There are all sorts of elections on Tuesday. Statewide, we’ve got the governor’s race (Democrat Creigh Deeds vs. Republican Bob McDonnell), the lieutenant governor’s race (Republican Bill Bolling vs. Democrat Jody Wagner), and attorney general (Democrat Steve Shannon vs. Republican Ken Cuccinelli). There are also a pair of House of Delegates seats up for reelection for whom there are viable challengers: Republican Steve Landes vs. Democrat Greg Marrow and Democrat Cynthia Neff vs. Republican Rob Bell. In the county there are two Board of Supervisors races: Democrat David Slutzky vs. Republican Rodney Thomas in the Rio district, and Republican Duane Snow vs. Democrat Madison Cummings vs. independent John Lowry in Samuel Miller. In the city there are two City Council seats up for reelection, with four candidates on the ballot: Democrats Dave Norris and Kristin Szakos and independents Bob Fenwick and Paul Long. Also in the city is a sheriff’s race between independent Paul Best and Democrat James E. Brown.
The polls are open from 6 AM until 7 PM. If you don’t know where to vote, check here:
The Daily Progress has made their endorsements, generally endorsing the most conservative candidates on the ticket: McDonnell, Cuccinelli, Bell, Lowry, Toscano, Norris, and Williams (a write-in). The only surprise was their selection of Slutzky over Thomas. They had nothing negative to say about Thomas, but praised the Democrat, saying that “[i]t is rare to find someone so willing to try new approaches at the risk of public misunderstanding and disapproval.”
But now you can have your say. Who are you voting for and, more important, why? Try to convince people to support your candidate. You’ve got the opportunity to sway some votes here.
Is anybody familiar with this group? Seen any material with their name on it? If they’re attempting to influence the election at the last minute, It’s possible that somebody had an idea for a political action committee, filed the paperwork, opened a bank account, and never did anything with it. They’re still in violation of state law, but it’s less egregious-seeming if nothing is hidden from the public as a result.
Snow was in a three-way race against Democrat Madison Cummings and independent John Lowry, all vying for a seat vacated by outgoing independent Sally Thomas. Cummings came in second, just behind Snow, with the independent a distant third.
The contest between Thomas and Democratic incumbent David Slutzky was closely watched. Slutzky’s intellectual, open-minded approach to government has a way of frightening more conservative voters, and Thomas’ campaign was premised on opposing Slutzky’s support of limited growth and related standard conservative issues. It’s a relatively narrow win—249 votes out of 4,735 cast, not counting outstanding absentee ballots and conditional votes—but a win just the case. Slutzky won easily in 2005, defeating Republican Gary Grant 58% to 38%.
Their victories remove two seats from the Democratic persuasion, tilting the whole board strongly towards conservatives, who only lost control of the BoS two years ago, when Ann Mallek defeated incumbent Republican David Wyant. Mallek and Dennis Rooker (who ran unopposed today) are left as the only reliable Democratic votes. With Lindsay Dorrier and Ken Boyd’s seats up for reelection in two years, expect Democrats to be gunning hard for both of their seats.
Interestingly, both of today’s Republican victors were born and raised in Albemarle County, while all of their opponents moved here as adults. That may be a coincidence, but I suspect not. For most candidates, the sort of missteps that Rodney Thomas made in his campaign wouldn’t just end their campaign, it’d end their political careers. An electorate who has known the candidate for many years is going to be more forgiving.
Democrats have won all of the Charlottesville elections, unsurprisingly. Delegate David Toscano easily defeated independent challenger R.B. Smith, James E. Brown bested independent Paul Best in the sheriff’s race, and Mayor Dave Norris secured reelection while ticket-mate Kristin Szakos joined him in defeating independents Bob Fenwick and Paul Long. Statewide Democrats were pummeled in most of the state (the numbers are still coming in, but “bloodbath” is probably in appropriate word), but there’s no sign of that in Charlottesville, with Sen. Creigh Deeds, Jody Wagner, and Steve Shannon all winning the local vote by a 3:1 margins. If the city is true to form, it’ll have the second-highest performance rate for Democrats, with Petersburg coming out on top.
The Cavalier Daily is scaling back the number of issues they’ll publish each year, they announced in today’s lead editorial, going from 136 down to 131, or thereabouts. It’s a financial decision, a result of decreased advertising revenue, so they’re eliminating five Friday papers, the day that generates the least revenue. As a reminder, the paper is independent, unfunded by UVA, and relies on advertising income to exist.
President George W. Bush has assented to participate in the Miller Center’s ongoing presidential history project, The Daily Progress reports. Every president since Carter has been interviewed—along with hundreds of administration officials—for their Presidential Oral History Program, which has used that extraordinary level of access to create an extraordinarily in-depth treasure trove of information for historians present and future. (For instance, here’s Zbigniew Brzezinski talking about President Carter (253k PDF) back in 1982.) The Miller Center is willing to go to great lengths to get answers of the utmost honesty and frankness: they’ll embargo interviews until the subject’s death, or even until the death of the subject and his family. And if they believe that an interview subject isn’t being honest, they’ll kick him out, rather than taint the record with inaccurate information. Chronicling each president takes many years, so they should stay busy with Bush for a long time to come.
