Monthly Archive for May, 2007

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C’ville Mentioned on The Simpsons

The 400th episode of the Simpsons, “You Kent Always Say What You Want,” aired last night, and it contained a mention of Charlottesville. Our cameo is as a faux ice cream flavor. Fred Weaver provides this clip:

Cool!

Kleeman to Seek Independent Council Seat

There’s a new candidate for City Council: Peter Kleeman intends to run for City Council as an independent, Charlottesville Tomorrow reports. Kleeman, a Democrat, unsuccessfully sought the party’s nomination for Council in 2000. He’s a transportation planning consultant, downtown resident, ardent environmentalist and, by way of disclaimer, a good friend. He’s in the process of collecting the required 125 signatures from registered Charlottesville voters, in order to get his name on the ballot. Though many Republicans won’t see this particular independent candidate as providing any real choice come the November elections, the fact is that a) he’s running and they’re not and b) he’s a Democrat, but he’s hardly of Charlottesville Democrats.

The effect that his entry will have on the election, particularly if a credible Republican ends up running, will be mighty interesting to watch.

Brownrigg Announces for School Board

Charlottesville resident Grant Brownrigg has declared his candidacy for the school board, Matt Deegan reports for the Progress. Brownrigg is the creator of the Grantland business comic, has served on the school board’s discipline task force, and has three kids in city schools. He and Alvin Edwards are the two candidates to declare thus far, leaving the board two candidates short of the four required to fill the open seats. The filing deadline is June 12.

Dems Nominate Claytor, Dorrier and Shipp

Albemarle Democrats held their nomination caucus last night, Liesel Nowak reports in the Progress, and nominated Larry Claytor for sheriff, Lindsay Dorrier for reelection to the BoS, and Debbie Shipp for Clerk of Court. Claytor and Dorrier both enjoyed landslide victories among the 400 caucus members. Now the three — and the other uncontested nominees — will go on to attempt to win the general election. This promises to be the most colorful Albemarle election in years, with an impressive and impassioned lineup of candidates and enough of a smattering of independent candidates to make things unpredictable.

Charlottesville Tomorrow provides video and audio highlights from the caucus.

Dems Hold First Council Candidate Forum

The five Democrats vying for the three available seats on City Council held their first forum a couple of nights ago, and Charlottesville Tomorrow provides audio and video from the debates. The format was pretty interesting: speed-dating style small group discussions followed by the usual answering questions from the audience.

Here’s excerpts of the candidates’ comments on the topic of growth in the small group discussions (45 minutes):

And here’s the audio of the panel discussion: (50 minutes):

Three more debates are planned. Here’s hoping that the format and atmosphere of each of these remains as interesting and collegial as this first one — it’s a lot better than the format that’s been used by local Democrats for some years now.

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