About Cecil

Cecil Bothwell is the only elected official running for Congress in North Carolina’s 11th Congressional Democratic primary election. He currently serves on the Asheville City Council.

Bothwell has had two other careers, the first as a green builder, the second as a writer and editor. He has employed up to 22 people in the building trades both as a masonry and general contractor, building homes and commercial projects over a 25 year period. Later he phased into writing and editing, becoming the founding editor of the Warren Wilson College environmental journal, Heartstone, and managing editor of Asheville’s Mountain Xpress. He served for several years on the national editorial board of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies and has eight books in print.

A 32-year resident of Buncombe County, he has lectured widely on environmental and ethical issues, speaking from college lecterns and church pulpits across the WNC region and the nation. He started and participates in a 6-year old jail ministry through his church, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Asheville, and works on homeless initiatives and alternative sentencing projects. He has tutored in Asheville’s public schools, and serves on the boards of two nonprofit groups which build libraries in rural Bolivia, and elementary schools in rural Guatemala.

Bothwell has been endorsed by:

Congressman Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), co-chair of the Progressive Caucus.
Glenn Greenwald, in Salon.com
Progressive Democrats of America
Blue America
Enlighten the Vote
Chris Pelly, Asheville City Council
Asheville PARC
Asheville NOW

Many folks in Asheville know Cecil Bothwell as a local journalist, but that’s only one recent chapter in his life. His friends are more likely to talk about his good judgment and willingness to lend a hand. All three of his cats think he’s a hero.

When catastrophe struck his Broad River community in the great flood of 1996, blocking the only access road with multiple mud slides, Cecil was the first to pick up a shovel and the first to locate a functioning phone line to make contact with the outside world. When a friend nearly drowned in a boating accident on the French Broad River in 2004, Cecil drew on his lifeguard training, pulled her and another passenger to the capsized canoe and brought them to safety—despite his own injuries. His personal courage kept him on the trail of our criminal former Sheriff Bobby Medford, despite personal threats, until Medford was brought to justice.

Often described as a “renaissance” man, Cecil has broad experience in construction, private land-use planning and forestry, computer and large appliance repair, automotive and tractor repair, agronomy, the arts (wood, clay and paint) and alternative energy systems. He has brought an uncommon diversity of experience to bear on all of the issues addressed by Asheville’s City Council.

For a 2009 post on Who Am I?, click here.