An independent candidate said Monday that she will challenge the recently elected Democratic slate in May's Roanoke City Council election.

Valerie Garner, a neighborhood activist and blogger, said she wants to make this year's race more competitive.

Besides Garner, only one other independent, Bill Lockard, has indicated his intention to run.

On Feb. 9, Democrats picked Anita Price, Court Rosen and incumbent Sherman Lea as the party's nominees for three council seats on the May ballot, as well as Nelson Harris, who is running for re-election as mayor.

The Roanoke City Republican Committee is not fielding any candidates this year.

"There needs to be a choice," said Garner, 61, a former member of the city's Democratic committee. "I'm not running against anyone, I'm just running for an office. There are good Democratic candidates. I don't have anything negative to say about any of the candidates."

Garner is best known around city hall as an advocate for Countryside Golf Course in Northwest Roanoke. She lives next to the golf course and serves as chairwoman of the Countryside Neighborhood Alliance. On her blog, she regularly urges the city not to sell the property to real estate developers.

But her interests range beyond the golf course, she said. If elected, she said she would support Roanoke schools Superintendent Rita Bishop's efforts to open a school for overage middle school students.

"That would be the biggest bang for the buck to increase the graduation rate," she said.

Garner said she also wants to improve recreational opportunities in Northwest Roanoke and to make more data from the city available online.

"I would like to see the northern part of the city in the majority" on the council, she said.

Also Monday, supporters of former Mayor David Bowers held a rally at the Crystal Tower Building downtown to urge him to run against Harris for mayor. Former Councilman Bill White said about 30 people attended and signed petitions to get Bowers on the ballot.

Bowers has maintained a sphinxlike silence about his political intentions this year. He was elected to the city council in 1984 and served 16 years, the last eight as mayor.

In 1998, while still serving as mayor, he lost a congressional race, then lost his mayoral re-election bid two years later. He went on to lose in a Democratic mayoral primary in 2004 and in the 2006 city council election. In December, he lost his attempt to become chairman of the Roanoke City Democratic Committee and has since resigned from the group.

He did not return phone calls Monday.