Do you know Kelly Miller? What should we know about our future elected/appointed official? His strengths? Weaknesses? Hobbies? Hopes/fears?

Looks like he’s done some big-time marketing work in Atlanta and Asheville. He’s helped build brand awareness about Asheville.

Another bio says:“Prior to Kelly’s move to Asheville, he worked for the Atlanta CVB for six years as Director of International Tourism, as well as serving as the Bureau’s Olympic Games Manager and Director of the 24,000 square foot Welcome South Visitor Center in Atlanta. He is a native of Juneau, Alaska and was a former standup comic before deciding to keep his day job.”

He went to University of Montana.

As a former stand-up comic, Kelly, what are your favorite jokes?

He may have been fast in track at U of M. (800 meters).

His application for appointment to City Council can be downloaded (along with 46 other applicants at http://www.mountainx.com/xpressfiles/asheville_city_council_vacancy_2008

For the “nekkid truth,” we turn to the Citizen-Times’ John Boyle, who tackled the story, locker-room style, having seen Miller “naked more times than I care to admit.” Boyle continues ...

Perhaps I should explain. Miller, the executive director of the Asheville Convention & Visitors Bureau, is an avid runner and a regular at the downtown YMCA, where I flop around in the pool like an epileptic whale on a regular basis and call it exercise.

Not that I’m looking around in the changing rooms and showers, but you can’t help but see fellas nekkid over there.

... generally speaking, he appreciates my sometimes bawdy and always tasteless sense of humor, which I greatly admire in a politician. He is pretty conservative on some issues, but …

“I have been a registered independent almost my entire life,” he told me Friday when I called to congratulate and harass him. “I have voted for D’s, R’s, independents and Libertarians.”

I guess we still haven’t learned much yet.

Mr. Miller will be the focus of an Askville in our Dec. 23 edition, but until then, here’s some tidbits:  He was indeed once a standup comedian, as well as a former record store owner and night-club proprietor. He runs and bikes a few times a week, including regular running sessions along the Mountains to Sea trail.

He says he is serious about finding solutions to graffiti and litter, as he says they not only make the city less inviting, but contribute to public safety issues.

For more , read the Xpress next week.