2014 May elections

The filing deadline for this May’s local elections was last week. In Hampton Roads, we have elections in Norfolk, Chesapeake, Hampton and Newport News. The elections will be held May 6.

As I compiled the list (below) of the candidates, I was pleased to see that only a few races are uncontested (although there are fewer candidates overall than four years ago). That’s democracy in action, folks: people putting themselves out there to serve their communities. And one of the newcomers happens to be a student of mine. Curtis Bethany III is running for School Board in Newport News. I just love to see young people getting involved in our political process.

Note that Hampton has two special elections, the result of former Mayor Molly Ward having resigned. George Wallace was appointed to replace her and is running to complete the rest of her term. In addition, that opens up his seat.

One other note: this is the last time Norfolk elects its mayor along with the five small wards. This mayoral term is just for two years. The next mayoral election will be in 2016 and will coincide with the election of the two superwards.

But the candidates are just one part of things. Next, we have to do our part. Help them be successful by contributing time and/or money. And, of course, show up to vote on May 6th.

* – incumbent

Norfolk City Council

Mayor	Ward 3	Ward 4	Ward 5
Jane Bethel	William Collins Jr	G W “Billy” Cook Jr	James Driggers
Paul Fraim*	Mamie Johnson	Paul Riddick*	Tommy Smigiel Jr*
Michael Muhammad	Glen Jones Sr
	Rodney Jordan
	Marcus Powell
	Lionell Spruill Jr

	Ward 1	Ward 2
	Andy Protogyrou*	Theresa Whibley*

Chesapeake City Council		Chesapeake School Board
(5 seats available)		(5 seats available)
Brian Collins	Suzy Kelly*	Michael David Brown	Coleen Leary
Lonnie Craig*	Burnie Mansfied Jr	Wilford Clark Jr	Harry Murphy*
Roland Davis Jr	Jason Morris	Christie Craig*	Les Smith Jr
John de Triquet*	Ella Ward*	Kimberly Hobbs	Jouis Tayon Jr
		Brenda Johnson	Michael Woods*

Hampton City Council			Hampton School Board
Mayor (special election)	Council		Hampton Rds Distr, Seat A
Frank Ottofaro Jr	(3 seats available)	Special election	Jennifer Phillips*
George Wallace*	Gaynette “Gay” LaRue	Edwin Boone	Jason Samuels
	Will Moffett*	Linda Curtis*
	James Neider		Hampton Rds Distr, Seat B
	Thomas “Tom” Rokicak		Linwood “Butch” Harper*
	Teresa Schmidt
	Ryan Taylor-Fontes		Chesapeake Distr, Seat A
	Donnie Tuck*		David Dietrich
			Joseph Kilgore*

Newport News City Council
Mayor	South District, Seat B	North District, Seat B	Central District, Seat B
McKinley Price*	Sheryl Abbott	Marcellus Harris III	Herbert Bateman Jr*
	Saundra Cherry	Sharon Scott*
	Cleveland Mabry	Keven Underwood
	Pete Newman
	Teusha Vick

Newport News School Board
At Large	South District	North District	Central District
Curtis Bethany III	Carlton Ashby*	Douglas Brown	Betty Dixon
Gary Hunter		Pricilla Burnett*	T Jeff Stodghill*
Rick Jones Jr.