 23rd about Rose's use of a personal cell phone for county business.

June 30 2017: "Eggers sent a response letter to [WBTV's lawyer] on behalf of Buchanan .... The letter contained a log of messages sent and received by Buchanan's work cell phone to Rose's personal cell phone. The provided information contained no content other than the date, time, and phone number information. Eggers represented [that] the message content was redacted due to a personal exemption. Again, Eggers stated that there were no responsive text messages or emails that he was able to locate and that he believed that the data produced on June 23 and June 30 satisfied the PRR for Buchanan. However, the letter contained an attachment of emails between Buchanan and the Eggers Law Firm. Included in the attached emails was an email sent by Buchanan to Eggers on May 31, 2017, where Buchanan requested Eggers to call him on Buchanan's personal cell phone to discuss an issue at the Ashe County Detention Center. Based on this email, Ochsner discovered that Buchanan was using his personal cell phone for official business."

Oops. That awkward moment when you discover that your own lawyer just blew your cover.

June 30, 2017: Ochsner immediately emailed Eggers demanding production of Buchanan's personal cell phone texts.

July 7, 2017: "Eggers responded [to Ochsner] by saying that he had 'overlooked' the request for text message content from Buchanan's personal cell phone. Eggers stated that he had spoken to Buchanan and based on this discussion, 'Buchanan's only text messages about work conducted on his personal phone were with me ... There are no other work related text messages on Sheriff Buchanan's phone."

August 31, 2017: Eggers tells WBTV that he is requesting records for Buchanan's personal cell phone to see if any additional work-related text messages existed despite already certifying to WBTV that everything had been produced.

Sheriff Buchanan, expressing his
contempt for the public records
request from WBTV, on
April 17, 2017, before the Ashe
Co. Commish. Photo Jesse Campbell,
Jefferson Post

October 11, 2017: Eggers tells WBTV some six months after Ochsner's first PRR that he -- Eggers -- has just obtained releases from Buchanan and his wife to acquire Carolina West Wireless records from Buchanan's personal cell phone. Eggers says he has been given "metadata" only -- just the date, time, and recipient of messages -- and that the metadata "contained no communication with the County Commissioners on the county cell phone numbers other than text messages between Buchanan and Rose on Rose's work cell phone number. Eggers then gives an excuse for why the communications between Buchanan and Rose may not be subject to the North Carolina public records laws, despite not having the actual content to the messages in his possession for review. Again, Eggers states, 'I believe that Sheriff Buchanan has complied with the requirements of the public records laws, as he provided all responsive documents within his possession. I'm sorry to get your hopes up that more documents may be forthcoming...."

October 12, 2017: WBTV reminds Eggers of the letter of the law regarding PRRs, that relevant texts on personal devices cannot be legally withheld.

October 12, 2017: Eggers responds, reopening the door a crack about maybe possibly obtaining the actual text messages from Buchanan's personal cell.

October 20, 2017: The "legal compliance analyst" representing Carolina West emails WBTV and Four Eggers that he has released to Four Eggers "the requested text content" from Buchanan's personal cell phone. Those texts never get proffered to WBTV in compliance with the PRR.

October 23, 2017: Nick Ochsner swears an affidavit that to date he has received no compliance to his repeated PRRs from Sheriff Buchanan.

October 23, 2017: The District Attorney seeks and achieves the suspension of Sheriff Buchanan from office along with a six-count indictment against Buchanan for misdemeanors and felonies while in office.

Those personal cell phone text messages are still being withheld, unless the District Attorney has them by now.

Four Eggers Is in the Middle of the Scandal Swirling Around the Ashe County Sheriff

Sheriff Terry Buchanan

Ashe County's Sheriff Terry Buchanan, who was just appointed to his post last January, has been suspended from office and is under indictment for three felonies and three misdemeanors involving his attempt to resist a public records request from the WBTV investigative unit and to cover up what passed between him and the three county commissioners who appointed him to office.

This scandal has been building since last April when WBTV filed a public records request for text messages and emails that passed between Buchanan and the commissioners leading up to his appointment. WBTV submitted a second request in July for additional communications between Buchanan and county commissioner Jeff Rose. Rose promptly lawyered up and refused to release his text messages. The lawyer Rose hired, Ben Hurley, just happens to be a business partner of county attorney, John Kilby.

