Partisan politics at the local level?

One of the reasons cited by Norfolk’s council members for not moving elections to November is that they fear the introduction of party politics. One only needs to look at what’s going on in Chesapeake to suspect that party politics is already in local elections.

Or is it?

I tend to stay out of the shenanigans of other cities’ councils. Hey, just watching Norfolk’s is a full-time job 😉 But when I look at the controversy in Chesapeake, it doesn’t appear to be party politics at play here. In fact, the story I linked above doesn’t live it up to the headline. It barely discusses the party issue at all, despite Jim’s take on it. Instead, it focuses on what has been a tradition in Chesapeake – and in Norfolk, too: that the vice mayor is the opposite race of the mayor. (Of course, in Norfolk, that means that the vice mayor is black, because we’ve not had a black mayor.)

Party politics seems to only come into this story as an excuse: the five white members of council are Republicans while the four black members are Democrats , including Ella Ward, chair of the Chesapeake Democratic Committee. Of course, the party affiliation thing is self-identification, because they were not elected as Rs or Ds. That information does not appear on the ballot. Voters who participate in the party probably know which party the candidates belong to but I’d venture to say that the general public has no idea. (For my Norfolk readers, here’s a quick test: name how many Republicans and how many Democrats are on the current 8-member council. Answer in the comments.)

What I see in Chesapeake is newly elected mayor Alan Krasnoff trying to see just how much muscle he has. And in doing so, he’s discarding a tradition in Chesapeake that has existed since 1972 (with the exception of two years). Of course, it’s not unexpected. Remember what the Virginian Pilot said in its endorsement of his opponent for mayor:

He has been on the short end of many recent votes, and that could affect his ability to build a consensus.

Throwing out a 36-year tradition probably doesn’t do much for building consensus, either. And it’s not as if he is changing the tradition in order to chose a more qualified person. I understand that Krasnoff’s choice, John de Triquet, has missed at least a third of all council meetings in the last year, more than any other member. How does this guy rate being Vice Mayor if he doesn’t show up?

Calling it partisan politics is, at least from this outsiders’ view, a smokescreen.