Political earthquake hits Davidson

Election 2017 in Davidson will be remembered as the year a political earthquake struck North Mecklenburg's smallest town.

With preliminary results in from the State BOE website, Rusty Knox has won a major victory over incumbent Mayor John Woods and former Mayor Pro Tem Laurie Venzon.  Receiving just under 57% of the vote gives Knox a clear mandate to lead the town.  In fact, it is hard to overstate the impressiveness of this victory.  Receiving a an absolute majority of votes in a 3 way competition is hard.  Doing so as handily as Knox did on Tuesday against two well known opponents is a mandate.

In the race for Commissioner, things are equally as startling.  Going into Tuesday the Davidson Board was guaranteed 2 new Commissioners due to open seats left by Beth Cashion and Brian Jenest not seeking reelection.  Coming out of Tuesday, Davidson will be getting 4 new Commissioners as both incumbents Stacey Anderson and Rodney Graham lost in their bids for another term.  With the difference between 5th and 6th place being only 8 votes the final outcome could be in flux if there are enough provisional ballots, but here are the results as of midnight Tuesday.

Incumbent Jim Fuller was the top vote getter.  However, with only 237 votes separating Fuller and 5th place finisher David Sitton, the new Board has a solid base of support under all members..  After 6th place finisher Shana Erber, support falls off significantly including that for incumbents Anderson and Graham.  Like the results in the Mayoral race, this solid victory for new blood candidates shows a clear desire for a change in direction at Town Hall.

On Wednesday, when there is a bit more time to reflect on what this all means, there will be some more interesting threads to analyze in this evolving story.  However, tonight congratulations to all the candidates are in order.  Running for office is hard and everyone doing so should be commended.

This was a particularly tough campaign with so many candidates and a significant amount of controversy.  Here's hoping everyone involved sees these results for what they really mean and acknowledge it is time to bring this community together and move forward.

#DavidsonElection2017: aShortChronicle recommends...

The major overarching themes of this election season in Davidson revolve around improved trust and transparency and protecting Davidson's small-town character as well as the needed changes at Davidson Town Hall to best achieve those goals.  So, to that end here are aShortChronicle’s picks.

Mayor

For Davidson Mayor, aShortChronicle recommends Rusty Knox.  Knox is known, liked, and respected from one end of Davidson to the other and will be the most effective at restoring community trust in Town Hall.  He will be an effective leader regardless of the ultimate makeup of the new Board.  Importantly, when you think of Davidson and its small-town character, Knox is one of the facets of that character that likely comes to mind.  Moreover, Knox has proven his willingness to fight to maintain that small-town character.  His founding and leadership of the Paradise Lost group was instrumental in stopping the Catalyst Project that would have damaged Main Street’s character beyond repair.  He took the same stance when it came to the recently dropped Beaty Street Luminous project.  He spoke out against the mass rezoning of Davidson’s Rural Area, particularly the parts that make major development easier.  As a Davidson native, Knox has known many of these landowners for decades and speaking out against this rezoning required political courage. He also supported giving the public the chance to vote on a new Town Hall building rather than the Town unilaterally deciding on that major spending item.  That shows he has enough trust in the public to make the right decisions when needed.  For all these reasons and more Rusty Knox is the right choice to lead Davidson going forward.

Commissioner

This is a change election and with that in mind here are five challenger candidates who are more than capable of doing the job.  aShortChronicle believes this mix will provide a diversity of opinion and experience as well as geographic representation across town.  Importantly, this group is focused on transparency and a willingness to fight to keep Davidson's small-town character rather than just managing the decline of it.  While confident everyone of these people will work for all of Davidson, they are ordered by the rough geographic location of where they live to show that aspect of the group’s diversity.

