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Town elections attract fewer contenders
For the first time in decades, the town of Hamilton does not have enough candidates running for town council. Four seats are up for grabs May 6, but only three candidates are running.“We've never had a position that didn't have a candidate,” Hamilton Mayor H. Ray Whitbey said.
Hamilton is not alone when it comes to a shortage in competition this election season. Despite population booms in Loudoun during the last two decades, the number of candidates for town races has decreased for most of the county's seven towns.
Combined, 30 candidates are running for 25 seats. Three of the six mayoral races – Round Hill, Middleburg and Leesburg -- have candidates running unopposed. Of the 11 total town races for mayor and council this year, more then half have no competition on the ballot.
The towns of western Loudoun stagger elections so only half of the council seats become vacant every two years. Council members are elected every four years. Mayors are elected every two years, except in Hamilton, which has a four-year mayoral term.
“It's getting tougher to get people to take the time,” Whitbey said, who is midway through his four-year term.
He said the drop in candidates is the result of residents working outside of the town, lack of awareness about town affairs and a slowing economy.
“I think the economy has a lot to do with it,” Whitbey said. “People are having to work two jobs just to make ends meet.”
He added that longtime residents already have served time as town representatives, while younger residents are busy with work and children.
“People just no longer have the time” to hold public office, Whitbey said.
If no write-in candidates claim Hamilton's fourth seat, the town will have to appoint a interim council member, whose seat will likely be up for re-election in two years rather than four, Whitbey said.
Round Hill Councilman Scott Ramsey, who is running for re-election, said, “A lot of the people in town have already served. There is certainly a level of fatigue.”
Lovettsville council candidate Michael Senate says the lack of awareness about town elections is something Lovettsville is working on.
“The elections here in Lovettsville have always been unannounced. Residents here don't really know that there's an election every two years,” he said, adding that the town has been promoting the election on its Web site.
Senate, a first-timer to Lovettsville's elections, said the lack of competition prompted him to run.
“What I didn't want to see happening is seeing people with no experience run,” Senate said. “Little did I know that no one was running.”
In Purcellville, the number of candidates running for town office has remained stable. The town has eight candidates running for four seats this year.
“We've been very lucky,” Purcellville Mayor Bob Lazaro said. Purcellville has not had to struggle to find volunteers to serve as committee members or commissioners to the town, said Lazaro, something other towns have had difficulty with.
Fourteen incumbent and 17 new candidates are running for town office in the county this spring.
The low number of candidates could open the door to write-in candidates, several candidates said.
“The first time I ran was because there was a slate of unopposed candidates,” said Hamilton Councilman Craig Green, who is running for his third term. “It's important that someone does this job. We make management decisions for the town's future. I'd welcome a write-in [candidate].”
A write-in candidate in Hamilton would automatically fill the town's fourth council seat. This means that one vote could equal an election win for a write-in candidate.
Leesburg Mayor Kristen Umstattd has felt the force of a strong write-in candidate.
“Two years ago there was a heavily funded effort – we estimate to the tune of $50,000 – to write in Jim Clem as a candidate [for mayor],” Umstattd said of the campaign to put then-Supervisor Clem – who had once served as Leesburg's mayor -- back in the mayor's seat.
Write-in candidates received about a 30 percent of the vote in Leesburg's 2006 mayoral race, according to the Loudoun County General Registrar office.
Umstattd said ballot candidates can expect to find out about write-in campaigns around mid-April, but that won't change the way she campaigns. She is running unopposed yet again this year.
“Whether there's a write-in or not, I start going door to door in January,” she said.
This year, Leesburg has five candidates running for four seats, half the number of candidates who ran in 2006.
“This is a very unusual year,” Umstattd said. “We've never had so few people running.”
Generally, council races produce seven to nine candidates, she said. “I don't know why [this year is different]. It just sometimes happens that you get a race like that.”
Leesburg has had its ups and downs in the number of candidates, according to county records. In 1990, the town had as many as eight candidates for mayor on the ballot.
Umstattd said the poor economy could be a factor. Running for her fourth term as mayor, she said the average campaign costs her about $10,000.
Middleburg Mayor Betsy Allen Davis, who is running for her second term, said write-ins are a factor in town races, but “I don't really worry about anything. If there's a write-in that everybody in town wants, that's fine.”
Write-ins play a key role in Hillsboro, which does not have ballot elections for town officials.
Contact the reporter at hhobbs@timespapers.com
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