City Councilor Kendra Hamilton’s announcement that she won’t be seeking reelection means that at least one of the three seats up for reelection will be open, and that’s brought potential candidates out of the woodwork. Over at Democratic Democrat, Lloyd Snook runs down the list of candidates, and figures that Mayor David Brown will run for reelection, Kevin Lynch won’t run if somebody he likes runs, and names five possible candidates: Satyendra Huja, Linda Seaman, Jennifer McKeever, Carolyn Shears, and Karen Waters. I’ve also heard that Holly Edwards is thinking about running.
Of course, they won’t all run if only one seat opens up. It’s just a hunch, but I’ll bet that Kevin Lynch won’t run if Holly Edwards runs — they’re both thoughtful and gregarious community activists.
I think Satyendra Huja would make an excellent member of City Council. Much of the revitalization of the Downtown area can be linked directly to him. His experience in planning would be an asset and would bring new creativity to how we deal with such issues in Charlottesville. Plus, he’s a really nice guy.
So Kevin Lynch won’t leave council unless he finds someone he likes to take his place. Who does Lynch think he is anyway. Won’t leave unless he finds someone he likes to take his place. Well, Mr. Lynch this city got along quite well before you were elected to council and it will get along quite well once you are gone. Who made you the big political power broker anyway? I will not vote any candidate endorsed by Kevin Lynch, nor will I vote for Kevin Lynch should he choose to run again.
John Falwell,
Obviously, you’re free to vote for or against whoever you please, but I’m interested in hearing more about why this bothers you so much. If you just don’t like Kevin Lynch and/or his policies, so be it. But, I don’t understand what would be wrong with a member of City Council determining his interest in seeking re-election based upon whether he’s satisfied with the caliber of other candidates.
I think of the message as being along the lines of: “I’d rather not continue to serve on City Council, but there are certain constituencies (or policies, or philosophy, or area of expertise) that I think need an advocate and, if somebody else doesn’t step forward to fill that role, I’ll do it.”
Where I sense that you perceive arrogance, I perceive generous responsibility.
Seems to me that Kevin Lynch’s approach is precisely what we need more of — politicians putting principle above self-interest.
I agree, Waldo, we do need more principle driven politicians; however, Lynch’s position (run unless someone else I like runs) does not necessarily lead me to believe that he is one. Instead, it sounds more like a “I will run unless I don’t think I have a chance of winning” approach. I could be misreading it, of course.
I can certainly see how it would be interpreted as that, but I just don’t buy that there’s any danger whatsoever that either Kevin Lynch or David Brown wouldn’t be renominated. They’re both popular among Charlottesville Democrats, who are notoriously protective of their own. I can’t imagine that either of them have any concern that they wouldn’t be nominated for their own seat.
“They’re both popular among Charlottesville Democrats, who are notoriously protective of their own” oh, how soon we forget. I recall a not very nice woman named Meredith Richards who got what she deserved (her walking papers) by the local democrats while seeking reelection to the council. By the way will anyone really miss Kendra on the council, she is quite forgettable and tell Julian T to try to stay awake during the next meeting
Such a diversity of candidates mentioned above; that’s what makes Charlottesville City Council so strong and special! You’ve got black liberal Democrats, brown liberal Democrats, and white liberal Democrats, male liberal Democrats and female liberal Democrats, young liberal Democrats, and old liberal Democrats. About the only major slip-up possible, is when they allow a conservative or a Republican to sneak in somehow, but that rarely happens (twice, I think, in the last several decades, and one of them got a park named after him!). So, keep up the good work!
I happen to have chatted with Kevin Lynch at a school function some weeks ago and asked him if he were running again. His response was very much in the vein of the idea that there were certain things he wanted to see shepherded through to their end, but that if he saw someone wanting to run who would continue the shepherding work he would also be content. He asked me for suggestions for city council candidates and even asked if I was interested (I’m not). I think it fairly natural that any elected official would prefer to hand the torch over to someone who would continue doing the kind of work they have done.
I’m a very ex Republican. The party has long ago handed itself over to reactionaries of virtually every stripe. Look at the federal deficit created by a Republican controlled congress led by a Republican president and explain just how they are the party of fiscal responsibility. The Republican party long ago made no room for me by its own behavior. If the local Republicans can actually field a candidate worth voting for — very good. But they haven’t and its ridiculous to blame Democrats for their own failures.