West Davidson

David Sitton – Sitton has been a leader in the fight against the Beaty Street RFP and the Luminous Project.  He deserves the credit for spearheading the effort to get an independent appraisal of the Beaty Street property which significantly increased the pressure against the proposal to sell off the town owned property.  In conversations with Sitton, it is crystal clear he “gets it” when it comes to the issues of transparency and earnestly involving the citizenry that have plagued Town Hall led projects in recent years.

Sam Weaver – Weaver is the youngest candidate on the ballot.  “Experience” however is not the only quality in choosing a good Commissioner.  Here at aShortChronicle a willingness to ask hard, and at times uncomfortable, questions is highly valued.  Weaver has proven his willingness to do that.  You can be confident that Weaver will not simply go along with bad ideas and instead will look for ways to stop them, all while doing it politely and with tact.


Middle Davidson/Concord Road

Ryan Fay – Fay’s business experience will be a great addition to the Board.  While Davidson is not a Fortune 500 company and should not be managed from the top as if it is, having corporate experience on the Board dealing with large budget issues like Mi-Connection will be very valuable.  In conversations with Fay he favored putting the new Town Hall spending up for a vote and more creative thinking rather than the unilateral decision the current Board made to spend millions on a new Town Hall.  Fay's statements opposing the Griffith Street Hotel are also right on target.

Shana Erber – At a recent event Erber cited the Davidson-Concord Road speed limit fight as well as the Rural Area Plan as the issues motivating her to get more involved in local politics.  Those are issues near and dear to our heart here at aShortChronicle.  In our opinion that says a lot about the common sense perspective Erber will bring to the Board, and common sense is one of the things that has been sorely missing from the dais at Davidson Town Hall.  She has also taken a hard line stance with developers on enforcing the town's planning ordinance.


East Davidson

Matthew Fort – Fort will bring a numbers background to the Board that will be very useful. His work experience in corporate divestitures would benefit truly assessing what it takes to get out of Mi-Connection and execute on those plans.  Fort has also espoused strong views on openness and transparency and has stated he will donate his commissioner's salary to charity.  Those are all things showing he truly understands the meaning of being a citizen servant.


Incumbent Option

aShortChronicle also sees the value of continuity.  With that in mind there is one incumbent also recommended for your consideration.

Jim Fuller – Fuller has been on the Board since 2011.  While he has not always taken the positions advocated by aShortChronicle, he is by far the best of the current Commissioners when it comes to being an advocate of the people.  He opposed the Beaty Street Luminous Project.  He voted against spending for a new Town Hall without a referendum.  He has also asked the hardest questions on the Griffith Street Hotel and long been an advocate for protecting the West Side neighborhood.  Fuller regularly talks about Davidson Core Value #5 espousing Davidson’s small-town character.  If you want to include one incumbent, Fuller is the one to choose.



Now it is time to go vote.  Polls open for early voting at Cornelius Town Hall starting Saturday.   If you want true change at Town Hall with a focus on openness, transparency, and trust, aShortChronicle recommends filling your ballot and not leaving any of your Commissioner votes uncast as long as they are votes for change.  However, in this election with so many candidates running in both the Mayoral and Commissioner races there is the real risk of diluting the vote.  With that in mind aShortChronicle strongly recommends concentrating your votes around the candidates listed here.   Rarely do voters get the opportunity to fill a ballot and really implement change.  Davidson voters have that opportunity this election, so they need to take it.

Vote early or vote on election day, but please vote.  This election will be a pivotal one in the town's history.

Voting strategy this election season Part 1: Davidson Mayor

During the 2015 election cycle, aShortChronicle published a piece about "supercharging" your vote in municipal elections.  With early voting starting at Cornelius Town Hall and other regional sites on October 28th now is the the time to start narrowing down your choices. (FYI...you can start early voting as early as Oct 19 if you are downtown near the Hal Marshall Annex.  It is the only early voting site open from 10/19 until the others open on 10/28.)

In Davidson, the dynamics this election season are quite different this time around, so here's some updated thinking on this topic.  It will be in two parts.

Part 1 covers Davidson's mayoral contest.

