Tomorrow, at 10am at Charlottesville High School’s Performing Arts Center, is the Democratic nominating convention for City Council. There are six candidates seeking two seats: Mayor Blake Caravati, Bern Ewert, Joan Fenton, Waldo Jaquith (me), Alexandria Searls and David Simmons. If you plan to attend, you should be there by 9:30. Child care will be provided on-site. As always, the most in-depth information on the race and the candidates can be found on George Loper’s site. Jake Mooney has the story in today’s Daily Progress. Jake Mooney and the Progress, by the way, wins this year’s “Best Council Coverage” award, which I just now invented.
Full disclosure: This reporter is a candidate for Charlottesville City Council. You know, in case you thought that was some other Waldo.
Obviously, I decided that I would continue to write about Council-related issues for cvillenews.com. As you might recall, I asked everybody what I should do about this conflict of interest when I announced my candidacy on January 14th, and there were some excellent replies.
I was predisposed to follow the advice of those that said I should recuse myself. It seemd like the logical path. But there were two problems with that. The first was that Max, who helps me run the site, has a conflict of interest: his mother, Joan Fenton, is a candidate. The second was finding somebody that could write about Council-related issues in a timely and informative fashion, and would be willing to volunteer to do so for the site. That just didn’t happen.
Given these problems, I found that I strongly identified with Big_Al‘s comment:
Second, you should absolutely continue to cover the city government, this election, and all other affairs pertinent to the matter at hand. However, while I don’t think we’re in danger of Citizen Cane Redux, it would probably be fair and reasonable to disclose in all relevant articles that you are a candidate for City Council.
If it weren’t for the comments system on cvillenews.com (well, it would be a pretty lame website, but that’s another discussion), I think that it would be entirely inappropriate for me to continue to write about Council-related issues. But because people can reply publicly and thus call me on any perceived slant in the writing or the coverage, I decided that it would be better to try and provide the most even-handed coverage that I could, disclose my role as candidate in every story, and hope that people would keep me in check should I shirk my duties.
Given that nobody ever indicated to me, publicly or privately, that my handling of Council-related news was anything but even-handed, I certainly hope that I’ve done a fair job of covering all candidates and perspectives.
God, I hope this makes sense. I’m really sick, and my head is not working in anything close to a reasonable manner. :)
Is it possible to just come and watch the spectacle of liberalism. If a republican wants to come and observe but not interfer or vote is that OK?
You bet. There will be an area reserved for non-voting observers. The more the merrier.
Keep doing what you are doing, Waldo. I don’t really think there is conflict of interest.
Marion
Shock the World!
or at least Charlottesville’s establishment.
The beauty of Virginia voting is that you don’t register with a party, so you can vote in everyone’s caucus. If this were a normal primary in which the Democrats didn’t have a lock on the election, I would recommend you go and vote for the weakest Democratic candidates to run against the Republicans. However, since the Republican party couldn’t organize ants to a picnic in this town, you might as well go to the primary and vote for the best candidate, since there are no Republicans running and this thing is the real “election.”
1) No experience.
2) Least educated of the candidates (no college degree).
3) Too young.
4) Doesn’t have a plan of action for anything other than a standard NIMBY* “no” to the Meadowcreek Parkway (where’s your solution?)
In the interest of fairness, it’s my duty to post these comments.
* NIMBY = Not In My BackYard
No kidding. it’s all about… let me ride the coattails of the Demos for Change and agree to whatever they say so they’ll give me their votes… no original thinking…
No experience in regards to what?
Blake Caravati doesn’t have a college degree either and he’s the bloody Mayor (not that that means anything in this town.
What does his youth have to do with it? I bet he’s got more energy and passion than most of the other candidates.
Have you actually talked to Waldo regarding the things he’d like to do, the idea’s he’s got and how he’d like to do them?
In the interest of fairness, it’s my duty to ask these questions,.
