After the Democratic firehouse primary on August 20, news about former City Council candidate James Halfaday’s alleged untruthful statements began to surface. By then, Halfaday had been a certified candidate for five months.
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James Halfaday is being investigated for alleged election fraud for claiming her was coowner of a local gym. He has not been reachable, and calls to his cell phone revealed the number has been disconnected. |
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Jim Nix, Charlottesville Democratic Party co-chair, doesn’t think Halfaday’s candidacy raises any concerns about the party’s methods for identifying candidates.
The requirements to become a candidate are “rather loose, but that’s by design,” says Nix. “We really want to have an open party.”
Now, Halfaday is being investigated for possible election fraud for claiming on his campaign filings that he was co-owner of Snap Fitness, a gym in the Seminole Square Shopping Center.
(Halfaday appears to have been only a gym member.) The Charlottesville Electoral Board also directed City Registrar Sheri Iachetta to turn over Halfaday’s statement of economic interest, a form that all City Council candidates have to fill out, to the Commonwealth’s Attorney for review.
In light of Halfaday’s alleged fraud, should the candidacy requirements become more strict?
“Nothing is going to change,” said Nix. “We depend on the Registrar to really weed out the troublemakers, and as far as the Registrar is concerned, he was O.K.” Iachetta said her office checks the candidates’ addresses and whether they are registered voters.
“That’s really the only requirement,” she said. “We are not an investigative body, so we take everything at face value, just as when people fill our their voter registration applications. It’s exactly the same thing.”
Halfaday met the requirements: He was a registered voter in Charlottesville at an address located on Sunset Avenue, and a Democrat who “believed in the principles of the Democratic Party.” Nix said candidates also need to meet the state’s statutory requirements by being a qualified voter for the office sought, a resident of the Commonwealth for at least a year before the election, and a resident of the locality where the election will take place.
“If we have somebody come forward and we check their history and there is evidence that they were not Democrats, then we question them more thoroughly,” said Nix. “In his case, there was no record at all, because he never voted.”
Julian Taliaferro, a former vice-mayor who endorsed Halfaday, 32, said he would not be in favor of changing the level of scrutiny.
“I don’t think necessarily because of one incident you should change the whole process” he said. “Things like this are going to happen. I don’t know whether the allegations are true or not, but it just seems like a lot of things have happened.” When asked why he endorsed Halfaday, he said that he “liked some of the things he was saying and I thought he was a young guy, he was really interested in the community,” said Taliaferro.
Ultimately, Nix said the voters make the decision about who moves forward in the political process, which is as it should be.
“In this case, [the voters] were not very impressed by him and had some serious doubts about him, because he only got 234 votes out of 2,600,” said Nix. “It never caused a problem in the past. I don’t see any reasons to change and, in this case, the outcome was appropriate.”
Halfaday, meanwhile, has not been reached since news of his alleged fraud first broke. Calls to his cell phone revealed that the number had been disconnected.