Over 170 people came out for the Charlottesville Clergy Collective Saturday screening of the “Repairing the World” documentary about the mass shooting at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue on Saturday February 11; the event was important in continuing the community dialogue around how we can work together to combat antisemitism, racism, and other forms of hate in our area.
Events
Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) is Recommended!
At our January Full Committee meeting, following Delegate Sally Hudson’s introductory overview and Q&A, we passed a resolution recommending that the City adopt RCV for all City Council primary and general elections.
The City has yet to hold any public discussions about adoption of RCV, and the reality is that our software couldn’t be ready to handle RCV until this April, too late to try to safely use RCV for the June primary. If the City decides to adopt RCV, its earliest possible use would be for the November City Council elections.
Primary Races are Starting to Take Shape
Several prospective candidates (so far) have announced for the two upcoming November primary races, listed here in alphabetical order:
- State Senate District 11 — Sen. Creigh Deeds (senatordeeds.com), Delegate Sally Hudson (sally4virginia.com)
- House of Delegates District 54 (Sally’s current seat) — David Brown (dbrowndc@gmail.com), Katrina Callsen (katrina@katrinacallsen.com), Dashad Cooper (cooperfordelegate@gmail.com) have filed their initial paperwork. Bellamy Brown is in the process of filing.
As a matter of policy, the Cville Dems can’t take sides in primaries, but we do pass on information about candidates’ public events as the candidates share them with us.
Comings and Goings
At our January Full Committee meeting we welcomed Laura Shea from Clark Precinct as a member of the Full Committee and also got to meet the UVA Dems’ new President Vincent Kloes (kloes@virginia.edu); we’re looking forward to working with both of them!Two significant changes to announce, much to our regret:
- This month Anne Hemenway announced her resignation from the Charlottesville Electoral Board. Anne has served with great distinction for eight years, tirelessly working with her Democratic and Republican colleagues alike to keep our electoral system working efficiently and fairly for all. We owe Anne a huge vote of thanks for this dedicated service. Jim Nix, who has finished his own 3-year term, will serve out the last year of Anne’s term, after which we’ll need to nominate a new Democratic member to serve on the Board.
- Dashad Cooper announced his resignation as our Co-Chair in order to pursue elected office in the House of Delegates. We thank Dashad for his excellent service keeping things running smoothly, including handling most of the diplomatic outreach work needed to expand our party.
Proposed Changes to Cville Precincts (Update)
The proposal to replace polling places Alumni Hall and Tonsler with new polling places Charlottesville High School and Jackson-Via, and to redraw the lines of all current precincts in the City of Charlottesville, was presented to City Council on January 17th.
Jim Nix and Registrar Taylor Yowell explained at our November meeting that these changes were motivated by issues like population shifts and problems with location, building size, and parking.
The proposal will move through a discussion and public comment process before Council votes on it.
