Author Archive for Waldo Jaquith

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Norris, Taliaferro Win

Published by Waldo Jaquith on May 2, 2006 in Politics. 24 Comments

The results are in: Republican Rob Schilling has been tossed off City Council, while Democrats Dave Norris and Julian Taliaferro have won election. They won decisively in every precinct in the city. There was no major issue in the race, and it came down to a battle of personalities.

On the School Board, Ned Michie, Leah Puryear and Juandigo Wade won in this first-ever School Board election for the city. The School Board race was an awkward one, with few voters seeming to be familiar with the candidates or issues in the race. It may take a few election cycles for us to work the process out.

9pm Update: I’ve got some graphs of the results up on my blog. Schilling didn’t even come vaguely close to winning any precincts. Perhaps this will put an end to talk of a ward system being the key to Republican victories in Council races. I suggest a less-exciting tactic: running better candidates.

Vote Today

Published by Waldo Jaquith on May 2, 2006 in Politics. 14 Comments

Remember, kids—today’s the Charlottesville election. You’ll be voting for three School Board members and two City Council members. The polls are open until 7pm, so get on it.

Progress on Charlottesville Tomorrow

Published by Waldo Jaquith on May 1, 2006 in General News. 1 Comment

In today’s Daily Progress, Jessica Kitchin looks at the impact that the Charlottesville Tomorrow website has had in its seven month existence. There are very few local websites (I could stop this sentence right here) that have any real impact off-line, but Charlottesville Tomorrow has got to be the best at this.

Stones Thrown in Council Race

Published by Waldo Jaquith on April 30, 2006 in Politics. 13 Comments

Things are getting a bit snippy in the Council race, John Yellig writes in today’s Daily Progress. Republican candidate Rob Schilling is upset and on the defensive, accusing Democratic candidates Dave Norris and Julian Taliaferro of attacking him and claiming their campaign mailings and automated phone messages are a violation of campaign finance law, while disagreeing with their portrayal of him as an absentee councilor in their radio ads. (You can hear the ads on Jim Duncan’s blog and make up your own mind.)

The central point of contention is Schilling’s approach to the budget: he’s voted against every annual budget during his term on Council, demanding reduced spending, but never proposed any service cuts. He uses this position to claim credit both for popular services and for lower taxes; he’s trying to have his cake and eat it, too. The Democrats’ assertion that his votes against the budget are votes against funding all city services — schools, public safety, etc. — is no less logical than Schilling’s claim. When a congressman votes against funding the War in Iraq, isn’t he failing to support the troops? So what do we call it when a city councilor votes against funding the police?

Yellig’s got details about the rest of the points of contention in his article. The good news is that there’s only another 48 hours of this to go.

Blog Carnival: Duane Gran Hosts

Published by Waldo Jaquith on April 28, 2006 in Blogs. Closed

With the weekly blog round up gone mobile, Duane Gran hosts this week’s Charlottesville Blog Carnival:

[Jim Duncan] wrote this week about the various policies surrounding connected communities in central Virginia and Trish writes about the propensity of developers to burn organic refuge when clearing space.

In political news, the big fuss around town is the May 2 elections, with voter guides from Charlottesville Tomorrow and The Daily Progress (by way of cvillenews). Additionally, Brian Wheeler’s Charlottesville Tomorrow has a podcast of 4th City Council Candidate Forum. If local politics aren’t your thing, The Hook notes that Cindy Sheehan will be coming to town, but I expect that it won’t please our more conservative bloggers like Whitney Blake, who has been recognized for sowing “chaos, dissent, and apathy.”

Social justice made big news with the Living Wage campaign at UVa, but David Swanson puts it into larger perspective. C’ville News covered the unveiling of the free speech monument while also stimulating a pretty good discussion on the site. Who needs chalk? We have weblogs.

Too much time on your hands? Sean Tubbs would like a volunteer to help with our local podcasting network and Jennifer suspects that The Paramount will need volunteers next year.

Local cartoonist (comic-maker?) Jen Sorensen has taken up the issue of food safety laws in her latest strip.

In school news, School Matters discusses the value of teenagers serving on school boards and Dean Jeannine talks about the implications of a myspace.com account in the admissions process.

Finally, if you enjoyed not paying extra for the bandwidth used in this posting (which is made with 100% recycled zeros and ones) you may wish to follow the advice of Bleeding Edge Tech and try to save the internet.

Next week’s host will be Jim Duncan. Want to host? Contact me.

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