Election Recap

The Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce strives to represent our member businesses on a local, state, and federal level. The best way to facilitate this work is through the relationships we develop and foster with our elected officials. While Election Day did not bring a great deal of change to the region’s Federal representatives, it did cause a great deal of change on the state level.

The Chamber identifies the North Carolina General Assembly members representing the Asheville Area as the Western North Carolina Delegation. This group includes representatives from Senate Districts 47 (Avery, Haywood, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Yancey), 48 (Buncombe, Henderson, Polk), 49 (Buncombe), and 50 (Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Jackson, Macon, Swain, Transylvania). It also includes House Districts 113 (Henderson, Polk, Transylvania), 114 (Buncombe), 115 (Buncombe), 116 (Buncombe), 117 (Henderson), and 118 (Haywood, Madison, Yancey).

These Senate and House races saw the majority of incumbents retaining their seats in Raleigh. This includes District 48’s Senator Tom Apodaca and District 49’s Senator Martin Nesbitt. In the House races we have District 113’s Representative David Guice, District 114’s Representative Susan Fisher, District 115’s Representative Patsy Keever, and District 118’s Representative Ray Rapp.

For the new members in the General Assembly the Chamber will work hard to build relationships and work to represent the needs of the business community. This will begin with Senate District 47’s Senator Elect Ralph Hise and Senate District 50’s Senator Elect Jim Davis. In the House the Chamber will continue to build relationships with House District 116’s Representative Elect Tim Moffitt and District 117’s Representative Elect Chuck McGrady.

This will begin immediately as Representative Elect McGrady will join the Chamber’s Governmental Affairs Task Force on November 16, 2010 to discuss his priorities for the session. The Chamber will also be hosting the Legislative Luncheon in January before the start of the General Assembly’s Long Session to provide member’s an opportunity to discuss priorities with the Western North Carolina Delegation. We encourage you to watch the Chamber’s weekly ENews letter to know dates and the location of these events.