Reflections on the 5/2 elections

I’ve been thinking about 5/2 local elections and what the results mean. In Chesapeake, all incumbents on the school board kept their seats. Members of council were not so lucky, however. Three incumbents lost. In Virginia Beach, there will be two new faces on the school board and three on council. In Portsmouth, the school board incumbents were re-elected as were two incumbent council members. Suffolk’s school board saw one incumbent ousted along with two council members. And in Norfolk, all of the council incumbents were re-elected. (Norfolk is the only city in Hampton Roads without an elected school board. The members are appointed by council.)

As I look at these races, one thing that jumps out at me is the number of people running for seats. Chesapeake had 10 candidates for five council seats and 6 candidates for five school board seats. Virginia Beach had 10 candidates for 2 at-large council seats and at least one challenger in 3 of the 4 other council districts. The Beach district had two challengers and only the Bayside district had no challengers. For school board, there were 4 candidates for 2 at-large seats, challengers in Beach and Princess Anne districts, and no challengers in the Bayside and Lynnhaven districts. Portsmouth had 4 candidates for three council seats and 7 candidates for 4 school board seats. Suffolk had four council seats available and three of these were contested races. Two of the four school board seats were contested. In Norfolk, three of the five council seats plus the mayor’s race were contested.

So, in terms of total candidates:

What is up with Virginia Beach and Chesapeake? My take on it is that these two cities are fairly young, having been created in 1963 – just over 40 years ago – primarily from the old Princess Anne and Norfolk counties, respectively. Norfolk became a city in 1845 and Portsmouth in 1858. Suffolk is the region’s newest city, having been incorporated in 1974. Although Suffolk is now experiencing a tremendous influx of new residents due to real estate development, it was Virginia Beach and Chesapeake that became the suburbs of Norfolk (and to a lesser extent, Portsmouth) upon their creation. Virginia Beach and Chesapeake experienced in the 1970s and the 1980s the growth that Suffolk is experiencing now. Norfolk lost a lot its population to the suburbs and even with the new developments, continues to experience a reduction in residents.

Not only did Norfolk and Portsmouth lose residents, newcomers to the area were steered to Virginia Beach and Chesapeake (and now Suffolk) by the realtors . As the result, both Norfolk and Portsmouth were left with their long-time residents – those whose families had lived in the city for generations, also known as the natives – and the poor, who couldn’t afford to get out. And in both cities, the natives control the city.

Newcomers (I’ve heard them called “come-heres” in other localities) often bring different ideas as to how things can be or should be done. Having lived in other places, they are not weighted down by tradition, aka “this is the way it has always been done.” Newcomers don’t really care that your father was Judge Smith (whoever that might be) or that your mother was president of the Junior League. And because they don’t care about these things, they also have no fear – that is, no fear of the repercussions of running for office, because for them, there is none. There are more newcomers in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake than there are natives.

Things are a bit different in Norfolk. A review of the stories in the Pilot leading up to the election reveals that outside of requisite profiles of the races, there were only a couple of stories in which the challengers were mentioned. The result is that the challengers are at a distinct disadvantage, both in terms of exposure and their ability to attract support – financial and voters. In addition, there is this whole fear thing working in Norfolk. People are afraid to even run, afraid that their lives will be ruined, their jobs lost, their businesses trashed. It really isn’t a case of “politics as usual” – it goes far beyond that. One local elected official confided to me after last year’s election that “they set out to destroy you.” Those in power in Norfolk simply want to maintain the status quo and plan far in advance to make sure it stays that way.

Looking at the numbers from the election gives me hope that the citizens of Norfolk are starting to wake up to what’s happening. Yes, the mayor won 77% of the vote, but 23% of the people chose to vote for a guy who spent nothing except gas money on the election. In Ward 5, an unknown who spent less that $1,000 garnered 45% of the vote. I believe this means there is a certain dissatisfaction with council and their complete control over the process. What if candidates other than “Not PaulFraim” or “Not Randy Wright” had run? Would the results have been different?

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Kudos to Virginia Beach councilman Richard Maddox. He lost, but stayed true to the person he is.

Maddox, known for his outspokenness, said his style of leadership came without a lot of “political posturing.”

“I wanted to be the kind of politician that I wanted,” he said. “I ran on a platform that said I was going to be vocal, and I was. And maybe people don’t like that.”

As voters, one of the things we can ask of a politician is to be consistent. The worse thing that can happen to a politician is that they not get re-elected. Maddox may have been out of step with the people in 2006 and they rightfully rejected him. But you have to admire someone who is not willing to change who he is just to get re-elected.