Busted

Even though Charlottesville's 2008 voter turnout rate was up about 3-4% over 2004 and even though we had thousands more voters come out to the polls than in 2004, we did not succeed in our goal of topping the good people of Falls Church in our friendly voter turnout challenge. Today my travels were slated to take me through Northern Virginia so I made arrangements to meet up with the dynamic Mayor of Falls Church, Robin Gardner, and personally deliver the bust of Thomas Jefferson (from the Monticello gift shop) that I, on behalf of the citizens of Charlottesville, had put up as a wager in our competition. Mayor Gardner and a couple of her staff took me out to lunch at her favorite Italian restaurant and we had a good, wide-ranging conversation about the November elections, local politics, city governance, etc. At the conclusion of my visit I presented the bust of Mr. Jefferson and a small placard which congratulated Mayor Gardner and the people of Falls Church for "a job well-done and a citizenry well-engaged." It was a fun competition and a worthy cause and even though we came out on the losing end (this time), it was definitely worth the effort.