Tag: Sena Magill

Categories
News

‘Progressive energy:’ Hudson, Payne wins signal generational shift

Millennials Sally Hudson and Michael Payne were the big winners in the June 11 primary. photos Amy and Jackson Smith, Eze Amos

In the end, the 57th District race pitting a millennial and a baby boomer for the open House of Delegates seat wasn’t even close. Thirty-year-old Sally Hudson crushed two-term City Councilor Kathy Galvin with 66 percent of the vote in the June 11 primary.

The same dynamic played out in the Democratic primary for City Council, where there are three open seats. Michael Payne, 26, led the pack of five candidates. In November, he’ll supplant outgoing councilor Wes Bellamy, 28 when elected, for the title of youngest person to sit on council.

“I think it’s a big turning point for our small community,” says former councilor Dede Smith, who is a Hudson and Payne supporter. “We’re coming into a new era with our leadership.”

For former mayor Dave Norris, Hudson’s margin of victory “indicates local voters are ready for a new direction.”

Hudson says, “It was striking we won every precinct in the district.” She’s unopposed in the November general election, and she says she’ll spend time helping other Dems get elected because “the Republicans in Richmond are so unsupportive of what we want to get done.” The GOP holds the House by a slim, two-seat majority.

In the City Council race, many had predicted well-known lawyer and top fundraiser Lloyd Snook, 66, would bring in the most votes. He came in second behind Payne.

“The order surprised me,” says Smith. And Sena Magill’s taking third place was also a surprise for Smith. “I thought Brian Pinkston was emerging.”

Former city councilor Bob Fenwick, 73, trailed in last place.

“I think it’s a generational shift,” says Smith. “Being a candidate in the fairly recent past, most voters were baby boomers or older. It was shocking. I think we’re beginning to see a wake up to this maturing [millennial] generation that voting matters.”

For Payne, co-founder of Indivisible Charlottesville, leading the pack is a sign “the community wants to see bold, progressive change on affordable housing, racial equity, and climate change.”

“One of the qualities Michael and I share is a sense of the fierce urgency of now,” says Hudson.

Primary winners Payne, Snook, and Magill will face independents Bellamy Brown and Paul Long on the November 5 ballot, and while the odds are in their favor in Dem-heavy Charlottesville, in 2017 Mayor Nikuyah Walker became the first independent to get on council since 1948.

Statewide, UVA Center for Politics’ Kyle Kondik saw “some progressive energy,” but that didn’t always prevail, notably in the 35th District race in which incumbent Senate Minority Leader Dick Saslaw eked by his challenger.

“If Democrats win the House and Senate, it will be the most liberal state government in Virginia ever,” says Kondik. Hudson, he says, is to the left of outgoing House Minority Leader David Toscano. If Dems take the General Assembly and get a chance to govern, he says that could result in policy change—the same message Hudson was hammering.

The other trend in local Democratic primary races is that women prevailed. Chief Deputy Chan Bryant defeated RMC regional director Patrick Estes with 63 percent of the vote to secure the party’s nomination for Albemarle sheriff. She’ll face independent Ronnie Roberts, Lousia police chief, in November.

And in the Rivanna District, Bea LaPisto Kirtley edged out Jerrod Smith with 54 percent of the vote. She does not have a challenger for the Albemarle Board of Supervisors in the general election in November.

The other General Assembly primary that includes part of Albemarle is the 17th District, where former Charlottesville School Board member Amy Laufer’s 79 percent of the vote obliterated Ben Hixon. Laufer will face incumbent state Senator Bryce Reeve, who easily fended off challenger Rich Breeden with 82 percent of the vote in that district’s Republican primary.

Correction June 17: Jerrod Smith was misidentified in the original story.

 

Categories
Opinion

The virtues of incivility: Looking closer at the City Council candidates

Despite the refrain from all quarters that the defining issue of this year’s City Council election is housing, this election is a referendum on the status quo.

In what feels like hundreds of candidate forums, the five candidates in the Democratic primary for City Council have spent more energy agreeing with one another than setting themselves apart from the field. Their answers to many of the questions posed to them by community groups and neighborhood associations have started to blend together, a nearly indistinguishable blur of progressive generalizations.