Davidson's mayoral race is setting up to be the most interesting contest North Mecklenburg has seen in over two decades.  Mayoral contests are often not even contests.  Instead, Mayoral candidates often run unopposed as is the case in Cornelius and Huntersville this year.  Races with three or more candidates are rare and competitive races with more than two candidates are rarer still.  According to data available from the Mecklenburg Board of Elections, since 1995 there have only been a few races in North Mecklenburg towns with three or more mayoral candidates.  Only one of those would be deemed truly competitive.   That would be the 2007 race for Huntersville Mayor.  See results below.

Jill Swain won this race with less than 50% of the vote.  That's the only time that has happened locally in any of the towns in at least two decades.  In all of the other races with three or more candidates, the winner got at least 50%.

In Davidson this year, the likelihood of a similar scenario to that 2007 Huntersville race is high with three candidates having bases of support and good name recognition.  John Woods, Rusty Knox, and Laurie Venzon will very likely all get a substantial percentage of votes.

If Woods was to win re-election it almost certainly would be with less than 50% of the vote with the "Not Woods" vote being a majority but split between Knox and Venzon.  As was pointed out in this piece, in the 2015 vote where Woods was unopposed, a substantial percentage of voters did not pull the lever for him even when he was the only name on the ballot.  More than 27% of voters that cycle left the Mayor's race blank or wrote in other names.  That does not bode well for him getting a majority of votes while facing serious opposition.  However, in a three way contest it also doesn't mean he will lose as was shown by the 2007 example in Huntersville.

So, how does Woods lose re-election?  He loses if the "Not Woods" vote coalesces around one of the two challengers.  This certainly can happen, but if it doesn't, Woods very well may win.

What can cause this coalescing to happen?  In the opinion of aShortChronicle this can only happen around the candidate most prepared to address the town's top problem when it comes to Town Hall, and that problem is "trust".  A lack of trust permeates nearly every issue originating from Town Hall whether those be legacy Mi-Connection problems or the myriad planning issues roiling the public in more recent years.  If people do not implicitly trust the Town's top elected official, getting them to trust ideas out of Town Hall will be nearly impossible.

So when looking for a choice for Mayor, look for the candidate who can best resolve the issue of trust.  Who is the candidate who has visible and obvious support from one end of town to the other?  That candidate will have the best shot at unifying the town.  Who is the candidate who has visibly fought the bad ideas out of Town Hall in recent years such as The Catalyst Project, Rural Area Plan mass rezoning, Beaty Street RFP, not letting voters have a say on major spending for a new Town Hall building, and the ill conceived Town Hall supported Griffith Street Hotel and Potts Street projects?  That candidate will have proven they are willing to fight against bad ideas and for what the people of this town want.

Answer those questions honestly, and you will know who to vote for this election.

Commissioner Rodney Graham's ironic campaign ad

One could take it as a compliment when an incumbent politician uses a post of yours in a campaign ad, but when the point of said post is entirely missed by the incumbent politician, the irony gets noticed more than anything.  That's what happened when Davidson Commissioner Rodney Graham used a story from the early days of aShortChronicle in a paid campaign Facebook ad this week - accompanying it with tag line "when Rick Short actually supported me".

The post from aShortChronicle to wss titled "What's next in Davidson, stocks and pillories on the Green?"

To get to the irony, let's take a ride in the ol' time machine.

First stop, May 2012.  aShortChronicle had just started 3 months earlier and Commissioner Graham had just been elected to office 3 months before that.  Graham, a newly minted Commissioner who also happened to be a developer, had been the sole vote against loosening rules on the development process.  That vote and Graham's opposition to it earned him a shot from Mayor Woods during the meeting.  In classic Mayor Woods fashion, the "misinformation" attack was launched Graham's way.

Graham's current ad/Facebook post tries to point out that aShortChronicle "supported" him back then because of agreement with Graham's position on this particular vote.  A close reading of the aShortChronicle blog post however, shows that's not really the case.  While yours truly did agree with Graham's position, the reason for the post had nothing to do with that.  The reason for the post was to call out Mayor John Woods for attacking Graham's dissenting vote.