Meanwhile, the attorney that Sheriff Buchanan hired was being paid out of county money without commissioner approval. Who is that attorney? Why, none other that Stacy C. Eggers IV, the redoubtable "Four" Eggers.

Four Eggers

According to WBTV reporter Nick Ochsner, "It is not clear what the scope of Eggers work for Buchanan is—whether he is representing the sheriff in his individual capacity as sheriff or doing work for the Ashe County Sheriff’s Office—nor what rate taxpayers are paying for Eggers’ services because there is not a contract or engagement letter outlining the legal arrangement, which is standard when attorneys are hired for legal services."

WBTV complained in July that "to date [July 7], the county has withheld text messages sent and received from the personal cell phones of Rose and Buchanan; certain text messages redacted by county commissioners without explanation; and certain emails and email attachments that were withheld with little or no explanation."

The cover-up had begun to get felonious as early as June. Sheriff Buchanan instructed his deputies to "investigate" (intimidate) three county employees who were attempting to fulfill the WBTV records request, principally Ann Clark, who serves as the public records custodian and clerk to the board of commissioners, and two employees of the county's IT department. Assisting the sheriff in this assault on county employees was chief deputy Rick Clayton.

The grand jury, not surprisingly, found the intimidation a clear case of obstruction of justice. (You may read the indictments here.)

"A Special Kind of Ignorance" Infects the Ashe County Commission

On Monday night, the Ashe County Commission, which apparently didn't want The Guv and the General Assembly to feel lonely in their quest to become the laughing stock of the nation, unanimously passed a resolution of support for HB2. The meeting was full of the kind of "out there" statements that Phil Berger, Roy McCrory, and other supporters of HB2 have spread around -- that somehow grown men, a.k.a. "sexual predators," were by the grace of God and the passage of HB2 now being prevented from going into women's rooms to molest small girls.

That fantasy is so far off the known gravitational pull of earth as to be laughable, but the Ashe Commissioners were eating it up, and the preachers were slopping the hogs.

We wouldn't necessarily have noticed the overwhelming aroma of self-righteousness and self-induced hysteria emanating from Ashe County had not a retired U.S. Air Force Colonel took pen to paper and sent in a letter to the Jefferson Post blasting the "special kind of ignorance" that had propelled the Ashe elected officials into the netherworld of the culture wars.

"It takes a special kind of ignorance to waste time on a frivolous resolution rather than focusing on improving the lives of their fellow Ashe Countians," Ken Lynn wrote. "It takes a special kind of ignorance to inflict this craziness on fellow citizens. How do the county commissioners intend to enforce this law? Will we be required to carry a copy of our birth certificate? Will a new Bathroom Compliance Officer position be created so body parts can be checked against our birth certificate before we enter the restroom?"

Having known a few dozen preachers in my time, I feel fairly certain that self-reflection will fail them yet again, and Mr. Lynn is more likely to be the subject of their sermons this Sunday, rather than their own ignorant and destructive crusade against some of their fellow citizens.

Chair of Caldwell County Republican Party Becomes Ashe County Manager

Hattip: AsheWatch.

That's generally not what you want nor generally not what you get in a County Manager ... a political partisan, but the Ashe County Commission -- Republicans all! -- have appointed Sam Yearick as their new county manager (after firing Dr. Pat Mitchell earlier this year for "wearing too many hats"). He's currently and prominently listed on the Caldwell County Republican Party website as chair of the party until 2015.

Some hats are more acceptable than others.

But Jonathan Jordan didn't get the job. Does that mean he'll be losing a race for reelection to the NC House, or will the movers transfer his recliner from the General Assembly back to Ashe County?

Jonathan Jordan Dumping His House Seat for Something More Lucrative?

There have been persistent rumors that the Ashe County Commission recently fired their county manager in order to hire current NC House member Jonathan Jordan. Those rumors just broke out into the open.

When asked directly whether he would be applying for the manager's job, Jonathan Jordan gave what must go down in the annals as one of the most inartful non-denial denials we've ever heard: “I really don’t know what I’m going to do.”

Yes he does.

Swinging

And the weather forecast for Republicans continues dismal, with a chance of tsunami.

The News&Observer today has an in-depth look at several "swing" districts in North Carolina, including Jonathan Jordan's 93rd House District. Best moment in the article: when the West Jefferson Republican sez he's "very happy" with what happened this year in Raleigh but only wishes they'd gone even further.