All five candidates agree that we have a housing problem. They’ve all voiced support for funding local schools and closing the achievement gap. They all agree that the Lee and Jackson statues are lightning rods for hate that don’t belong in downtown Charlottesville. They all agree that improvements should be made to public transit, even down to the details of establishing a regional transit authority, making stops more frequent and regular, and erecting more bus shelters. They’re all committed to the noble, if nebulous, idea of equity.

In our small blue city, the Democratic primary is the de facto election. There are no Republican candidates. As a state with open primaries, that means our Democratic candidates can coyly court Republican voters. So it’s worth examining the candidates’ messages more closely.

Lloyd Snook is running on a platform of a return to civility. Snook says he decided to run because of the “chaos and disorder” of City Council and what he sees as “decisions not being made intelligently.” He later clarified that he was not referring solely to “what goes on on Monday nights” at City Council meetings, but when asked at a Belmont-Carlton Neighborhood Association-hosted forum, he was unwilling to articulate specifically what sort of bureaucratic and departmental reforms he envisions pursuing to “get the government to work right again.”

There is a general belief, particularly among people who do not attend them, that City Council meetings are chaotic. While there have been several meetings I would certainly characterize that way, those have been traumatic exceptions.

Outside of the meetings in the immediate wake of a terrorist attack that killed a member of our community, the only time in the past two years that a recess has been called because business could not be conducted was due to armed members of a neo-Confederate group threatening other members of the audience. The idea that City Council cannot conduct its business because of ongoing disorder is a myth that could easily be put to bed by regularly attending what are, in fact, very mundane meetings.

This myth persists because it feels true. It has a kernel of truth, and believing it facilitates the larger narrative that we need to return to how things were before, before people who traditionally did not engage with politics started showing up, before advocating for racial and economic justice became mainstream talking points, before anyone started talking about making the wealthiest among us pay their fair share to make this city livable for all its residents.

Shrouding regressive politics in the language of order and gentility is not new. And in an off-year primary for a local election, much of the electorate is not engaged enough to listen beyond what feels true. It’s easy to say, as every candidate has said throughout this campaign season, that you support finding solutions for our affordable housing crisis. But listen carefully to the solutions on offer.

Sena Magill has campaigned on reforming the regulations on and incentivizing construction of accessory dwelling units. Michael Payne is pushing for fully funding resident-led public housing redevelopment and investing in new affordable units. Bob Fenwick has focused on what he views as the misuse of special use permits, and Brian Pinkston has committed to few specifics.

Snook, while in favor of making it easier to add accessory apartments, also said, “We don’t have room for 4,000 new units in Charlottesville.” Despite being corrected during that April 30 forum by Payne, who clarified that the housing study indicates a need for 4,000 “interventions,” rather than newly constructed units (a fundamental difference), he repeated the claim at a May 13 forum, stating “We’re not going to build our way out of this problem.”

Snook’s plan for affordable housing is regional, which is another statement that, on its surface, sounds reasonable enough. What he’s shared of that plan is the belief that affordable housing should be built on less valuable land, land in the county. His commitment to better regional transit, then, seems to be for the primary purpose of busing people his housing plan would displace into the county back to the city for their low-wage jobs.

At a May 24 student-led climate strike, Payne had this message for the youth organizers: “There will be people who push back, people who tell you you don’t know how politics really works, that you’re being uncivil. I’m telling you, don’t listen to them!”

We are a small city facing big problems. General platitudes that amount to ‘Make Charlottesville Great Again’ won’t solve our housing crisis or mitigate the coming climate disaster. It’s time to face the reality that Charlottesville hasn’t been great for many of its residents throughout its history and move forward, however uncomfortable that might be.

Conger is co-chair of the Charlottesville chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, which voted May 13 to endorse Michael Payne for City Council.

Categories
News

Local races: Your primary guide

Primary day is June 11, and there’s more on the ballot than the 57th District race between Kathy Galvin and Sally Hudson.  If you live in the city, the three people who win the Democratic nomination will likely be the ones to fill the three empty seats on City Council in November because of the city’s overwhelming Dem majority—although Nikuyah Walker upended that tradition with a win as an independent in 2017.