The irony here is that in the years since 2012, Graham himself has become the Davidson Commissioner most likely to take shots at dissenters.

Fast forward to September 12th of this year.   Most recently Graham's intolerance of dissent was on graphic display during the Griffith Street Hotel public hearing.  From his seat on the dais, Graham had direct conflict with not one, but two, of the speakers who were against the hotel project.  Graham got into a bickering match with one lady and a gentleman called Graham out for rolling his eyes...twice.

The closing line on the post Graham referenced included the following about people involved in local political discussion at Town Hall.  It was about Commissioners, but it should apply to everyone.

"They should be allowed to freely express their opinions to their constituents without accusations of misinformation and threat of public criticism from the dais."

After Commissioner Graham's display at the last Town Hall meeting, those words apply to him more than just about anybody.

Rusty Knox snags first big endorsement in Davidson Mayoral race

On Thursday, one of the leading organizations on the #1 regional issue announced its endorsements on the upcoming elections.  That would be the I77 Business Plan group leading the charge against the I77 HOT lanes project.  The group is made up of heavy hitters in the Lake Norman community. 

Interestingly, the announcement gives particular focus to the race for Davidson Mayor.  See below...

September 20, 2017

I-77 Business Plan Announces Endorsement List for the Upcoming North Mecklenburg Municipal Town Elections.

Lake Norman, NC - The I-77 Business Plan is a group of elected officials, community and business leaders who have worked together over the last few years to articulate the extreme negative impact of the I-77 TOLL project and lobby for the cancellation of the CINTRA Toll Contract.

The I-77 Business Plan has attracted extraordinary support and realized overwhelming success in the last several election cycles; by endorsing candidates and working the polls to support those candidate who understand the significant problems of CINTRA Contract and support its cancellation.

Today, few credible candidates support the tolls and most leaders understand its detriment to the community without solving the problem of congestion.  Therefore, this election cycle, the I-77 Business Plan chose to identify the individuals who have not only supported cancellation, but also have put forth significant personal effort and activity in an attempt to cancel the CINTRA toll contract.  We further want to speak directly to the single candidate who has actively worked against our efforts, John Woods in Davidson.  As Mayor, John Woods has repeatedly and enthusiastically supported this project, continuing to give credence to the false narrative that only a small number of activist are against the project, and promoting the misleading rhetoric that north Mecklenburg wants this toll project to continue.  As Mayor, he traveled to Raleigh to meet with Senate Pro Tem Berger to lobby to leave the contract in place.  When reporters questioned John Woods why he obviously went against his community wishes, he was disingenuous to indicate that he met with Senate Pro Tem Berger as an ordinary citizen.  We strongly encourage voters of Davidson to support Rusty Knox.

It is with this in minds that we announce the following endorsements for the November municipal election cycle

Endorsement for Town Commissioners (in alphabetical order):

Town of Cornelius -                 Jim Duke

                                                Michelle Ferlauto

                                                Dave Gilroy

                                                Dr Michael Miltich

                                                Kurt Naas

                                                William Rakatansky

Town of Davidson –                Jim Fuller

                                                Stacey Anderson

Town of Huntersville –           Dan Boone

                                                Mark Gibbons

                                                Charles Guignard

                                                Danny Phillips                           

Endorsement for Mayor:

          Town of Cornelius –      Woody Washam

          Town of Davidson -       Rusty Knox

Laurie Venzon sets fundraising pace in Davidson mayoral race

Mid-year campaign finance reports were due at the end of July for transactions through June.  However, they are only due for campaigns that had opened committees and had begun fundraising prior to June month end.