I believe Caravati has a BA or BS from Catholic University, but no master’s…
Have you ever considered that he might have the same ideals as the DFC and that’s why he’s aligned himself with them? He’s hardly one to ride someone elses coat tails. Of all the candidates I’d say he’s the least tied to any particular group.
Just my $.02
From what I understand, he only completed one year there.
If it’s a popularity contest amongst the hip and cool (seemingly white) people of this town then it would seem that he should win. He seems to have all the artsty-fartsy people in his hip pocket, and the youthful masses tend to follow rather than think on their own, so he has apparently hitched his cart to the right horses.
If he truly believes all that he is saying/agreeing to, more power to him.
–jd
He has endorsed every line item on the DFC platform. That shows me, and this is my personal opinion, that he has no mind of his own and that he is “hopping on the DFC train” to get their votes. It’s a tactic born out of weakness. If this is truely the case, his a more gifted politician in his young years than I thought (which isn’t neccessarily a compliment).
“the youthful masses tend to follow rather than think on their own”
how ironic that someone would say that because that exemplifies Waldo’s platform (as it relates to the DFC)…
In addition, if he is willing and able to fight for that which he believes in, as long as he truly feels that he is *right*, then why castigate him?
Personally, I feel that politics should not be the popularity contest that it has become, but it seemed to work for a scumbag piece of shi* like Clinton, so why stop if it’s not successful?
–jd
He might believe/feel that his right, but I know/feel that he is wrong. That’s the difference. And that’s an opinion. Waldo is free to have his, and I’m free to castigate his.
Absolutely. I didn’t say that I supported him, just that I would respect him if he is honest and forthright in his dealings. Big Difference.
-jd
Personally, I don’t think anybody has the right to castrate anyone else, and I’m not quite sure what it has to do with politics in the first place.
LOL…just change “Meadowcreek Parkway” to “Willet Creek Dam project” and you’d have a perfect description of Jimmy Stewart in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”.
Maybe, just maybe, Mr. Jaquith will pleasantly surprise you.
that’s funny- be careful there are grammar nazi lurking with their sharp blue pencil
I nominate the preceding comment for the Cvillenews Comment Hall of Fame. That was beautiful!
No kidding. it’s all about… let me ride the coattails of the Demos for Change and agree to whatever they say so they’ll give me their votes… no original thinking…
I helped to write the Dems for Change platform. You bet I agree with it. Do you agree with your beliefs?
Also, you must remember that the platform is different from the endorseable part, the platform summary. I fully endorse those 18 points, as does Joan Fenton and Alexandria Searls. We endorse them because they’re common-sense, from our perspective.
I don’t think that there’s any person that agrees with all of the dozens (hundreds?) of points in the full platform. I certainly don’t.
If I wanted to ride coattails to win, I’d be a conservative, party-line Democrat. I’d go along with everything that the party organizers supported, and I wouldn’t possibly deviate to be as liberal as Democrats for Change. Those would be the winning coattails. Instead, I chose the honest route — to stand up for my beliefs, and support the platform that I helped to craft. Will that get me as many votes as if I pretended to be somebody that I’m not? Absolutely not. But can I live with myself at the end of tomorrow by running for what I believe in? Absolutely.
·5??to Blake Caravati (in The Hook’s profile of the candidates) he has completed one year of college. I believe that Waldo is in his third semester at PVCC.
Therefore, Caravati is the least-educated of the bunch.
(And a Throttlebottom, to boot.)
Sorry for the typo: that first line in my previous should read, “According to Blake Caravati…”
For Pete’s Sake!!! Why is everyone so down on Waldo? I don’t know anything about him but why is he singled out of all the rest running for council? Everyone has to jump on the band wagon, as usual.Besides, it is tiresome hearing that a person has to have a college education to be able to do anything right. Snobbery.
Marion
that’s funny- be careful there are grammar nazi lurking with their sharp blue pencil
This should be:
“(T)hat’s funny(sp)- be careful(,) there are grammar nazi(s) lurking with their sharp blue pencil(s)(.)”
Please correct these errors and resubmit.
Heil Grammar!