From Harry:
Another way to look at it is “What does each candidate bring to the dais?” Their skill sets, as one friend puts it. If you’ve ever attended more than the “Matters by the Public” portion of Council meetings, then you know that they often have to have a high degree of detailed knowledge on the myriad aspects of how this City runs in order to understand the conflicts and balance of policies and appropriately address the concerns brought to a vote.
As a regular attendee, it strikes me that the bulk of their work isn’t philosophical at all–it’s number-crunching and tight-rope walking between what the public and lobbies say they want, what the greater good is (regardless of what’s requested), and the realities that limit the scope of what Council members can accomplish by fiat.
Whatever you may think about Lynch’s philosophy or agenda, he brings an expertise on precisely those matters that is difficult to match. He gets the system. Others have had that as well–Blake Caravati, Kay Slaughter, and Meredith Richards stand out in my mind. They aren’t on Council anymore, but Lynch is.
IMO, we need that on Council, because the job isn’t just about what ideals you hold. It’s about balancing everyone’s needs, it’s about budgeting, and knowing how the City departments work, what the limits of municipal powers and resources are, and how to get things accomplished within that system. That takes a great deal of dedication to learning about and dealing with the hard, complex, and/or convoluted matters that you may not have cared about when you campaigned for the seat.
The more generous responsibility you bring to that process, the better you will succeed at the actual job of government, as opposed to the sometimes mismatched but parallel jobs of politicking and advocating.
It’s a skill set. Perhaps Councilor Lynch is also looking at potential candidates from that perspective. I know I will be, whether he runs again or not.
Ah, but she wasn’t one of their own. Meredith had long prior been tossed out of the party (in spirit) for slights real and perceived — her change in stance on the Meadowcreek Parkway being emblematic of that.
Come on, she had just run for the US House of Representatives against MOOOO-Hammmad himself, our very own racist Virgil Goode. How can you say a person had “long prior been tossed out” when she was nominated and ran for national seat. To go from the democrat’s great hope to unseat Virgil to losing her bid for reelection to the city council is a pretty far fall in such a short time. And she lost her bid to Kendra Hamilton who appears to be more interested in doing anything but being on the council.
iknowcville,
You’re talking about 2 different organizations. The City party and the 5th district party. And Meredith had only token opposition in that House primary.
Cvillenewser,
Kevin Lynch has zero fear whatsoever of losing. He has that seat for as long as he wants it – he’s got huge grassroots support. What you have to understand about Kevin is that he’s just this dude. He has zero interest in running for higher office and doesn’t even seem to like politics very much. Never all that comfortable with ‘back room’ stuff, always at arms length from the various year-to-year political intrigues. Ever wonder why he isn’t mayor despite being the most senior member of council? He’s just not a political animal. Kevin would probably much rather just go to work and throw great parties and play in his band without worrying about running a city. But he has some things that he cares very deeply about and he wants to see those things through. You may disagree with him about those things but that doesn’t change the fact of his motivation.
From my own experience, this is a true and accurate description of Kevin Lynch. I think he really is on Council because he really wants to make a difference in the community. We do need people people like him.
I believe that Kevin Lynch and the other councilors all mean well and that they probably do get some personal satisfaction from being on Council. City Council is entertaining but the people who create and activate the actual, defacto policies are Gary O’Connell, Aubrey Watts, Jim Tolbert, Tim Longo and Judy Mueller. The real action in city government is coming from the hired staff.
Kevin Cox,
That’s a very good point… one that I’ve discussed with friends before. If council implements something without staff’s buy-in, it pretty much doesn’t happen. Likewise, getting support from the right people in staff can often be as effective as getting an ordinance passed.
That said, it seems alot like a dance to me. When the system works well, it is because the elected folks and the hired folks work together and communicate about issues. That too is a quality that we should seek in our elected officials (i.e. someone who knows how to dance).
Tigernach,
“If council implements something without staff’s buy-in,[and] it pretty much doesn’t happen” then the council needs to assert themselves and see that the staff does what the voters representatives want the staff to do. If they don’t do it, then they should be fired. FAT CHANCE! The councilors are suckers for the ego stroking manipulations that the staff have become experts at administering.