Democrats have won all of the Charlottesville elections, unsurprisingly. Delegate David Toscano easily defeated independent challenger R.B. Smith, James E. Brown bested independent Paul Best in the sheriff’s race, and Mayor Dave Norris secured reelection while ticket-mate Kristin Szakos joined him in defeating independents Bob Fenwick and Paul Long. Statewide Democrats were pummeled in most of the state (the numbers are still coming in, but “bloodbath” is probably in appropriate word), but there’s no sign of that in Charlottesville, with Sen. Creigh Deeds, Jody Wagner, and Steve Shannon all winning the local vote by a 3:1 margins. If the city is true to form, it’ll have the second-highest performance rate for Democrats, with Petersburg coming out on top.
Sideblog
Police announced this afternoon that their investigation into what was initially believed to be a fatal fire on Rugby Avenue is now a homicide investigation. #
The Virginia Supreme Court has denied George Huguely’s appeal. His second-degree murder conviction will stand, WRIC reports. #
In a carefully worded story, and not citing specific sources, WTVR reports that forensic evidence belonging to Jesse Matthew Jr., the main suspect in the disappearance of Hannah Graham, matches forensic evidence collected during the investigation of Morgan Harrington’s 2009 murder. #
In the wake of Hannah Graham’s disappearance, and the evidence that came from private security footage, city officials are revisiting the question of installing security cameras on the downtown mall. #
Both Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta and former Electoral Board member Stephanie Commander have turned themselves in to the police on
foursix and four felony counts of embezzlement, respectively. #Ten years ago, the National Institutes of Health budget doubled and schools like the University of Virginia built massive new research facilities. A decade later, those buildings remain largely underutilized. NPR visits UVA in this story on the effect of federal binge and spurge spending in the sciences. #
In 2012, Council approved a new student housing complex on West Main—now some council members are questioning whether what they were shown matches what was built. #
The Architectural Review Board has approved a bike-themed mural on West Market, below the McGuffey Art Center, although at least one member expressed concerns that it might look like the bicyclists were riding away from Charlottesville’s downtown. #
City Police Chief Tim Longo is meeting with city leaders to work on protocols regarding the use of military surplus police weapons in Charlottesville. #
A 100-year-old Colonnades resident received military honors for her service in the WWII Women’s Army Corps #
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Funny how the “democrats win” headline gets no response and the “repubs win” gets all kind of crazy posts…
Cville is NOT the heart of the country, just a uber liberal outpost.
UVa was doing a photo shoot on the mall today to get a photo that represented Charlottesville. I suggested a Prius with an Obama bumper sticker that did not know how to merge in traffic was the best option.
Dems win!
A lot of sound and fury- signifying nothing
I thought the “Obama ’08” bumper sticker was the new C-ville city decal, but it turns out they’re put on in the Prius factory. So I was mistaken.
I’ve not heard it yet, but my friend Lydia Wilson submitted an audio documentary to the Charlottesville Podcasting Network produced by a group called “Squid and Beard” which documents the Smith campaign.
Hopefully everyone will clean up their signs trashing the streets in and around cville. Deeds seems to have the most to clean up – wasn’t there talk about fining people who put these on telephone poles and along streets?
If you see any type of yard sale or political sign on public property, telephone poles, traffic sign poles, etc. etc. become an involved citizen and take them down.
Glad I didn’t have any any money on this election. Only one candidate(in races with opposing candidates) that I voted for won-Toscano.
The governor’s race a lot like 1993. A slick,well-organized Republican candidate facing a Democrat who ran a lack luster campaign. In sports lingo, the Republican team showed up “ready to play;the Dems just showed up.
For those not around in 1993, the race was between GOP’s George F. Allen and Dems Mary Sue Terry.
Most disappointed in that Bob Fenwick amd Paul Best lost. What will it take to bring down the inbred,cronyism-dominated machine that is the Charlottesville Democratic Party?
From one who usually votes D in national and statewide races, and for anyone else for city offices.
@Hollwboy, things would change if Council would stop buying votes, which I don’t see anytime in the future.
I wonder about the at-large election system we use in Charlottesville. I think it strongly contributes to the success of the Democratic machine.
@A. Soroka, Apparently it was thought so by the majority of city Democrats themselves back in the early eighties. Locals were successful in getting a referendum on establishing some type of ward system and it passed. The Dems on council, however, declared that they would have another referendum the following year and worked extremely hard to see to it that it failed. And it did.
Can anyone confirm or correct my impression that actually changing the form of City government would require action from Richmond (a change in the City charter)? It’s more of an academic question right now, but I am curious.
We were told that it would take a change to the city’s charter back in the early eighties. Whether this is true or not I have no idea because I didn’t look into it.
We were also told then that it would require federal approval because of a voting rights act.
I seem to recall discussions about how we couldn’t use the elementary school districts as they exist because they don’t conform to provisions of the voting rights act…
@oniss, That was a lie that was circulated by the opponents back then, similar to the ones we’re hearing from the people now at RWSA about water permitting. It is up to an agency in the federal government to determine if the proposed wards would be acceptable and that agency was never submitted any information locally.
I would imagine that a plan that promoted one city-wide councilor (mayor) six wards (arbitrary number) may be considered under a different light than a three at-large and four ward plan, for example. It would also depend upon whether the feds feel that a particular submitted would “dilute” the minority vote.
Again, since no plan was formed for the division into wards, the feds didn’t take notice.
So you’re saying that our school districts actually would pass the voting rights act, or that we haven’t officially raised our hands and asked ‘do they pass’? Because I’m pretty sure that some actually savvy people (as opposed to lying people) said that we’d have to redraw things to meet the requirements of the voting rights act. We mostly vote at schools, don’t we? Because that’s how the lines are drawn. We could draw new lines that have nothing to do with the school districts, but then some number of people would have to change their polling location. You know, to line up with the new lines. Which are going to be…whatever. Nevermind that the lines deciding where our children to to school are economically and racially screwed…excuse me, skewed.