Independent Council candidate Vance High has accused Democratic candidate David Brown of attempted bribery. High says that, in a private phone call between the two, Brown offered High a position on a city environmental committee if High would drop out of the race. (There is a fear among some Democrats that High could have a spoiler effect, drawing votes away from the weaker Democratic candidates.) Brown denies that any such a trade was offered, saying that he simply told High that he would have been good to have on the Streams Committee, and, separately, that if High were to drop out, that would help assure that High’s interests would be represented on Council. High’s response to that? “Hell no.” Elizabeth Nelson has the story in today’s Progress.
Archive for May, 2004
In yesterday’s editorial (”Fresh Voices, Energized City”), the Daily Progress endorsed three candidates for City Council: Kendra Hamilton, Kenneth Jackson, and Ann Reineke. The endorsement of Republicans is noteworthy, because of Democrats’ long dominance of Council. The Progress said of Jackson and Reineke that they are “remarkably well informed, considering they come from the city’s weaker political party.” Putting the best face on Jackson’s three separate attacks on people with knives during his adult life, they asked, rhetorhetorically, “What other candidate has seen the law enforcement system, the court system, the social services system from the perspective of somebody in trouble?” Because WVIR, C-Ville, The Hook, and WINA do not endorse candidates, the Progress’ endorsements tend to carry some weight.
In the past few days, Elizabeth Nelson has completed her series of profiles on City Council candidates. Republican Kenneth Jackson, a part-time cook at the Schnitzelhouse, describes himself as a “home grown tomato,” pointing out that he is the only local running for office. Nelson points out that his “familiarity with the details of…city issues has appeared limited,” though Jackson assures that he will for that through education himself. He promises to, if elected, analyze not just the city budget, but actually review and critique a line-item budget for each city department. Republican Ann Reinicke, a resident of Charlottesville for 18 months, decries what she sees as Council’s insular nature and unwillingness to accept outside opinions. She believes that her community involvement would make her a good addition to Council. Notably, she clarifies in this interview that she believes that creationism has no place in science class, but does not think that schools should be banned from teaching cultural beliefs. (Which they’re not, and there appears to be no threat of.) Finally, Nelson wrote about Democratic incumbent Kevin Lynch, who is finishing up his first four-year term on Council. Lynch, known as a neighborhood activist, says that he is not done with the work that he set out to do on Council, and would like another four years to continue his work on matters pertaining to sustainability and transportation.
Remember, folks: the City Council elections are today. The polls are open from 6am until 7pm. If you don’t know where to vote, look it up on the SBE’s website. WINA will begin live coverage at 7pm, announcing the results as they come in. The hard-core can go to the victory parties — the Democrats’ is at their campaign headquarters (503 E. Main, on the Downtown Mall, under the Water St. parking garage), and the Republicans’ is at Wolfie’s Bar and Grill (nee Boudreau’s), at 1525 Rio Rd.
WINA has launched a new and improved version of their website, and it’s better than ever. Every couple of years, their website is improved a little bit — they’ve gone from a plain-text no-archival system to a database-driven dynamic site with full news archives. The new site shows fewer stories, but provides links to all items, features their community calendar more strongly, and provides space for their internal promotions. In addition, the new layout is considerably more streamlined.
The results are in from the Charlottesville City Council race, and the Democrats have completely dominated the election. David Brown (22.67%), Kendra Hamilton (23.34%), and incumbent Kevin Lynch (21.44%) took the race by a very healthy margin. For the other candidates, there was 10% for Republican Kenneth Jackson, 11.5% for Republican Ann Reineke, and 4.8% for independent Vance High. Write-ins were quite high, presumably consisting primarily people voting for ousted Democrat Meredith Richards, with 5.2% of votes coming in the form of a write-in. Each Democrat received a very similar number of votes in each precinct, with the notable exception of Recreation, where Lynch was 2.5% behind, a district in which a citywide high of 7% of votes were write-ins. 5,339 people voted, resulting in a turnout of 27.8%. The result is that the Democrats have not lost any seats, as many party members feared, and the Republican victory two years ago is starting to look like a fluke. 05/05 Update: Elizabeth Nelson has a story in the Progress summarizing the win.
After nearly three years of searching for a candidate, Charlottesville City Schools have a new superintendent, who is preparing to move to town and start work on July 1st. Dr. Scottie Griffin, currently the superintendent of the New Orleans school system, will be moving from overseeing 20,000 students to just 4,000. She has been given a four-year contract, with a salary of $140,000. Griffin replaces interim superintendent Ron Hutchinson, who was hired for a two year stint after the process to replace outgoing superintendent Bill Symons was bungled. Julie Stavitski has the story in today’s Progress.
Remember the offbeat sculpture that used to stand in Fashion Square Mall — the bronze, life-sized sculpture of the commuting, suit-wearing businessman, traveling via pogo stick? The smile-inducing piece always seemed more suited for the Downtown Mall than the sterile environs of Fashion Square, and when Simon Properties started on the remodeling of the mall a few years ago, they apparently agreed, and got rid of it. Friday afternoon, Bud Hambleton’s “The Commuter” will be unveiled at its new, old home — the Nantucket waterfront, where it stood in front of a gallery in the late 70s. Nantucket’s Inquirer and Mirror has the story.
This is not a duplicate story: yet another television station is slated to open in Charlottesville. Gray Television, who is already planning to launch CBS affiliate WCAV, is now planning to simultaneously launch an ABC affiliate, WVAW, in the same building. Both of these stations will feature their own local broadcasts, although WVAW’s news will “deliver the news, I guess you could say, in a nontraditional way,” according to a representative. Both are scheduled for an August launch. Note that both of these are in addition to Channel 9, which is shooting to launch in late November, having been pushed back from their previous date of September. Elizabeth Nelson has the story in today’s Progress.
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