Albemarle has two Dems facing off in the Rio District, where Norman Dill did not want a second term on the Board of Supervisors, as well as in the sheriff’s race. And there’s a lot going on in the 17th Senate District, most of which is in Spotsylvania with a sliver of eastern Albemarle. Two Dems are looking to challenge incumbent state Senator Bryce Reeves, as is a member of his own party.

City Council

Sena Magill

Age: 46

Hometown: Charlottesville

Education: Tandem; PVCC;
then UVA, B.A. in psychology

Day job: Mom and owner of Hatpindolly Vintage; previously at PACEM and Region Ten

Political experience: Volunteer for Leslie Cockburn; member Charlottesville Democratic
Party Committee of 100;
current Carver precinct co-chair

Biggest issue: Climate change and affordable housing. We
have a lot of work to do to reduce our carbon footprint.
We have to work on our public transit, city walk- and bikeability, density, and the efficiency of units, tying affordable housing and climate change together.

Special power: Problem solving, empathy, and understanding. And I can make a beautiful and tasty cake.

Lloyd Snook

Age: 66

Hometown: Born in Cranford, New Jersey. I moved here when I was 8.

Education: Venable; Walker; Lane High School; Stanford University, A.B. in economics; University of Michigan Law School, J.D.

Day job: Attorney, Snook
& Haughey, P.C.

Political experience: Chair of the Charlottesville Democratic Party, 2001-2004; on the
State Central Committee and the 5th District Democratic Committee, 2005-2013

Biggest issue: Getting city government working effectively again so that we can begin to address substantive issues like affordable housing.

Special power: Speed reading, and I stay up later at night than most normal people.

 

Michael Payne

Age: 26

Hometown: Charlottesville

Education: Hollymead and Baker Butler; Albemarle High School; William & Mary, B.A.
in government

Day job: Affordable housing advocate

Political experience: Common Good fellow; Tom Perriello’s 2010 congressional campaign; researcher, Tim Kaine’s 2012 Senate campaign; co-founded Indivisible Charlottesville; volunteer for multiple House
of Delegates campaigns in 2017; organizer with the Charlottesville Low-Income Housing Coalition

Biggest issue: Creating truly affordable housing, and preventing Charlottesville from becoming a small-town version of San Francisco.

Special power: Bringing people together through community organizing.

 

Bob Fenwick       

Age: 73

Hometown: St. Louis, Missouri

Education: Georgetown University, B.S. in physics

Day job: Small business owner, general construction contractor

Political experience: One term on City Council 2013-2017; numerous city and community environmental, historical, planning, and budget committees

Biggest issue: Addressing the need for City Council to set representative, common-sense city policies that have achievable goals for all citizens.

Special power: Photographic memory…except for names.

       

 

Brian Pinkston

Age: 47

Hometown: Albany, Georgia

Education: Georgia Tech, B.S. in mechanical engineering; UVA, Ph.D. in philosophy

Day job: Project manager, facilities management, UVA

Political experience: Region Ten board member; active with Charlottesville Democratic Party; volunteered on Kellen Squire’s campaign in the 58th

Biggest focus: To build strong personal relationships among council members so that it can function well.

Special power: I guess this is a power I want to have? To be able to see in the dark.

Albemarle

Albemarle County

Board of Supervisors: Rivanna District

Bea LaPisto Kirtley

Age: 69

Hometown: Keswick

Education: B.A. in American studies; M.S. in school management and administration

Day job: Retired and a volunteer for local nonprofits—Piedmont CASA, Hospice of the Piedmont, and 100+ Women Who Care

Political experience: Mayor, council member, and planning commissioner in Bradbury, California; board of directors, South Coast Air Quality Management District; Metropolitan Transit Authority; California Contract Cities Association; San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments

Biggest issues: Transportation, education, affordable housing, and climate resilience.

Special power: Energy and focus.

 

Jerrod Smith

Age: 29

Hometown: Barboursville

Education: Albemarle High School; Bucknell University; UVA Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, MPA

Day job: Grants analyst, PRA Health Sciences

Political experience: Rivanna District Democratic co-chair; member of the Places 29 North Community Advisory Committee

Biggest issue: Those that stem from income inequality throughout the region.

Special power: Facilitating collaboration.