According to those rules, in Davidson's race for mayor that means only Laurie Venzon had to file a report this reporting period.  As aShortChronicle told readers in February, Venzon opened her account late last year and began raising money.  That means she has to file paperwork on a going forward basis.  Incumbent John Woods has committed to spending less than the $1000 threshold meaning he does not have to file paperwork, and fellow challenger Rusty Knox didn't open his account until filing this July after the reporting deadline.

That leaves the Venzon campaign as the only mayoral campaign required to report at this point.  See reports here.

To date, this election cycle the Committee to Elect Laurie Venzon has raised a whopping $8,839.48.  The campaign has also spent $6,001.55.

So, where did this money come from and where did it go?

So far, Venzon has not committed significant personal funds to her campaign, less than $600 for "in kind" contributions.  In kind contributions are for things of value other than cash.  The bulk of the cash continuations have come from a relatively small number of higher dollar donors, $500 - $1000 each.  The campaign has snagged three $1,000 checks, two of which were from donors in Kanapolis and Concord.  Overall, cash contributions to date came from 18 different donors for an average of over $450 per contribution.

On the expenditure side of the equation, the Venzon campaign has spent $2500 on a website with a Huntersville firm named BNR Branding Solutions.  She has also spent money on paid campaign support, $800 with Savvy Strategies of Davidson and $1000 with April Byrd Consulting.

The money for Savvy Strategies went for something called  "campaign operations".  Savvy Strategies is operated by Tami Kincer of Davidson.

As for the other $1000 going for consulting, rumors had been floating around for quite a while that Venzon may use the same political consultant enlisted by Davidson Mayor Pro Tem Beth Cashion in her 2011 campaign, Neil Orr.  Orr is a popular consultant in local GOP circles.  However, going with April Byrd Consulting appears to be essentially the same thing. Orr and Byrd are partners in a venture called ABNO Group.  ABNO, April Byrd Consulting, and the website firm BNR Branding all share the same office building address in Huntersville.

Byrd appears to be well connected into the Republican establishment.  She is also affiliated with a political consulting outfit in Georgia called ConnectSouth.  Here's what her profile on that site says.

"In 2002 she had an opportunity to work in the Salisbury Campaign office for Elizabeth Dole’s successful US Senate Campaign. Two years later April worked in Lima, OH for the 2004 Bush/Cheney campaign. In 2010 Republicans won the majority in both chambers of the NC General Assembly and in 2011 April was selected to be a preferred fundraising vendor for the NC House Republican Caucus. She stepped down from her family business and started April Byrd Consulting. April has raised money for over a dozen NC House Members including the former House Majority Leader, Rep. Mike Hager. In addition to successfully raising money for NC House Members she has been a fundraising consultant to a NC Supreme Court Justice, a NC Court of Appeals Judge, Three US Congressional Candidates, The Jesse Helms Center, and NC House Legislative Partners (an Independent Expenditure Committee). In 2016 April had the opportunity to work with Ed Broyhill, the Finance Committee Co-Chair for North Carolina to successfully raise $1 million plus for Trump for President/Trump Victory Fund."

While small in the grand scheme of politics, the dollars  Venzon has raised and spending them on these types of things and professional personnel are a big deal when it comes to Davidson.  Money and more formalized campaigns always changes the dynaimics of elections. Later in campaign season when Rusty Knox files and Venzon submits her next reports at the end of the next filing period, this is likely to be (if it already isn't) the most expensive race in Davidson history.

Is Commissioner Rodney Graham #PositivelyDavidson? That's a question he doesn't "wish to answer"

Many people in the Davidson area have noticed a new Facebook page recently that has attracted hundreds of likes, a page called Positively Davidson.  The site provides a laundry list of great things about living in this wonderful town.

Davidson is a great place to live.  Those of us who have spent years fighting to preserve that small town character and those who are relatively new to that fight know this intrinsically.  If this is the only point Positively Davidson is trying to make, then we whole heartedly agree.

However, a close reading of the page's "about" section shows that might not be the case.

It sounds good and very "positive", but there is also a hint of uncomfortableness with the pushback "official Davidson" has been getting in social media these days.