West Main business owns are pushing for a charrette on the history of the corridor, Rachana Dixit writes in today’s Daily Progress. (For those who aren’t familiar with the process, Wikipedia provides a good definition. It’s basically when a bunch of stakeholders get together and try to collaboratively solve a design problem.) The West Main of today is vastly improved from the West Main of just fifteen years ago, but it’s got a long way to go if it’s to be as vibrant as the Corner to the west of it and the Downtown Mall to the east of it. Real estate owner Bill Atwood and Maya owner Peter Castiglione are pushing for a city-facilitated charrette, in the style of the 1989 charette that preceded the downtown renaissance, in hopes of moving things along.
I note that Dixit has used a term new to me in the second-to-last paragraph: “midtowner,” apparently referring to those who live or work on West Main Street.
The Victory Shoes façade has been illegally demolished, Dave McNair wrote in The Hook a few days ago. (Here’s how it looked when the shoe store was still in business.) One of the few remaining examples of art deco architecture in town, the building—just to the left of Mudhouse, the recent location of Oh Suzannah—was built in 1921 by sisters, Tillie and Faye, who named the shoe store in honor of the recently-won Great War. It was in business for over 70 years, with those sweet old ladies running it until the end. McNair writes that the owner is one Joe H. Gieck, while Liz Palka reports for CBS-19 that property manager Bill Rice was in charge of it. Rice says that it’s “an innocent mistake,” that he didn’t know that he needed permission to destroy the building entryway. The work was being done without a permit (period), and the city has halted construction on what is intended to be a frozen yogurt shop.
The worry with this sort of thing is that Gieck and Rice knew exactly what they were doing, but figured that it was easier to just do it illegally and pay a little fine than to ask permission and likely be denied. I don’t know what the appropriate punishment is for this sort of a thing, but like any punishment, it’s got to be worse than the benefit that was gained from committing the offense in question. It’s up to the city to figure out what that’ll be.
Hollymead Town Center isn’t the paragon of pedestrian friendliness that it’s touted as, Erika Howsare writes in the current C-Ville Weekly. Years after the development went in, Howsare tried to take a stroll to the shopping center from the townhouses that make the place ostensibly mixed-use. It did not go well. Sidewalks stop abruptly. One must walk through mud, dodge cars, and swish through long grass. Checking with employees of businesses in the shopping center, C-Ville couldn’t find a one who walked to work. The development’s website brags that “dining and shopping are within walking distance,” but they never point out that the walk is entirely theoretical.
I’ve written before about the poor planning that went into Hollymead, though I never got past its bizarre relationship with 29N. Every time I have cause to go there, I wonder aloud about how so many gestures at walkability were made without ever coming together to actually make it friendly to pedestrians.
Roanoke NPR station WVTF is opening a downtown Charlottesville studio. They’ll have a grand opening of the 1,780 square foot facility weekend after next, and use the facility for conducting interviews. It’s at 216 W. Water St. (here, I think), across from the Ice Park. This is constitutes the station’s latest salvo in their quiet battle for listeners against Harrisonburg’s WMRA, both of which broadcast in Charlottesville. Since both stations lean heavily on listener contributions, there’s potentially some real financial benefits that come of getting a bigger chunk of the audience here. Last year’s recruitment of Sandy Hausman as their Charlottesville bureau chief (and sole C’ville employee) was a sign of things to come—they’ve clearly increased the number and depth of their local stories since she came on.
Disclaimer: I’m a weekly guest on WVTF’s “Weekend Virginia.” I’m not compensated for my time, so I’ve got no skin in the game, but it’s worth calling up.
Al Groh is being paid $4.3M to please stop coaching UVA football, CBS-19 (among many others) reports. Just last night the university wrapped up a 3-9 season with a 42-13 loss to Virginia Tech, and Groh turns out to have wrapped up his nine-year career with UVA on the same night. This year was the team’s worst performance in his time here, although dissatisfaction him runs back a few years. Let the speculation about his replacement begin.
One of the Murray brothers, Dr. Latham Murray, died yesterday evening, of causes as yet undetermined. The eight sons of Panorama Farm owners Jim and Bunny Murray—James, Matthew, Christopher, Stephen, Andrew, Thomas, Timothy, and Latham—are pervasive in the community, quietly doing the various good deeds that make Charlottesville and Albemarle go ’round. The 58-year-old was a thoracic surgeon at Martha Jefferson, the chair of their board, and, as a hobby, a craftsman. He’s survived by his wife and their five children, one of whom—Wistar—should be well known to those who read Charlottesville blogs (although she recently moved to New York)—as should be Wistar’s husband, Darren Hoyt. A memorial service will be held sometime early next year.
This is a community news blog about Charlottesville, VA, USA, started in March of 2001. It's run by Waldo Jaquith. It has nothing to do with C-Ville Weekly, the newspaper. Feel free to submit a story.
One of the Murray brothers, 
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