 

Sheriff

Chan Bryant

Age: 49

Hometown: Charlottesville, member of the Scottsville community for the past 11 years

Education: Piedmont Virginia Community College, associate’s in police science; James Madison University, bachelor’s in business administration

Day job: Chief deputy for the Albemarle County Sheriff’s Office for the last four years

Political experience: None, but after knocking on hundreds of doors this spring, I’m learning a lot about it.

Biggest issue: Manpower shortage. We will be adding an extra circuit court judge and a Juvenile & Domestic Relations Court judge beginning July 1. Additional staffing was requested in the FY19/20 budget, but not all requested positions were approved. If elected, I will make needed staffing a top priority.

Special power: Time traveler— I would want to travel back in time to be able to tell my dad how much I love him since I did not get the chance to tell him before his sudden passing two years ago.

 

Patrick Estes

Age: 38

Hometown: Richmond

Education: University of Virginia

Day job: Regional director,
RMC Events

Political experience: First-time candidate

Biggest issue: To push the envelope of what it means to be elected in Albemarle beyond just core responsibilities, aiming to lead this office through community engagement, green-energy initiatives, growing partnerships with state and local officials, and more.

Special power: Incredible agility. From my time on the football field, to running security at the Super Bowl and events throughout Virginia, and raising three kids, I know what it means to be flexible and adaptable in every situation.

17th Senate District

Democratic primary

Amy Laufer

Age: 47

Hometown: Mt. Calvary, Wisconsin

Education: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, B.S. in geology; Columbia Teachers College, M.Ed. in secondary science education

Day job: Math and science teacher until my second child was born with medical issues

Political experience: Commission for Children and Families as an advocate for children with special needs; Charlottesville School Board for seven years, serving as both vice chair and chair; founder of Virginia’s List, a PAC with the goal of electing women to Virginia state office

Biggest issue: As a former teacher and school board member, I am extremely passionate about education, including universal preschool, increased vocational and technical training, and [including] broadband [as]  part of access to education.

Special power: Getting three kids out the door and to school on time!

 

Ben Hixon

Age: 36

Hometown: Monroe, Louisiana

Education: NYU; Hunter College; University of Washington

Day job: Computer scientist/engineer and community activist

Political experience: 2017 Democratic nominee for the 30th district of the House of Delegates; chair of the Culpeper County Democratic Party

Biggest issue: Strengthening education, including increasing teacher pay and affordability
of higher education and investing in trade schools and vocational training.

Special power: As an engineer, I seek to understand problems, develop solutions, and implement fixes that are practical and efficient. I don’t shy away from complexity, I focus on it.

Republican primary

Bryce Reeves

Age: 52

Hometown: Spotsylvania

Education: Texas A&M University; George Mason University

Day job: Owner and operator of Bryce Reeves State Farm Agency; former Army Ranger and police detective

Political experience: Senator, Virginia’s 17th Senate District; Spotsylvania County Republican Committee chair

Biggest issues: Protecting those with pre-existing conditions, and providing a variety of affordable health care options; protecting our most vulnerable: foster children and the unborn; supporting and ensuring the well-being of our veterans and law enforcement officers.

Special power: Would be to heal the sick.

 

Rich Breeden

Age: 50

Hometown: Waynesboro

Education: American Military University, BA and MA; Henley-Putnam University,
Ph.D. candidate, 

Day job: Small business owner

Political experience: Not a politician, and have never run for public office until now

Biggest issue: Changing the way Richmond does business and bringing people from all walks of life together to solve the challenges facing the district. Defend the Constitution; protect the unborn; fight for redistricting reform, term limits, and campaign finance reforms; work with others to improve our education system; and address the challenges associated with emerging technologies and automation that will affect our job market.

Special power: My unique background working with emerging technologies gives
me an understanding of how automation is impacting today’s manufacturing, services, and transportation jobs, and how
these same technologies will threaten individual liberties.

 

For a detailed look at the 57th District Democratic primary, see our feature story.

Categories
News

Slight snag: City Council candidates, new PAC launch campaigns

The signs were already printed for Michael Payne and Don Gathers when Gathers learned he could not immediately join the ticket because of health concerns. Photo by Eze Amos

It wasn’t your typical launch party. Supporters of local activists Don Gathers and Michael Payne gathered at Kardinal Hall January 8 for the official tossing of the hats into this year’s City Council races. But Gathers made a different kind of announcement: A doctor’s visit three hours earlier had convinced him to postpone his campaign start.

