HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, District 93
SPECIAL NOTE TO BLUE RIDGE & Elk PRECINCT VOTERS: NC Republican Legislators gerrymandered the maps to force Watauga’s Blue Ridge & Elk precincts into s separate House district (District 87). Therefore, there are two ballots for Watauga voters for this race: one for Blue Ridge & Elk only and the other for all other Watauga precincts. Blue Ridge & Elk precinct voters can access my discussion of your candidate options for this race HERE.
You may vote for one. Candidates are presented below in the order they appear on your ballot.
Reason for my Endorsement: Pickett has a record, and it’s not a good one. If only all candidates were as good as Massey.
Ben Massey (Democrat)
https://www.facebook.com/ben.massey.566
Massey grew up in a small community in eastern North Carolina barning tobacco and working at the local gas station. His father was a Mail Carrier and his mom owned a Dance School. He paid his way through college at UNC- Chapel Hill and graduated as a Physical Therapist serving several community hospitals where he was promoted to the Director of Rehabilitation.
Later Massey served as the Executive Director of the state’s Physical Therapy Licensure Board. He was also elected for two three-year terms as the President of the 75,000 member American Physical Therapy Association.
Massey and his wife moved to Ashe County after he retired. I remember him as the ever-present, early-bird, cheerful-but-firm manager of the Watauga County Farmers Market. He later became president of the Ashe County Farmers Mkt. Massey and his wife are fixtures in Ashe County now, selling their own farm produce.
The Republicans who gerrymandered the new 93rd Dist. did what they could to ensure that incumbent Republican Ray Pickett would hold onto the seat forever. They added Allegheny Co. to the Watauga/Ashe district and took away Watauga’s well-populated Blue Ridge Precinct and gave it to House Dist. 87 to make the numbers work for them. (see above).
Nonetheless, Massey fits the district, and I like the writing on his website: “The candidate who shows up and listens.”
But it’s not just the writing. Massey also offers detailed, fleshed out priorities on his website. Here’s just a bit of it:
• “The choice (in this election is) between extremely different candidates – an old guy with experience, wisdom, empathy, and an authentic concern for the needs of everyday Americans, or another old man who is eager to join the authoritarian leaders of the world, who lies non-stop, and who has no respect for democracy, women, LGBTQ+ folks soldiers, or anyone who does not pay homage.”
• “In a democracy, the people lead. We have the opportunity to exert our leadership and our collective power to elect officials who place a priority on representing us and the common good. We can elect officials who are committed to our ideals but who are also committed to finding the magic in negotiation and compromise.”
• “In 2022-2023 a total of 25,568 recipients for a total cost of $134 million in NC state dollars that was diverted from our statewide public school budget. 88.83% of those voucher dollars went to religious schools.”
• “Gun violence is a complex issue, but the one variable that is clearly a game changer in this country is the ready availability of guns. Every year, the gun industry rakes in approximately $9 billion as they continue to manufacture increasingly deadly products, including military-style, high-capacity weapons and those designed for concealment. “
He’s so good he even got inducted into “The Order of the Long Leaf Pine” by Republican Governor Pat McCrory “for significant contributions to the state and his community through exemplary services and exceptional accomplishments.”
Ray Pickett (Republican)
https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=ray%20pickett%20for%20nc%20house
https://raypickettdotcom.wordpress.com/
Pickett is a native North Carolinian and resident of Blowing Rock who has occupied the Dist. 93 seat in the North Carolina House of Representatives since 2020. He earned his living in the hospitality industry, managing motels and restaurants. He owned the Blowing Rock Inn for many years (more or less inherited from his parents) and sold it after he won election to the General Assembly.
Before winning the House Dist. 93 seat, he had a few bouts trying to get on the Blowing Rock Town Commission. His second try for a seat on the Commission landed him a 279 vote win, only to lose it when he ran again twice trying to regain the seat.
As a House member, Pickett made a big pitch for the ridiculous “constitutional amendment” the Republicans put on the November ballot to prohibit voting by non-citizens, as though it isn’t already wholly illegal. A theatrical gesture to stir up the under-informed, and a telling index to Ray Pickett’s mind-set.
Last year, Pickett signed on to a bill that would simply eliminate tenure in all NC colleges and universities, H 715, and would demand a “cost-benefit analysis” of all research undertaken by faculty working on state time — goodbye the advancement of knowledge for knowledge’s sake.
Pickett also got awfully chummy with the notorious American Legislative Exchange Council, which writes conservative wet-dreams into the form of legislation and promotes it to state legislatures: “A newer ALEC member who has attended two of its conferences,” Pickett became the chief source behind a NandO investigative piece, “
Pickett was also identified as one of the drunken revelers from the Republican side of the NC House who participated in a Bourbon sampling in Louisville, Ky back in April.
In Sept. 2023, Pickett played loyal soldier, voting for a Republican budget that contained an astounding number of abominable provisions not really belonging in a budget bill, including the provision that exempts legislators from the state public records law, letting them withhold their documents from public view; a massive expansion of the private school voucher program; the legislature granting itself (actually Tim Moore and Phil Berger) the right to appoint “special” Superior Court judges with eight year terms, with no oversight, public input, or notice (when you can pick the judges, you can pick your lawsuit outcome);and a wacko provision to give the Democratic and Republican legislators equal number of appointments to Boards of Elections, removing the Governor altogether from the process, and thusly guaranteeing chaos and gridlock;.