Unlike the other Facebook pages or groups around town (Paradise Lost, Save Davidson, Citizens for a Safe Davidson Hotel Location) nobody knows who is behind this new incarnation of Positively Davidson.  It is a "page" not a "group" and that allows a higher level of anonymity if the page admins so desire.

Oh, people have asked who is behind it.  To be sure people are curious about that.  However, only vague responses are given in reply.

So, aShortChronicle did a little digging to see if it could be figured out.  First though a little history.

You'll notice that above it stated this page was a "new incarnation of Positively Davidson".  The name Positively Davidson has a little political history in town going back to the last time citizens pushed back against Town Hall in any significant way.  That was during the 2011 election season.  A group by the same name, circled the wagons around Town Hall.  They held meetings, wrote letters to the editor, and generally worked to preserve the political status quo.  Here are some links to stories from back then when the group was clearly political. See here, here, and here.

So, who is behind Positively Davidson now?

Well, the first time aShortChronicle noticed the new incarnation was from Davidson Commissioner Rodney Graham with these posts on his "Rodney Graham, Davidson Town Commissioner" page.  This is his political campaign page.  The link is www.facebook.com/VoteRodneyGraham/

That was back in early June.  It raised the political antennas a bit because it was a reference to a political group that didn't exist anymore.  It was also in the aftermath of the May 23rd Board meeting where the town had been exposed for its clear mishandling of the Beaty Street property and the Luminous project, a project Commissioner Graham strongly supports.

So, with that in mind aShortChronicle just went ahead and asked Commissioner Graham if he was involved with the new Positively Davidson.  Here is what he had to say.

"I appreciate the question but don't wish to answer it.  That shouldn't be inferred as a "yes" or a "no" but just wanting to separate my private life from my public life.  I've set up multiple facebook pages and websites over the years for various organizations, frankly because it is something I enjoy doing, both creatively and just to help out organizations that I support.  But I don't wish to publicize whether I'm involved with those pages because (a) it's irrelevant, and (b) I don't wish for them to have any political overtones.

The Positively Davidson page you reference appears to be completely apolitical, which is good.  Regrettably many sites out there - NextDoor is a good example - have become forums for people to express frustration and anger.  There are appropriate forums to do that - although there is never an appropriate forum for slander - but I think certain forums should be off limits."

aShortChronicle thought that was an interesting response from an elected official.  Particularly, it was interesting for an official in a campaign season where transparency is the overarching theme for many issues citizens have with Town Hall.

With that answer, of sorts, in hand a little more digging shows data points that may shed some light on this situation for readers.  aShortChronicle noticed the following similarities between the Positively Davidson FB page and Commissioner Graham's campaign page.

1.  June 1st, the date Graham first used #positivelydavidson on his campaign page, is the same date the Positively Davidson page published its first posts.

2.  The two Cover Photos on Graham's campaign page are the same two photos Positively Davidson has used as its Profile pics until a third profile pic was added just yesterday.  You can tell the two with Summit in the photo are the exact same photos if you look closely.  Variables such as the cars on the street and the shape of the flags are exactly the same.  They are the same exact photos, not two different photos taken from the same locations at different times.

Graham Campaign
Cover Pics

Positively Davidson
Profile Pics

3.  Multiple other photos appear on both pages as well - a home in the Town Affordable housing program, a picture of Davidson College Presbyterian Church (DCPC), a picture of what appears to be a field at Fisher Farm etc.

Does all that definitively prove Commissioner Rodney Graham is behind Positively Davidson?  Not necessarily, but it is a number of coincidences .  So, you can take those coincidences and Commissioner Graham's non-answer for what it is worth.

The Positively Davidson site does appear to be reaching a milestone of sorts as it approaches 1000 likes.  Per the below, the content of the site is possibly about to change, so we'll see if the non-political tone changes with it as Davidson enters the heart of election season.

