ASHEVILLE, N.C.  – The three candidates seeking to replace Todd M. Williams as Buncombe County district attorney clashed over the issues of a new jail, homelessness and ICE during a forum hosted Feb. 13 by the Asheville-based Council of Independent Business Owners.

More specifically, the candidates addressed some of the most pressing issues facing the county’s justice system, such as court backlogs, repeat offenders, and overcrowding at the county’s detention center.

The early-morning forum — preceded by a breakfast buffet — drew about 100 people and lasted about an hour in UNC Asheville’s Sherrill Center.

There are no Republican challengers, so whoever triumphs in the March 3 Democratic primary election will win the job.

Following the recitation of a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance, CIBO Past President John Carroll, who served as emcee of the meeting, welcomed the attendees.

After introducing the many candidates and elected officials who were in attendance, Carroll introduced the three canddidates for Buncombe DA, including public defender Courtney Booth, senior assistant district attorney Katie Kurdys and attorney and Buncombe County Commissioner Martin Moore.

Each gave a two-minute introduction,  fielded questions from Carroll that were gathered from the membership by CIBO leadership, and concluded with a one-minute summation.

Beginning the introductions was Booth, who said she moved here … I have 20 years of knowledge. This is my first job out of law school — and I never left....”

She added, “I narrowly lost in 2022 by 101 votes against DA Todd Williams last time. I’m back again. I decided to run. I’m married. I was born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina... I spent my whole life looking for a river.” 

In her introduction, Kurdys said, “I’m the only person up here with any experience running a business, running a staff, running an office and managing money.

“So that role is going to be very important. I’ve managed multimillion dollar restaurant before I became a lawyer.

In the final introduction, Moore said, “When you’re a double-major in political science, you’ve got to go to law school... For four years, I worked at Van Winkle Law Firm... I learned a lot about what ‘a greater vision’ means.

“It’s been my honor and privilege to serve you on the Buncombe (County) Board of Commissioners — currently as vice chair....”

Carroll then began reading off a number of CIBO’s pre-selected letters, to which each candidate was invited to address.

Among the highlights were the following:

•  Booth said, “We don’t need additional jail space... People should not sit in jail for months waiting on their day in court. We can do better.”

• Kurdys said: “The circumstances with ICE are complicated. As a senior assistant district attorney, I think it would be difficult to find ways in which ICE would need our assistance, but I can say that ICE does need to communicate better with our local law enforcement....”

• Moore said: “I can’t think of anything less that I want to explain to people than raising your taxes to build a new jail right now, especially in the wake of Helene....”

Meanwhile, the “Comment Bubble” appearing after a story by Asheville television station WLOS (News 13) on CIBO’s DA candidates’ forum included the following assertions:

• Correcto — “Building yet another new jail is akin to the building of all the new housing apartments in areas where they should not be!  YET, build it and they will come.!! We REALLY need more and heavier traffic on our city streets that have not been repaved in 20 years or more. With all the new property taxable dwellings being built and ever- increasing taxes on existing residences it seems the powers that be could do something about the deplorable condition of Asheville’s neighborhood streets.!!”

• Normal — “Booth is compromised. It’s not the DA’s job to create or enforce laws. This type of partisan thinking undermines the rule of law ... thus Booth has no business making calls on who/what to prosecute — she’s already defending the accused, when the job is to prosecute. Conflict of interest, obviously.”

• EHemingway — “This district will not solve the homeless problem without implementing tough love — that is jailing repeat offender vagrants who refuse help.” 

• WAVLNATIVE — “All liberals? One is just as bad as the other! I will not be voting unless a Republican jumps in!”

• Correcto — “Sorry, but that attitude is a big part of our local problems.!! Democrats, being the main voting group just keep on voting into office the same, or at least the same type of so-called leaders, so the problems persist.!! We need to change the quality of leadership in our area.!! INSANITY, in this case is electing the same type of leadership over and over and expecting ANY change for the better.!! If more Republicans were voted into local offices by Republican voters, we would see some much-needed changes.!!’ 

• LeftyFrizzell — “I feel the same way about MAGA.” 

• Commonsenseisback — “Homelessness will never be solved here because it’s too much of a moneymaker.”