Republicans Sweep Commission and School Board Races

Commission Vice Chair Jake Dalton received the most votes in the Commission race and his wife, Tanya Dalton, led all candidates in the School Board contest. Democrats were disappointed and concerned.

BREVARD — Republicans won the races for the two open seats on both the Transylvania County Commission and School Board Tuesday, further cementing conservative control of local policy.

“I’m pleased and excited,” said Republican Tanya Dalton, who received the most votes in the Board race.

“I’m standing in the back of GOP headquarters, celebrating,” said fellow Republican Chris Wiener, who beat Democratic incumbent Marty Griffin by 241 votes, according to the unofficial results posted Tuesday night.

Democrat Paul Cooper received the fewest votes, finishing about 900 behind Wiener.

Wiener and Dalton backed issues that emerged nationally this year as school board races became proxies for broader cultural debates.

They were both backed by the local chapter of a far-reaching conservative education group, Moms for Liberty, which advocated for more parental control of education and opposed what it described as liberal indoctrination in classrooms, including the teaching of critical race theory.

School administrators and teachers said during the campaign that this theory is not taught in local schools or included in the state history curriculum that they are required to follow.

During the campaign, Wiener emphasized the need for allowing parents in the classroom as observers to guard against such politicized instruction.

But on Tuesday, both successful candidates framed parental involvement as a help to teachers.

“I’m just trying to take a little load off these overworked and underpaid teachers,” Dalton said, referring to her volunteer work as a tutor.

Cooper was skeptical.

“My opponents made a decision to take a moderate position as the elections moved forward and I don’t think their positions are moderate at all,” he said, and noted that Wiener, in particular, is an open adherent of the far-right Three Percenters ideology.

“I’m disappointed and scared,” Cooper said. “I’m afraid of what the two winning candidates will attempt to do to our school system . . . I’m afraid of the additional pressure that is going to be put on our students, our teachers and our staff.”

Griffin declined to speak about the future direction of the board.

“The only thing I want you to put in there is, I want to thank everybody who supported me and voted for me and worked for me and that includes everybody in the Democratic Party,” he said.

Dalton, the wife of Commission Vice Chairman Jake Dalton, who won his re-election bid on Tuesday, said she was not ready to name her top priorities, but said she would adhere to the positions she staked out in her campaign. These included opposing critical race theory and social emotional learning. She and Wiener also advocated allowing teachers to bring guns to school as long as they followed certain safety restrictions.

They were also both opposed to the School Board’s earlier plans for the voter-approved, $68-million renovation of Brevard High School and Rosman High and Middle Schools.

The future of those plans was already uncertain after both the Board and Commission recently exchanged letters discussing different options for addressing these improvements and the schools’ other capital needs.

Wiener said that — along with addressing student learning loss — addressing the work at the Brevard and Rosman campuses should be a top priority.

“We need to figure out the school bond and get things moving in the right direction,” he said, before adding, “I don’t know what that direction is right now.”

With the victory of Jake Dalton and political newcomer Emmett Casciato, the County Commission will become an all-Republican board. Dalton received the most votes and Casciato defeated Democrat Lauren Wise by slightly more than 1,000 votes.

Both Dalton and Casciato ran as fiscal conservatives who opposed the School Board’s renovation plan or spending county money on the multi-use Ecusta Trail. Both, however, acknowledged the likely need to raise taxes to build a badly needed new county courthouse.

Dalton texted a statement thanking voters and saying, “I hope we can continue the momentum we have in this county with infrastructure and economic development.”

Casciota said he was taking the evening to enjoy his victory and would discuss his priorities later.

“I’m trying to have fun here,” he said Tuesday night.

Wise had run on credentials that he said would be especially valuable as the Commission addressed the courthouse and other capital needs. He is an architect who works in Asheville and serves as the chairman of the Transylvania County Planning Board.

Though he said the election was valuable in “building bridges and building connections” in preparation for a future run, he echoed Cooper’s concerns about the future direction of the Commission and the School Board.

“I’m a little bit heartbroken for the county,” he said.

He was also disappointed that voters had chosen a candidate, Casciato, who appeared unprepared for the role of commissioner.

“I don’t think he educated himself on the issues,” he said.

Casciato, who worked for decades as an educator in Florida, pushed back, saying he has performed well in every role he has taken on, including the one that brought him to local prominence — founder of the Veterans History Museum of the Carolinas in downtown Brevard.

“I did a lot of jobs and nobody was ever disappointed in the work I did as an athletic director and a teacher and a coach and a contractor,” he said.

“If you saw what I did with the museum, nobody should have any doubts about my leadership.”

Email: brevardnewsbeat@gmail.com