After last night’s caucus in Lane Auditorium, part-time UVA pharmacist Madison Cummings has won the Democratic nomination to run for the Board of Supervisors from the Samuel Miller district, defeating Lucia Phinney.
For the last 15 years, the seat has been occupied by Sally Thomas who decided not to seek re-election.
“We’ve been colleagues and friends since her write-in campaign,” Cummings says. Upon her initial victory as an independent, Thomas appointed Cummings to the county school board in 1994 where he served until 2001.
“I think she’s done a yeoman’s work on the board,” Cummings says of his precursor.
During her tenure, Thomas became known for her opposition to growth in the county, a stance that earned her the ire of developers.
Cummings characterizes her position as that of an advocate for reasonable growth (“trying to keep growth in the urban ring, and maintain the beauty of what I really consider the English countryside out in the county”), and says that he will concentrate on continuing her legacy.
“My greatest motivation is to keep maintaining what she has achieved,” he says, “and also to make it better.” If the North Garden resident wins the November election versus independent candidate John Lowry, the almost 66-year-old says he will likely serve only one term.