#DavidsonElection2017: After filing, the initial reading of the tea leaves says...

Who would have thought Davidson would end up being this year's ground zero for "most interesting elections to watch" in North Mecklenburg, but that's exactly how things are shaping up after the close of the filing period last Friday.

Both Huntersville and Cornelius have uncontested races for Mayor.  Mayor John Aneralla is seeking re-election in Huntersville.  In Cornelius, current Commissioner Woody Washam is unopposed seeking the Mayor's spot since current current Mayor Chuck Travis decided to not try for another term.  All of the remaining incumbent Commissioners in both towns filed for re-election except for Commissioner Rob Kidwell in Huntersville.  That means each of those boards are guaranteed one new face, but to get more an incumbent has to lose.  That's always a hard thing to do.

In Davidson, things couldn't be more different this time around.

Three candidates are vying for Mayor (John Woods, Rusty Knox, and Laurie Venzon).  This will definitely be Mayor Woods's biggest electoral challenge since becoming Mayor a decade ago.

Both Knox and Venzon are well known names in Davidson politics.  Rusty Knox comes from local political family, and he is well known in his own right as a musician.  Importantly, in recent years he has been leading the charge against many of Town Hall's most unpopular ambitions.  Venzon served previously as Mayor Pro Tem on the Board and is familiar with how Town Hall operates.  Between the two of them, the challenger best able to coalesce the "Not John Woods" vote and eat into Wood's loyal base, stands to take this contest.  However, if that doesn't happen, in a three way race Woods could squeak by with likely less than 50% of the total vote.

On the Commissioners side, things are no less chaotic.  This race has turned into a major contest with thirteen candidates filing for five spots.  Typically, such a large number of candidates is due to some known open seats going into filing.  Open seats where an incumbent doesn't file for re-election attract candidates because of the possibility of getting a seat without having to knock off a sitting Commissioner.  Going into the filing period that wasn't the case in Davidson.  All of the incumbents were mum on their intentions, so many assumed all would file for re-election. Ultimately, though two incumbents did not file - Mayor Pro Tem Beth Cashion and Commissioner Brian Jenest.  While there were rumors out there that these two might not file they were never confirmed, and ultimately having two Commissioners not file was a surprise to many.

So what caused the large number of challengers if it wasn't known open seats?  Issues and controversy, that's what.

It looks like a long simmering discontent with Town Hall finally boiled over and that spurred the large number of candidates with only a few of the challengers being well known names.  Incumbents Jim Fuller, Rodney Graham, and Stacey Anderson filed for re-election, but they are outnumbered by 10 challengers.  Due to controversies over the past two years that have emanated from Town Hall like the Catalyst Project, the Rural Area Plan mass rezoning, and most recently the Beaty Street RFP, any incumbent is probably at risk with Graham and Anderson more so this time due to their recent Beaty Street vote.  Of the three, Jim Fuller is probably in the safest position because he has been on the right side of these contentious issues much more often than not.

The dynamics of this race will be interesting.  With the real possibility of a 4-5 new faces on the Board and so many candidates to choose from, voters will have their work cut out for them.  If a solid slate of candidates comes together to challenge the remaining incumbents, or four challengers plus maybe Fuller, that could leave the remaining incumbents and challengers to resort to single shot voting to have a chance at getting on the new board.

aShortChronicle had previously told readers in this post from 2015 that single shot voting was a way to super charge your vote and help break the grip of incumbents.  This time around those incumbents may be the ones who need to use it.

Mayor Woods launches re-election campaign with denial laden email blast

Wasting no time getting on the campaign trail after filing closed on Friday, Davidson Mayor John Woods opened his re-election campaign with a lengthy email blast to what appears to be a long list of email contacts.

Here is the meat of the announcement without all the opening and closing campaign fluff.

"The work of the town will continue throughout the campaign, and I will remain fully focused and present on all deliberations, working with the commissioners and staff to make the best decisions for our community.

