The Day After

Yesterday was a big day for the Charlottesville Democratic Party -- the first time the party used a Firehouse Primary to choose its nominees for City Council (and Sheriff). Over 1,600 residents participated, meaning we had many more voters taking part in selecting our nominess than in the past; prior nominating conventions typically attracted 400-600 voters. We even had more voters yesterday than the 2006 U.S. Senate primary between Jim Webb and Harris Miller, when 1,554 Charlottesville residents cast their vote. I was at the polls for almost the entire day and it was great to see a steady stream of voters and friendly faces all day long.

The final vote tally for the Council race was as follows:

Dave Norris -- 80.49%
Kristin Szakos -- 61.13%
Julian Taliaferro -- 43.32%

As always, excellent coverage of the day's proceedings was provided by Charlottesville Tomorrow: http://cvilletomorrow.typepad.com/charlottesville_tomorrow_/2009/05/norris_szakos2.html

I'm still wiped out by the day's events (OK, and the revelry afterwards) but did want to offer a few quick thoughts.

* First and foremost, thank you to the voters, to the people of Charlottesville, for your confidence and support. As I've said all along, I don't expect everyone to agree with me on each and every issue that comes before Council, but I do hope people see that I've worked hard to get the City moving in the right direction on a number of important fronts. I look forward to making yesterday's endorsement "official" on election day, November 3. (By the way, we need to change the date of these nominating primaries. It's ridiculous to have a 6-month general election season for City Council races. The United Kingdom has been known to pull off nationwide Parliamentary elections in less than 6 WEEKS.)

* Many thanks to the folks who worked on my campaign team, particularly my campaign manager, Becky Reid (a genial genius of a strategist & organizer who walks on water and makes a killer eggplant sauce) and my communications director, Tad Abbey (who somehow juggled his campaign duties with getting married and landing a new DJ gig on WNRN -- congrats Tad!). Everyone who contributed time, money, moral support and/or advice to my campaign deserves my unending gratitude.

* Congratulations to Kristin Szakos and James Brown III for running great campaigns and coming out ahead yesterday, and best wishes to Phillip Brown, Mike Baird and, of course, Vice Mayor Julian Taliaferro, all of whom ran good races and deserve heaps of praise for their service to our community.

* Bottom line is: it was a great day for democracy, and a great day for Democrats, in Charlottesville. And now, on to November 3!

Below: James Brown and Kristin Szakos at the polls; me and Becky Reid at the after-party at Rapture.