Get out the vote
The big news in the 2017 primary was record turnout for a non-presidential primary. Democrats were particularly energized, significantly topping their last gubernatorial primary in 2009. While not as many Republicans showed up, the GOP’s turnout topped 2009 as well.
Governor primary turnout
Democrats:
2017: 542,812 voters
2009: 319,168 voters
- Up 70%
Republicans:
2017: 366,100 voters
2005: 175,170 voters
- Up 108%
City Council primary turnout
2017: 8,522 voters
2015: 3,251 voters
- Up 162%
City Council race: the numbers
Amy Laufer
$19,620 in donations
6,253 votes
46% of vote
Heather Hill
$18,055 in donations
4,597 votes
34% of vote
Bob Fenwick
$3,439 in donations
2,722 votes
20% of vote
Commonwealth’s attorney race: the numbers
Joe Platania
$18,566 in donations
4,900 votes
62% of vote
Jeff Fogel
$6,335 in donations
2,976 votes
38% of vote
Tragic ending to an already sad story
Otto Warmbier, the UVA student detained and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in North Korea for allegedly stealing a political banner, died June 19 in a Cincinnati hospital—nearly a week after he was medically evacuated from the Asian country in a coma, which officials said he had been in for more than a year.
“North Korea is among the most heinous actors on the global stage. The case of Mr. Warmbier reminds us of the barbarism of the North Korean regime.”—U.S. Representative Tom Garrett
Another UVA rape allegation
The grandson of former Republican Virginia governor John Dalton, former UVA student Dalton Baril, 20, of Richmond, was charged with rape and forcible sodomy for a February 1 incident with another student that left her bruised and bloody, according to the Washington Post. Dalton turned himself in to the magistrate’s office June 14. He was released on $10,000 bond and will appear again in August.
Taxing decisions
The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance last week to require short-term rental owners to pay the same lodging taxes as hotels and other homestays. The ordinance also requires owners, such as Airbnb hosts, to get a business license if they make more than $5,000 per year off their rental.
Former cop indicted
Christopher Seymore was an officer with the Charlottesville Police Department when he allegedly forced a local woman—and witness to a crime—to perform oral sex on him twice. A grand jury indicted him June 19 on two counts of sodomy. His trial is scheduled for December 7.
Legal Aid appeals DMV suit
Despite being rebuffed twice by a federal district judge, Legal Aid Justice Center is appealing the decision that the DMV is not a proper defendant in Stinnie v. Holcomb, arguing that it unlawfully suspends licenses of the indigent for failure to pay court costs with no consideration of their ability to do so.
In memory
WillowTree Apps, Inc. announced June 15 a $10,000 scholarship in honor of beloved former employee Whitney French, who was killed by her husband in a February murder-suicide. Applications for the scholarship, which aims to support women in the field of digital user experience and design, are due by December 9.
Trix are for kids
Whites-rights provocateur Jason Kessler and three others proclaimed, “I’m a proud western chauvinist,” and then were beaten in an alley until they could name five cereals in a Proud Boys video posted over the weekend. The “cereal beat-in” is the second initiation step to joining the Proud Boys, a masculinist fraternity for grown men that’s a self-proclaimed “alt-light” org. Matching polo shirts, a tattoo, abstention from masturbation and beating up an antifa are the next steps in joining the group, according to Southern Poverty Law Center.
Members were on the Downtown Mall June 17, and were refused service in several restaurants, including Violet Crown Cinema and Cinema Taco. In retaliation, Cinema Taco was hit with a barrage of one-star reviews on Yelp.
Unlike previous Kessler gatherings on the mall when Showing Up for Racial Justice members shouted at him, there was no chanting, but individuals on the mall did confront the group, and at one point, when they left, people applauded, according to WINA’s Dori Zook.