Democratic member of the Board of Supervisors Lindsay Dorrier has a challenger in this year’s election in the form of Republican Denny King. (The Progress reported this fully a week ago, but I totally forgot to write about it.) King, who works in the film production business, ran for the Scottsville seat on the school board in 2003. Some may recall his 2004 efforts to start an all-Charlottesville all the time broadcast TV station.
Lindsay Dorrier is nominally a Democrat, but certainly the most conservative elected Democrat to be found in the area; he often votes with his Republican colleagues. His current run on the BoS began in 2000, but he also served from 1976-1980. He was challenged at the end of his 2000 term by a write-in candidate, but won handily.
Denny King is wrong if he think he ran as a republican for school board since there is no party label for school board. So the title to this article is wrong there is no republican announced who is seeking the Scottsville nomination. Further you don’t have to get signitures if you have a party nomination.
There’s no party nomination, but one is free to call oneself whatever one wants — there’s certainly no reason why he couldn’t have run touting his Republican credentials. There’s no party nomination for Board of Supervisors, either, but candidates occasionally choose to describe themselves as Democrats or Republicans, when they feel it suits them. I likewise described Lindsay Dorrier as a Democrat, though his election didn’t involve a party nomination, either.
The difference is that one can run as an R,D, or I as a Supervisor but not as a member of the school board. The article states that King hasn’t decided what to run as so it is resonable to say King is challenging Dorrier but saying a republican is running isn’t.
If he decides to ask for the nomination then you be right.
As for King’s republican cred I don’t know what that would be.
I’m not aware of any restriction preventing any candidate for school board from stating their party affiliation, and I cannot conjure up how such a restriction would even be legal. Given that Denny King has stated on the record that he is a Republican I cannot see why I would presume him to be a liar.
The local parties can play a nominating role for the Board of Supervisors (they do not for School Board). Candidates may also choose to run as independents. Parties can choose a primary or a caucus for their candidates. I have never heard of a primary being held for this office, but others with a longer history on local politics might be able to tell us about one. The caucus window is between May 11th and June 12th. That is when Mr. Dorrier will seek the Democratic nomination. That is where Mr. King could try and get the Democrats to support him. He could also approach the Republicans and ask them to have a nominating caucus or he could run as an independent. The most recent contested nomination I can think of is when David Wyant got the Republican nomination over Linda McRaven for the White Hall Supervisor seat in 2003.
Finally, I’ll shamelessly plug my blog at Charlottesville Tomorrow since we broke the Denny King story. See our Election Watch page for the complete list of candidates in the 2007 City Council and BOS races. Charlottesville Tomorrow will podcast/vodcast all nominating caucuses in the City and County this election cycle.
Brian Wheeler, Charlottesville Tomorrow
I’ve been trying to dredge up out of my memory a single instance of a caucus being held for any BoS seat (with the understanding that uncontested caucuses are irrelevant, so I probably wouldn’t have noticed them), and you’ve just hit on it — Wyant beating McRaven.
Somewhere in my mail app I still have an e-mail from Linda McRaven at the time, in which she totally goes off on me, telling me that because I’m not a member of the press I’m not allowed to write about her candidacy. She also explained that the Daily Progress lied in their coverage of her, so I’m not allowed to write about that, either. Ah, memories.
Given that Denny King has stated on the record that he is a Republican I cannot see why I would presume him to be a liar.
My point is even though the article says King ran as a republican for school board; it is incorrect. He could have run with the backing of the republican but can have no such designation on the ballot.
Just like Brian Wheeler ran for school board with no designation of party but had democratic backing.
I’m not sure that I know how to make myself much clearer. There was nothing and is nothing preventing Denny King or anybody else from running as a Republican, Democrat, communist or space alien. An individual is free to associate themselves with any party that they like while running for any office, regardless of whether there is a formal partisan affiliation listed on the ballot.
Denny King has run for office in the past as a Republican, he continues to identify as a Republican, and he’s given no indication that he might be anything other than a Republican. I really can’t see that there’s any question here.
Another point, Virginia law prohibits the listing of political party affiliation on ballots for local candidates. That is one reason for political parties handing out sample ballots at the polls. The law says party identification only appears on the ballot for federal, statewide and General Assembly candidates. Also, there is a difference between a local party endorsing vs. nominating a candidate. Nominations are a legal path to getting on the ballot. Endorsements can be made of any candidate at any time by a local political party.
Brian Wheeler, Charlottesville Tomorrow
[Note: I was a candidate in 2003 for Albemarle County School Board (and a current candidate for re-election). Political parties are precluded by law from nominating candidates for school board. As noted above, they can however endorse candidates. In 2003 I neither sought nor accepted the endorsement or funding from local political parties or partisan PACs.]
Does anyone know Denny’s perspective on local growth issues?
Even though I generally lean strongly Democrat, I’d definitely be willing to donate to the campaign of anyone who offers a reasonable alternative to Dorrier on the way growth has been managed (or perhaps mismanged…) in Albemarle County.
If that person is a Republican… well, I even can deal with that, just as long as they are qualified to hold the office and provide some kind of real alternative to the status quo.
Mr King is no more going to have a serious run at BoS than he is going to have a serious run at starting a TV station in Charlottesville. Party affiliation is irrelevant.