Gathers still has recurring issues stemming from an October 14 heart attack, and said that because of those, he needs to delay the announcement of his campaign, to focus on taking care of “the temple the Lord blessed me with.”

The health advisory threw a bit of a wrench not only into the already printed “Payne Gathers” signs, but also into the unveiling of a new PAC, Progressives for Cville, led by Jalane Schmidt, a UVA professor and Black Lives Matter organizer .

“My concern was for Don,” says Schmidt, citing Gathers’ contributions to the community through his church, the Blue Ribbon Commission on Race, Memorials and Public Spaces, and the Police Citizen Review Board—from which he resigned following the launch. “I want him to thrive and be healthy.”

The political action committee came about because “there’s a lot of money that flows into a lot of races for entities that have business before City Council, like developers,” says Schmidt. “We can trace a line between donors and their businesses getting favorable hearings,” both on a local and state level, she says.

Progressives for Cville is looking for small donors to support candidates who align with progressive policies and goals, specifically racial inequity and affordable housing, says Schmidt. She’s not sure how much it’s raised so far, but on the ActBlue page set up last week, there was one $500 donor.

And the PAC is looking at candidates by platform rather than party, says Schmidt. Both Payne and Gathers are running as Democrats. And although Mayor Nikuyah Walker won in 2017 as the first independent to get a seat on council since 1948, Democrats “are the biggest platform in town,” says Schmidt.

There have been other offshoots from the main Democratic party trunk. Kevin Lynch and Maurice Cox were elected to council In 2000 as members of Democrats for Change. “It was frustration with the status quo” that had made the party the establishment, recalls Lynch. Dems for Change had a lot of living wage supporters, environmentalists and architects like Cox, who thought the city’s growth plan was “antiquated.”

And in 2017, a group of Dems that included two former city councilors launched Equity and Progress in Charlottesville, which supported Walker’s independent run.

Payne, 26, grew up in Albemarle and graduated from Albemarle High. He’s is a frequent commenter at City Council meetings—he recently asked the city to divest from fossil fuel holdings—and says the affordable housing crisis spurred him to run. Payne works for Habitat for Humanity Virginia.

And while he refrains from saying who he’d like to see replaced on a council where Wes Bellamy, Kathy Galvin, and Mike Signer are all at the end of their terms, he says, “Given the events of the past three years, new leadership is needed.”

Gathers, 59, points out that a “high level of toxicity” existed in the city well before 2017, when white supremacists targeted Charlottesville with the KKK and Unite the Right rallies.

“That poisonous tree of racism just branches out into so many areas,” he says.

Gathers says he hopes to get his health concerns worked out before the March 11 deadline for filing signatures with the party for the June 11 primary.

Another candidate came forward the next day. Sena Magill may be best known as the wife of Tyler Magill, the UVA librarian and WTJU radio host whose confrontation with Jason Kessler became a meme, and who suffered a stroke after being assaulted that weekend. She announced her run January 9 at City Space, at an event attended by Councilor Heather Hill, former councilor Dede Smith (who denies rumors that she’s running), and yet-to-announce candidate Lloyd Snook.

Sena Magill says her experience working at Region Ten will help her work anywhere, even City Council. Photo by Eze Amos

Magill, 46, grew up here and spent 16 years working with Region Ten and PACEM. She says she’s running because “I’m tired of seeing my home in the news for all these negative reasons.”

She listed climate change first on her platform, and wants to tackle it on the local level with solar panels on government buildings, electric buses, and better bike paths to make the city “carbon negative,” which drew applause from attendees.

Schools and affordable housing are also on Magill’s platform. She cites Maslow’s hierarchy of needs that puts food and shelter foremost before any other issues can be addressed.

The question many have asked her is, who in their right mind would want to sit on City Council given the current tenor of the meetings where those standing before—or on—council can be jeered by attendees and sometimes by those on the dais.

Magill compares the meetings to a pressure cooker where steam needs to be released and says she won’t take it personally. “I expect to cry if I lose the election and I expect to cry more if I win,” she jokes.

So far, none of the council incumbents have revealed their plans for reelection, but the race seems destined for a Democratic primary June 11, when councilors traditionally secure their seats—unless there’s a wild-card independent like Walker.