Friday, February 05, 2010
3 council hopefuls pool resources
Three Democrats vying for city council seats are using a joint phone bank to reach out to voters.
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From The Roanoke Times
Fractures and alliances have emerged among the four Democrats running for three party nominations to run for Roanoke City Council.
Bill Bestpitch, Ray Ferris and incumbent David Trinkle are sharing staff members to call voters and encourage them to cast their ballots for the three.
The fourth candidate, Valerie Garner, says she's now on the outside and working on her own.
When asked why they left Garner out, all three responded the same way: Garner was encouraging voters to "single-shot" her -- that is, vote just for her and no other candidate in the March 2 primary.
"Personally and philosophically, I have problems telling citizens to use only one of your three votes," Trinkle said. "That kind of changed the dynamic for me a little bit."
Garner denied that she's pursued the single-shot strategy, though one of her supporters, community activist Jeff Artis, wrote about it on his blog last month. A message encouraging voters to "vote one for Valerie Garner" in both the primary and general elections still acts as a header for his blog.
Garner said she has no control over what Artis writes. She believes Bestpitch, Ferris and Trinkle had already planned to work together.
"I think they're just using this as an excuse," Garner said.
"Whatever they want to do is up to them. All's fair in politics, I guess."
Garner said she found out about the coalition phone-banking after her treasurer received one of the calls. Garner responded by sending an e-mail to her supporters, saying she was "disappointed" in Trinkle and requesting that they vote for only her on March 2.
On Thursday, Garner wavered, saying at one point that she intended to push the single-shot strategy to fight back, then a little later saying that she wouldn't encourage voters to vote for only her.
Bestpitch, Ferris and Trinkle said they're not running as a formal ticket, but have agreed only to "share resources" for phone-banking.
All three said that they have been willing to work with Garner, but that she seems unwilling to do the same.
"She's not going to reach out to anybody else," Bestpitch said. "Being an effective member of city council is about working together. You can't do a thing without three other votes."
Ferris said he didn't buy her argument that the single-shot push came exclusively from Artis.
"It comes from the top," Ferris said. "As far as I'm concerned, she's not doing anything to stop it."
Garner said that she has called Artis but that he hasn't responded. She said he speaks his mind, no matter what others think.
Artis could not be reached for comment, but in a post on Jan. 8 he explained his rationale for the single-shot endorsement: "Casting one vote is essentially the same as casting three votes for the candidate of your choice. It's all in the math. The fewer votes you cast in these elections, the more powerful your vote becomes."
The four Democrats are the only council candidates who have formally registered at this point. Anthony Walker plans to run as a Republican, and Robert Craig will run either as a Republican or an independent.
The general election is May 4.
