PAC will focus on town elections
By Scott Nicholson
nicholson@wataugademocrat.com

A political action committee has formed in hopes of influencing town of Boone elections.

Citizens for Change has been meeting since early this year, but formally registered as a political action committee with the state board of elections last month.

The PAC draws between 20 and 50 people to each of its meetings, said David Blust, a former Watauga County commissioner who is one of the facilitators. Blust said the group formed out of its members’ concerns over town actions, which they feel have a harmful impact on the town’s growth.

“We’ve been working on this since the steep-slope and viewshed issues came up,” Blust said, referring to land-use regulations that would limit growth in certain areas.

He also said the town’s water policies affected growth: “We want new faces on the Boone Town Council and see some common sense put on there.”

The PAC is officially registered as a “get-out-the-vote” entity, but Blust said the members also want to educate the public about land-use issues and how they affect the town’s future. “ASU (Appalachian State University) and the hospital are growing, and that takes away from the tax base,” Blust said. “Where are you going to get your taxes? People will have to move away from here.”

Jim Hastings, who has long been involved in the Republican Party and hosts a politically oriented radio show, said the PAC was bipartisan. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen that kind of energy on both sides, Democrat and Republican,” he said. “They’re meeting together because they are concerned about the direction of the town.”

Hastings described the town government’s policies as “socialist” and said the town council has “forgotten the jobs, the infrastructure, and all the things that make the town work.”

Hastings said he favored policies that protected the environment but added, “There has to be a balance. It can’t just be all green.”

Blust said the PAC included people who lived in the town limits as well as those in the town’s extraterritorial jurisdiction, whose property falls under town regulations even though they can’t vote in elections. Blust said people who lived outside the incorporated area still had a stake because Boone is the county seat and its economy affects the entire county. He also noted that people on town committees didn’t always live inside the town limits.

While Blust said the PAC was formed to focus on town elections that take place Oct. 9, Hastings said he would like to see a bipartisan group continue that would focus on county issues in the same manner.