An email with the subject “Please Join Randy Wright and Barclay Winn at Cagney’s this Saturday” was forwarded to me Wednesday. Here’s the content (click to enlarge):
Would somebody please explain to me why Councilman Barclay Winn has teamed up with the former council member and not the current council member for a breakfast? There was an election on May 4 and Tommy Smigiel won.
Frankly, I think it is disrespectful of Winn to hold an event in Ward 5 and not have Ward 5 Councilman Smigiel as a part of it. And it’s downright rude to be hosting it with the former representative, who’s name, incidentally, is listed first on both the invitation and in the subject of the email.
Way to work with your fellow council member, there, Mr. Winn.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
It’s within Councilman Winn’s right to freedom of association to hold an event with whoever he wants. Obviously there will be political fallout from this one. However, you don’t think Barclay hasn’t already calculated that?
This is a Randy Wright event for Randy Wright people, who still make up a significant part of Winn’s base. It doesn’t seem all that out of line, especially when you remember that Winn is the only Republican on the council.
Randy does need to be careful here. He doesn’t want to start looking like Virgil Goode, who went around the 5th CD for a few months after Tom Perriello’s election pretending he was still the congressman.
It probably wouldn’t hurt Tommy to show up and see if he gets recognized. That would put both Wright and Winn on the spot.
It is astonishing that Barclay Winn would take such a divisive step as holding a public meeting with a defeated, discredited former council member. It speaks about character–putting self before civic responsibility. We see signs of this attitude every day in Norfolk’s elected officials–they are not doing the job of basic oversight that they were elected to do. Instead, they are engaging in petty, ward politics that ruined cities of the North in the last century. The malfeasance that’s been revealed–through the diligence of The Virginian-Pilot–has not been effectively and consistently punished: to wit, one top tax collector not keeping generally accepted records and another not being responsive to the needs of the people. This situation will not change until new leaders are elected–with fresh energy and no old allegiances to preserve. Wouldn’t it be great if the city were governed with the consent of the governed, rather than the control of old guard downtown?
Where has a sense of fairplay and the “do unto others” concept gone, Councilman Winn?
Wow….delusional, party of one????
Hi FORMER Councilman Wright- meet reality. YOU LOST and you ARE irrelevant.
Please crawl back to making shady real estate deals and ignoring Ward 5 so Norfolk can get some REAL representation.
Oh, wait? You NEEDED your office so you could MAKE those deals..that’s right?
Can someone kindly stick a fork in this loser? He’s done.
“This is a Randy Wright event for Randy Wright people, who still make up a significant part of Winn’s base.”
Huh. That’s kind of funny, especially considering how Randy Wright’s people didn’t make up a significant enough portion of Randy Wright’s base to allow him to win reelection.
Also, I wasn’t aware that people who live outside of your ward can still somehow be part of your electoral base in Norfolk, but I guess you learn something new everyday.
Barclay Winn’s Superward 6 includes all of Ward 5. Any of Wright’s former constituents is one of Winn’s as well.
Ah, gotcha.
Has anyone told Mr. Barclay Winn that Randy Wright is no longer a council member? Mr Barclay Winn should be supporting his newly elected fellow councilman, Tommy Smigiel, the current elected leader in his super ward. In my opinion this is unprofessional and disrespectful behavior.
I find it very very disturbing that Mr. Smigiel was excluded from this meeting.