With Portsmouth joining Suffolk and Virginia Beach in Hampton Roads ending the longstanding tradition of holding May elections for local city leaders, it’s time for other regional cities to join in and do the same.
Major cities like Chesapeake, Norfolk, Newport News, and Hampton still cling to a relic well past its day and have yet to move their elections also to November.
As Brian Kirwin alluded to in his post, the May election allows the process to be dominated by local city leaders who effectively pick and choose who they want to run or what they want to run for. It’s about as democratic as a turkey’s choice at Thanksgiving.
Case in point, Tom Moss, former speaker of the house, totally usurped our friend and then Democratic nominee, Vivian Paige, in the Norfolk’s Treasurer’s race in 2006. Only by his network and low-turnout was he able to keep Vivian from being the city’s next treasurer. So, instead, Norfolk got a longtime political boss as the treasurer instead of a qualified small business owner and CPA. (Update: We’ll find another example, but Vivian’s race was in Nov. 2005…for some reason I thought it was spring of 2006)
Additionally, the taxpayers have to foot the bill not for one or two but potentially three elections per year (when you add the local election to go along with a primary and general). How is that conservative?
Finally, with local candidates on the ballot in November, they actually do get more attention than in May. The results bear this out.
In 2006, the May election in Virginia Beach yielded a paltry 16% turnout for at-large city council races; in 2010, that number soared for the same race to 42%.
If that doesn’t get your attention, I don’t know what will. Over 250% more voters turnout for a general election in November to elect local candidates than they do for the arcane May election.
If you are a fan of democracy, choice, and saving taxpayers money, you need to favor moving local elections to November.
It’s time for Chesapeake, Norfolk, Newport News, and Hampton to do the right thing for Hampton Roads voters.
Update: Vivian Paige also chimes in with this reasonable post where she takes a different approach to the discussion.
