Monthly Archive for May, 2007

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Albemarle Democratic Nomination on Monday

Published by Waldo Jaquith on May 11, 2007 in Politics. 9 Comments

There are three contested nominations in Albemarle County, all among Democrats, and all will be settled at the Monday evening nomination convention. The Albemarle County Democratic Party will hold the event at 6pm at the Albemarle County Office Building. Attendees will be selecting between Janet Ferrance and Debbie Shipp for Clerk of Circuit Court, and Larry Claytor and Roger Craig for Sheriff. Those living in the southern end of the county will be voting on whether incumbent Lindsay Dorrier or challenger Kevin Fletcher should be the party’s nominee. The winners of those contests will go on to face independent and Republican opposition in the general election come November.

Registration starts at 6pm, and the doors close at 7pm, so make sure you get there early enough to get signed in so that you’ll be credentialed to vote. If you get there late then you can only watch.

Few people have the faintest idea of how to pick somebody for clerk, though I get the sense folks are starting to make up their minds in the sheriff’s race. I’ll be spending the entire week at the beach, so I won’t be able to cast a vote, but if I were, I know I’d be voting for Larry Claytor. His campaign has been enormously impressive, he’s a great guy, and, having talked with him just a couple of times, I don’t doubt this Jim Webb Democrat will run a very vigorous campaign come fall. (Disclaimer: I’ve received $30 in advertising revenue from his campaign to run a pair of ads on cvillenews.com.) On the topic of clerk, though, I must admit that I’m clueless.

Make your pitch: Who should people vote for?

Sean McCord Considering School Board Run

Published by Waldo Jaquith on May 11, 2007 in Blogs, Education and Politics. 3 Comments

Normally it wouldn’t be news that somebody is thinking about running for the Charlottesville school board, but it’s not every day that a) Sean McCord runs or b) that somebody blogs about the decision process. Sean is a well-known local blogger, regular cvillenewser, head of the Local Support Partner Program at UVa, and has three kids in city schools. By way of introduction, the Johnson Village Democrat opens his blog with this post:

I am considering running for the Charlottesville School Board. What seemed a simple idea when it was first presented to me has become unexpectedly complicated. I have decided to document the process here. In this space, I will gather the information that one needs to run. If I run, I will write about my experience. If I win, I will maintain this blog as a School Board member. If I do not win, I will offer this blog site to a sitting member or members of the Board. Above all, I intend to conduct all of this business in an open and honest manner, and I expect all of you to call me to task if I stray from the pledge.

Sean is like City Councilor Dave Norris in that what would make him such a great candidate are precisely the qualities that he possesses that would make any reasonable person assume that he’d never run for an office. Whether or not he runs, though, I’ll enjoy following his decision process on his blog.

We’re #17! We’re #17!

Published by Waldo Jaquith on May 8, 2007 in General News. 95 Comments

Good news: The latest edition of Frommer’s “Cities: Ranked and Rated” has Charlottesville ranked as their #17 city, Brian McNeill wrote in yesterday’s Progress, down from its #1 ranking in the first edition of the book. The top ranking, bestowed three years ago, brought a great deal of attention to Charlottesville, particularly in the form of people moving here because they heard it was a good place to live. Hence, the price of housing went way up (hey, it’s a bargain if you’re from Jersey) which, ironically, is precisely why we’ve dropped to #17. As Mayor David Brown points out, “a little breather would be a good thing.”

But, if anybody from outside C’ville asks why we dropped in the rankings, tell them it’s because of our failing schools, legions of homeless, out-of-control STD rates and, of course, that serial murderer who’s still on the loose.

Loach Running for Supervisor

Published by Waldo Jaquith on May 7, 2007 in Politics. 13 Comments

Things just got interesting in the Albemarle BoS race in the White Hall District: Crozet’s Tom Loach is running. Already Democrat Ann Mallek of Earlysville is challenging incumbent Republican David Wyant. The volunteer firefighter and UVa employee is campaigning against development, as would be expected from an ASAP board member. He’ll presumably be running as an independent.

Not Enough School Board Candidates

Published by Waldo Jaquith on May 7, 2007 in Education and Politics. 9 Comments

Only one candidate has declared for the Charlottesville school board election, Alyson Smith reports for NBC-29, leaving three seats without a candidate. Three of the incumbents have bowed out rather than run for their first election. Last year was the first school board election, and we had six candidate for three seats. It’s not clear whether disinterest this time around is a problem of it seeming so far off from November that would-be candidates aren’t even thinking about it, or if there just aren’t people willing to go through the rigors of an election for something as minor as school board.

The filing deadline is June 12. If there aren’t enough candidates, the seats will be filled by judicial appointment pending a special election to fill them properly.

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