Our top priorities involve honoring our core values and enhancing Davidson's character and sense of place. Our current goals include welcoming our new Police Chief Penny Dunn, opening Fire Station #2 to continue to improve our excellent public safety, and responding to the need for expanded town hall facilities and downtown parking.  

We must renew our commitment to affordable housing, apply our planning ordinance to proposed new developments, and follow the vision we have established for ourselves. 

The financial health of Davidson is always a priority. Spending my professional career as a banker taught me that our continued secure standing will be protected with new employment opportunities and sound economic growth policies. It has been my honor to represent Davidson at the regional, state, and national levels, creating partnerships and collaborations that further our interests, wherever possible."

No mention of Mayor Woods's involvement and vote to create Mi-Connection, the worst financial disaster to ever hit this town.  No mention of his unfailing support for the I77 HOT Lanes project, the worst project in the history of the Lake Norman region.  No mention of the town's highest taxes and fees in the area or the new taxes to be imposed if Mayor Woods and the majority on the current Board get their way with their spending proposals - harming affordability in the process.  No mention of his support for unpopular local projects emanating from the Town Planning Department (Catalyst, RAP Mass Rezoning, Beaty Street) - projects that have sparked a 'Save Davidson" movement to save the town from the the kinds of things Mayor Woods supports.

Rather than a list of accomplishments, there is a lot of denial in this announcement - denial of what Mayor Woods has put this town through over the years.

As this election season kicks off and Mayor Woods faces his toughest re-election campaign yet, this denial laden announcement may very well have been the last one of these he ever gets to make.

Filing period half-time report for Davidson electoral contests

At the midway point in the two week filing period, this year's election in Davidson is setting up to be the most competitive in many years.

There will be a real race for Mayor with 3 candidates in the mix - all of them totally viable from an electoral standpoint.  On the Commissioners side of the ballot, 8 candidates have already filed.

Incumbents Mayor John Woods and Commissioners Rodney Graham and Stacey Anderson have filed for re-election.  The other incumbent Commissioners, Beth Cashion, Jim Fuller, and Brian Jenest have declined to answer when previously asked whether or not they will seek to stay on the Board.  (They were not asked again for this post as the public will find out soon enough anyway.)

The incumbents face a slew of challengers which will create interesting dynamics in the two different races.

So far, Mayor Woods faces Rusty Knox and Laurie Venzon.  Knox is very well known around town and has been leading the charge over the past couple of years against some of the unpopular ideas emanating from Town Hall.  Venzon is a former Commissioner seeking to return to the Board in the top spot as Mayor.  The dynamic, and danger from the challengers' perspective, in a three way race is that the challengers split the anti-incumbent vote and the incumbent squeaks by.

As an example, in a two way head to head race against an unpopular incumbent, it would seem likely either Knox or Venzon would beat Woods handily - say 60% to 40%.  However, in a three way race if Knox and Venzon split the anti-Woods vote and Woods's share of the vote is solid, then Woods could stay in office winning 40%, 30%, 30%.  In this scenario one of the challengers has to win an overwhelming share of the anti-incumbent vote.

On the Commissioner's race several new faces are on the ballot already.  There is also the distinct possibility of 1 or more "open seats".  In Davidson, all 5 Commissioners are always up for election at-large.  The term "open seat" just means an incumbent has decided to not seek re-election.  When that happens it attracts more challengers because it is guaranteed there will be a new face to fill each open seat.

Beating incumbents is always hard to do, but in this election, the incumbents have supported various unpopular projects in varying degrees over the past two years.  Between the real possibility of open seats and this incumbent unpopularity the dynamic of the race can change dramatically.  The top five vote getters make the Board, and this race is shaping up to be close with the potential of an anti-incumbent wave.

However, just like things can change in the second half of a Davidson Wildcats basketball game, we will have to wait and see what happens next week in the second half of the filing period.

The buzzer sounds and filing closes Friday, July 21st at noon.