Charlottesville Democrats will be holding their convention on Saturday to choose three nominees for City Council among candidates David Brown, Holly Edwards, Satyendra Huja, Jennifer McKeever, and Linda Seaman, with Mayor Brown seeking reelection. The event will be held at the Charlottesville Performing Arts Center beginning at 1pm, but anybody who wishes to vote must arrive prior to 1pm in order to get signed in.
I live in the county, so what I think doesn’t particularly matter, but my favorite candidates for the two open seats are Holly Edwards and Jennifer McKeever. They’re smart, engaged, and experienced, and are very much their own women. (Holly has the added bonus of being a total badass.) I know and like all of the candidates, and, for the first time in my memory, I can say that I’d be very happy to see any of the candidates serve on Council. Both Linda Seaman and Satyendra Huja have enormously valuable experience and long histories of service to the city, and I quite like them both personally.
Now you’re up — who do you support, and why?
I support Jennifer McKeever, Holly Edwards and David Brown. The short explanation is that I believe that this is the team best suited to protecting the things that we value in this community and taking the many things that we need to improve to the next level. For a longer answer, see here: http://www.cvillenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/kevin-endorsement.pdf
For those who are looking for additional information on which to base your decision on June 2:
1) The democratic party website at http://www.cvilledems.org has links to all candidate websites on the front page
2) The online version of the daily progress has profiles on all the candidates and candidate responses to a number of questions. The website is at http://www.dailyprogress.com Use the “next” button to see news articles spanning the past several weeks
3) The Charlottesville Tomorrow website has podcasts of four of the candidate forums, with audio and video at http://action.cvilletomorrow.org/cvilleaction/elections.html (links are near the end of the page)
4) Youtube has videos of all of the candidates’ announcement speeches. These can be found by going to http://www.youtube.com and search for “charlottesville city council”
I hope to see many of you on Saturday!
Jennifer McKeever is who I would support (‘cept I live in the County). From what I’ve seen, she has approached this race with a great deal of energy and enthusiasm, and she comes from a background that I would like to see on Council.
I like them all, too. I’m curious about why the Democratic party insiders don’t seem to be supporting Mr. Huja, whose long career brought us many of the things we enjoy around town (notably, the downtown mall). I can’t seem to get a straight answer on this, but I wonder if the real answer is that Mr. Huja isn’t a party insider. I guess that’s what appeals to me about his candidacy. With five years of 16% tax increases (vs 5% the five years before that), I think this is the moment to shake things up: Huja, Seaman, and Peter Kleeman (as an independent, in November).
P.S. I like Holly Edwards a lot, but I didn’t hear specifics on some of the big issues–growth, transportation, education–when she spoke to our neighborhood association.
P.P.S. Linda Seaman has served on the School Board. We need more city councilors with SB experience. I wish Jennifer McKeever and Holly Edwards were beginning their political careers with runs for the School Board.
Huja would probably be my 2nd choice, but you really can’t go wrong. This is one of those “best problems to have” moments.
It’s a really tough choice. If it were just the Democrats, I’d go Seaman, Brown, and probably Edwards. Though I still waiver with filling my 3rd spot with McKeever or Huja. They all seem like capable candidates.
It’s Peter Kleeman’s candidacy that has made things even harder. I’ve always liked his comments on any topic he speaks on. So basically, I still haven’t decided.
A candidate cannot both be “green” and for the Meadowcreek Parkway, a project which epitomizes planning (and paying) for endless sprawl.
One cannot be for a world class transit system and this road. The Parkway would waste years of the city’s accumulated transportation funds to subsidize auto-centric growth in the county while turning Charlottesville into a traffic sacrifice zone. Where will these extra cars go when they get to Mac Intire Rd? This money is needed to make Charlottesville a place one can easily get around without a car. How can a councilor be for the economic health of the city while pushing a road which would bypass Charlottesville’s main retail areas on rt.29 in favor of Co. shopping further north?
May one be “for parks” and in favor of paving over our 2 largest?
Please do not claim to be against global warming, war, or childhood asthma while pushing us to burn more oil. I am afraid most of the candidates in this race, while shielding themselves in a haze of eco -friendliness, have been unduly influenced by our local sprawl industry. Jennifer McKeever and Holly Edwards have been compassionate and effective ears, voices and hands for everyday people and are the only true progressives running as Democrats.
Sratton Salids…. Where does this idea that the Parkway will add more traffic to the city? If you ever drive down Rio East during the evening you will notice that after you drive south of the bypass and into downtown the traffic volume drops off substantially. When the Parkway is built I can guarantee you the bulk of the traffic will exit onto 250 east and not go down McIntyre.