The Charlottesville Democratic Party is driving me crazy! Four years ago, an internicine fight caused them to run a weakened candidate for City Council. Meanwhile, the minority Republican party unified behind a single crazy person and he actually got elected!
Mind you, I am all for fair representation. Their should be a loyal opposition, but the Republican’s representative on the Council is a dolt: he doesn’t do his homework and shows up at the meetings unprepared, thinks party loyalty means voting No on everything, takes credit for all the good work done by the council despite him, and accuses the Democrats of running a secret cabal.
I wish! The Dems here aren’t capable of running a secret anything. Will Rogers once said “I am not a member of an organized political party … I’m a Democrat”, and no truer words could be uttered today.
It’s re-election time, and the minority party, the Republicans, the Rob Schilling campaign, are very well organized. There is a controversial road project that many of the local merchants and developers support, and many of the local residents oppose (myself included). One set of residents who don’t oppose the project are those who live along a default route from where traffic will be diverted if the bypass is built. Sure enough, every other house along that route is sporting multiple Rob Schilling signs.
In my own little neighborhood, which has always been something of a Democratic stronghold, the Red yard signs outnumber the Blue yard signs nearly two to one. Mind you, most of the yards are barren of signs, which only shows how complacent the Dems have become. You’d think blowing the election four years ago would have taught them a lesson, but I see the same mistakes being played all over again. I had to call the local Democrats and ask them to please tell me where to get a yard sign. In the meantime, I’ve received two Rob Schilling mailings, one phone call, and this weekend I woke up to find Rob Schilling in my kitchen making breakfast…
There are two open Council seats. The Dems are running two candidates. The Repugs are running one, and in a replay of 2002, they’ll split the Democratic vote by only voting for their single candidate. Rob Schilling will be back on the City Council, blowing smoke out of his ass, and it will be the Democratic Party’s fault.
I am very happy to say that I was wrong. Schilling and the Republicans ran an aggressive campaign and really got the name of their candidate out there, but the voters decided what was best for the City.
We need a bipartisan council and I encourage the Republicans to try again with a candidate who speaks more to the needs of the city and better represents their platform.
I also encourage the Democrats not to become complacent and to continue to fight for what they believe is right.
CVilleNews has a good discussion going on the election results and Waldo has posted an informative graph.
Good work Charlottesville!
Comment by semi — May 3, 2006 @ 7:16 pm