Sunday, November 08, 2009
Making sense of local elections
Christian Trejbal
Recent columns
- Christiansburg's search for sidewalks
- Local lawmakers have plenty of ideas
- Pining for the pools in Christiansburg
- Don't believe the First & Main rumors
From the RoundTable blog
For the New River Valley, last week's election had two interesting and important outcomes that had nothing to do with the commonwealth's regrettable slide toward theocracy under the statewide GOP ticket.
In Christiansburg, voters resoundingly chose to move town council elections from May to November. Ninety percent voted for the change.
They rebuked a council that too often appears indifferent to citizens. Indeed, council's refusal to discuss changing the election date sparked a citizen-driven petition process that put the question on the ballot.
Its passage means more people will vote in the next council election. Support from politically active civic groups no longer will be enough to carry entrenched incumbents to victory. They will need to appeal to the broader electorate to win.
Based on those incumbents' current records, that appeal could fall flat. Incumbents have a couple of years to prove they learned something Tuesday. If they continue with business as usual, fresh candidates will have a good chance to unseat them.
They only need to look north to see what can happen in a November election. Blacksburg held its first November council election last week, and the ballot was crowded with 10 candidates.
Many people -- and candidates -- framed the debate there around development.
Four smart-growth candidates aligned more or less with Blacksburg United for Responsible Growth. They said they would welcome commercial development but with careful oversight from town hall and full consideration of all impacts. Incumbent Susan Anderson, Cecile Newcomb, John Bush and Bryce Carter loosely fell within that camp.
On the other side, a quartet of candidates gained prominence with support and financing from the development community. They included Frank Lau, Tom Rogers, Greg Fansler and Krisha Chachra.
In the middle were Michael Sutphin and Paul Lancaster.
Voters split. Anderson, Newcomb and Bush won from the BURG side; Chachra won from the developer side.
Even with a 3-to-1 split for the smart-growth people, voters provided no mandate. Rogers, Fansler and Sutphin were not far behind.
A little geographic variety emerged in the results, but not much. Only the two student-heavy precincts broke from broader trends by supporting Carter, who is a Virginia Tech undergraduate.
Money probably played some part, but we will not know precisely what until final campaign finance reports are filed next month. Obscenely large signs, strange fliers and television ads have appeared in previous elections.
What the results really revealed was a whiff of good ol' boys. Actually, good ol' girls -- three of the winners were women, and the council for the first time will have a female majority as a result.
Voters chose the people they know, the ones who have been around town for a long time.
Newcomb and Chachra were born and raised in Blacksburg. Bush and Anderson have lived there for decades and raised their children there. Over the years, they have developed local connections that paid dividends on Election Day.
They grew up with many of Blacksburg's voters. They went to school together and later sent their kids to school together. They coached those kids in athletics. They attended the same parties. And they have run into each other more times than they can remember at the grocery store.
That sort of familiarity makes casting a vote easy, comfortable. It is as good as most reasons to vote for someone.
The winners were not the only candidates with deep local roots, of course. Rogers has worked with the town rescue squad for 25 years. He finished fifth.
Paul Lancaster was the exception. He has been around town for a long time, but concerns about his health tempered support.
The remaining candidates have lived in Blacksburg for 10 years or less. Maybe if Sutphin, Carter and Fansler stick around long enough, they too will find electoral victory.
Sutphin, especially, appears to be on that path. He is a Virginia Tech graduate, has a good job and appears committed to his new home town.
The new council would do well to appoint him to the planning commission or some other town committee where he can continue learning about local government and building relationships. He is too promising a leader to let slip away after one loss.
