Cecil Bothwell | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of theAsheville, North Carolinacity council | |
| In office December 8, 2009 – December 7, 2017 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1950 (age 75–76) Oak Park, Illinois, United States |
| Party | Democratic Party (before 2016, 2017–present)[citation needed] Independent (2016–2017)[1][2] |
| Spouse | Divorced[3] |
| Residence | Asheville, North Carolina |
| Occupation | Politician, writer, builder, artist, musician[4] |
Cecil Bothwell (born 16 October 1950) is an American politician, writer, artist, musician and builder. Bothwell was elected to theAsheville, North Carolina city council in 2009 and reelected in 2013, but lost in the 2017 primary, coming in 7th out of 12 candidates.
In 2011, Bothwell announced he would challenge U.S. RepresentativeHeath Shuler in the Democratic primary forNorth Carolina's 11th congressional district in the2012 U.S. House of Representatives election.[5] On May 8, 2012, he lost the Democratic primary toHayden Rogers by a margin of 55–30 percent.
Bothwell was born in 1950 inOak Park, Illinois, graduated fromWinter Park High School lived in several states and held several jobs in the area ofAsheville, North Carolina.[3][6] Bothwell moved toBuncombe County, North Carolina in 1981 to work in construction with an emphasis on environmental building.[6] He was an editor of the alternative newspaperMountain Xpress and publishednonfiction and poetry as well as music.[6] Bothwell is the author ofUsin' the Juice: an oratorio;Whale Falls: An exploration of belief and its consequences;The Prince of War: Billy Graham's Crusade for a Wholly Christian Empire, which reports on the political activity of North Carolina preacherBilly Graham; Asheville's best-selling guide book; and a syndicated column, "Duck Soup".[7][8][9]
Following Bothwell's loss in the 2017 election, Joel Burgess, reporter for theAsheville Citizen-Times, wrote a retrospective on his years shaping the Asheville political scene.[10]
In 2008, Bothwell ran unsuccessfully for the Buncombe CountyBoard of Commissioners, and ran for theAsheville, North Carolina city council in 2009, winning the most votes in the October 6 primary election.[6] Bothwell raised more than $19,000 for his council election and ran as a progressive candidate in support of water conservation, government reform, and eliminatingcapital punishment.[9][11] He stated that he favored thepublic financing of elections and would support its implementation as a city council member.[11] Bothwell had been endorsed by the Asheville Fire Fighters Association.[12] Fliers mailed to voters before the election criticized Bothwell for his nontheism.[4]
Bothwell was elected on November 3, 2009, to the city council after he won the third highest number of votes in the city election.[7] Following the election, opponents of Bothwell, includingH. K. Edgerton, a former president of the AshevilleNAACP, challenged his election because theConstitution of North Carolina does not allow foratheists to hold public office in the state.[4] Law experts argued the provision was invalid because theUnited States Constitutionprevents religious tests for public office.[13] TheSupreme Court of the United States held inTorcaso v. Watkins (1961) that such provisions violate theFirst andFourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.[14] Bothwell began his service with an affirmation of the oath of office.[13] Bothwell was raised as aPresbyterian, became a non-theist by the age of 20, and is a member of theUnitarian Universalist Church.[9] He later stated that he believed the question of the existence of a deity was irrelevant to governance and that he believed in theGolden Rule.[13] He has also described himself as a "post theist."[15]
Consequent to the well-publicized challenge to his investiture in office, Bothwell was named the most Courageous Elected Official of 2010 by theAmerican Atheists. He became a frequent speaker at humanist, secular and atheist conferences across the U.S., speaking in dozens of cities in 12 states and Washington D.C. in ensuing years.
In 2011, he announced his intent to challengeblue dog Congressman Heath Shuler in the2012 Democratic primary.[16] When Shuler declined to run for reelection under thenew Republican-drawn redistricted maps, Bothwell stayed in the race, coming in second in a three-way primary behind Schuler's chief of staff,Hayden Rogers, who in turn, was defeated byMark Meadows in the general election.[17][18]
Bothwell was reelected to city council in 2013.
On June 19, 2014, Bothwell was pulled over after astate highway patrol officer noticed he was driving a car with no license plate,[19][20] which belonged to one of his friends.[19][20] The car was legally registered, legally had no plate, and Bothwell had committed no moving violation. Bothwell was arrested and charged with suspected DUI. An hour or more later he registered a .10 on a breathalyzer, above the .08 legal limit for driving.[19][20] The arresting officer denied he knew who was in the vehicle before it was pulled over and claimed Bothwell was cooperative.[19][20] Bothwell acknowledged his wrongdoing in an interview with WLOS and agreed to appear in court on August 4.[19][20] Soon after Bothwell denied that he willfully violated the law.[19] Some residents called for his resignation.[19] While Bothwell's attorney asserted that the stop itself was illegal since there was no moving violation and driving without a tag is legal under North Carolina law, when the case was adjudicated in November 2014, the District Attorney threatened to pursue charges against the car's owner for aiding and abetting (which would have accorded the friend the equivalent of a DUI on her record). Bothwell chose to plead guilty instead of challenging the wrongful arrest.
In July 2016, he officially de-registered as a Democrat and switched to Independent, as he would not be supportingHillary Clinton for president due to his previous support forBernie Sanders and disillusionment with the party's current political views. He later officially endorsedJill Stein for president.[1][2]
In January 2017, citing the enthusiasm generated by Our Revolution (the ongoing Sanders campaign to change the direction of the Democratic Party), Bothwell re-registered as a Democrat.[citation needed]
On October 10, 2017, Bothwell lost in the 2017 Asheville primary local election, finishing 7th out of 12 candidates.[21] This might be considered a surprising rebuke, given that Bothwell had been tapped as the #1 local politician in the local weekly Mountain Xpress reader poll in 7 of the 8 years he served on Council, falling to #2 in 2017. Bothwell's successor, Indian-American businessman Vijay Kapoor,[21][22] was sworn into office on December 7, 2017.[23]
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