That attitude is very much pushing the pendulum away from the NC GOP, so we're glad to see it so naked and so unrepentant. Keep that up, fellas!

Best sign we've seen all summer at a public demonstration against Raleigh:

OMG

GOP

WTF

Ashe County Crack-Pot Politics

Not to be missed ... this account of the Ashe County Tea Party and the politics of discrimination against The Gayz. And, welcome back on-line, Ashe Watch.

What If You Held a Political Convention and No One Came?

Saturday's Republican County Convention in nextdoor Ashe. (Photo, Linda Burchette, for the Jefferson Post.)

Nineteen people attended, which number, we guess, included Virginia Foxx; Dan Soucek; Soucek's Republican rival in the primary, George Robinson; Jonathan Jordan; and a few -- but not all -- of the Ashe County Republican Party candidates.

Big Storm in a Little Puddle

For those of you who may be interested in the (officially suppressed) uproar going on in the government of Ashe County ... there's this. (Hattip: J.L.)

Ashe County Firing 10 Elementary Teachers

Thank you, Jonathan Jordan and Dan Soucek!

Soucek & Jordan to Watauga County Schools: Sponging Works Both Ways

At a sit-down with the Ashe County School Board, which is justifiably freaking out about Republican cuts to education funding in Raleigh, Sen. Dan Soucek and Rep. Jonathan Jordan patted the school board's collective hand ('There! There!") and assured them that Their Eminences are open to questions and concerns. The senator and the rep. also sympathized with a small school system like Ashe's, comparing it to a large system, like Watauga's:

"Jordan and Soucek explained that they realize larger school systems, such as Watauga and Wilkes counties, can absorb cuts better than what Ashe County could."

Good to know. Watauga schools are absorbent.

News from North of Here

The Ashe County Republican Party takes an even harder turn right: People's Revolution complete.

Can we get an "Amen"?

Trouble in the Ashe County GOP

According to the very conservative newspaper columnist Ron Fitzwater, the Ashe County Republicans will be convening for their annual convention today in Jefferson with a bitter fight brewing between the Paint Stripping Tea Baggers and the "Moderate Conservatives."

The Tea-Bagger-appeasing and moderate-conservative faker Jonathan Jordan is in the big middle of the potential mess.

Fitzwater is worried but hopeful (though that Freudian slip in the first sentence below is somewhat telling):

Still, I have faith that the local TEA Party will be more conscience [conscious?] about how they proceed and won’t allow the divide to grow but give a little to keep even moderate conservatives in office.

Yes, as much as I do really hate to criticize something that worked well last fall, if the TEA Party and traditional Republicans don’t learn to work together, then they best get used to the fact that the division in the GOP will result in a Democratic Party resurgence that will spread from Ashe County to D.C.

It’s really that simple .... The work to unify Ashe Conservatives must begin Saturday with compromise and a vision for the future that doesn’t split the party.

New Ashe County Blog

Check out the new local blog "Ashe Watch" for some already pointed commentary on the political scene in our nearest neighbor to the north. Particularly appreciated this observation on the economic benefits of Mount Jefferson State Park and the likely impact of its closing:

According to the state park system, 268,000 people visited New River State Park and Mount Jefferson last year. Even if those people just spend 50 cents in the county, that's a hefty chunk of change for a county with 25,000 residents. (A study estimates each tourist visitor to a state park in North Carolina spends $23.56 per day.)

What about newly elected Republican General Assembly members Soucek and Jordan and their actions (or even palid public utterances) in support of the state park?

But no one's heard a peep from new Representative-elect Jonathan Jordan, Senator-elect Dan Soucek or the Ashe County Board of Commissioners. If this is how they're going to govern, it's going to be a long, dark two years for Ashe County.

Welcome to the neighborhood, AsheWatch! We think you'll find plenty to watch.

Angry Republicans in Ashe County

The Ashe County Tea Party, proving once again that it's nothing more than the old Republican Party, rebranded.

Complete with the charming depiction of Barack Obama as a monkey.

And, of course, Virginia Foxx.

There's Money in Jail

Sure, it's fine to have a brand new county prison like Ashe County's, but we're not so sure about the wisdom of bragging in public about how much money you're making by incarcerating prisoners from other counties.