Video: Duane Snow's Board of Supervisors campaign announcement

Duane Snow announces campaign for Albemarle Board of Supervisors
from Charlottesville Tomorrow on Vimeo.

Video: Bob Fenwick's City Council campaign announcement

A video is now available for the May 15, 2009 Charlottesville City Council campaign announcement by Bob Fenwick (I).

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Bob Fenwick launches independent campaign for Charlottesville City Council
from Charlottesville Tomorrow on Vimeo.

Video: Andrew Williams' City Council campaign announcement

A video is now available for the May 13, 2009 Charlottesville City Council campaign announcement by Andrew Williams (I).

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Independent Andrew Williams enters Charlottesville City Council race
from Charlottesville Tomorrow on Vimeo.

Video: City Council Candidate Forum #2

A video is now available for the May 6, 2009 City Council Candidate Forum.

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Charlottesville Democrats hold forum for three City Council candidates
from Charlottesville Tomorrow on Vimeo.

Video: City Council Candidate Forum

A transcript and video are now available for the April 21, 2009 City Council Candidate Forum.

Download the transcript by Charlottesville Tomorrow.

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Norris, Szakos and Taliaferro appear at first City Council candidate forum
from Charlottesville Tomorrow on Vimeo.

Video: Madison Cummings' campaign launch

Go to Charlottesville Tomorrow's audio podcast and summary of this event. Watch the video below.
Madison Cummings launches campaign for Albemarle County Board of Supervisors
from Charlottesville Tomorrow on Vimeo.

John Lowry officially launches campaign for Albemarle’s Board of Supervisors

By Sean Tubbs
Charlottesville Tomorrow
Thursday, April 9, 2009

Candidate John Lowry (I-Samuel Miller)

North Garden resident John Lowry has officially announced his intention to run for the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors as an independent candidate. He says he has enough signatures to qualify to appear on the ballot for the Samuel Miller District seat being vacated by Supervisor Sally Thomas (I).
Lowry is the Chairman of the Economic Development Authority. For 31 years he worked in the securities and investments sector and retired in 2008 as investment counselor for Old Dominion Capital Management.

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Listen using player above or download the podcast: 20090407-Lowry-Announcement

Lowry made his campaign announcement at the County Office Building South on 5th Street Extended as a symbol, he said,  of how government can leverage its resource to get good deals. The facility was paid for by a bond issued by the Economic Development Authority. Lowry gave credit to County Executive Bob Tucker for maintaining the County’s AAA bond rating.

 Lowry said he is running to provide “better government” in Albemarle County. He said he has been preparing for this run for three years, and has learned a lot about how to accomplish his goal.

“There are many issues that face the county,” Lowry said. “Affordable housing, keeping good government employees, the water issue, the safety of our citizens.” Lowry said his campaign would focus on quality of life, education and transportation. He said if elected, he would work to preserve the County’s green spaces, and would investigate ways to raise more money for transportation.

Julian Taliaferro announces campaign for re-election to City Council

Councilor Julian Taliaferro (D) announced on March 9, 2009 that he would run for re-election to the Charlottesville City Council. Taliaferro was elected to his first term in 2006 and he currently serves as the Vice Mayor. With the initiation of this campaign, he becomes the third Democrat to vie for the two open seats on City Council. and Kristin Szakos and Dave Norris have also launched their respective campaigns. The Democratic Party will hold an “unassembled caucus” to select their candidates on a date to be announced, but sometime between May 8th and June 9th.  The general election will be held on November 3, 2009.

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Listen using player above or download the podcast: Download 20090309-Taliaferro

In the announcement address held in front of Charlottesville City Hall, Taliaferro listed four issues he considers central to his campaign, “our public education system, affordable housing, efficient and effective deliver of city services, and the preservation and enhancement of our quality of life.” 

When asked by a reporter about any concrete goals for another term, Taliaferro highlighted two items. "One of the things I certainly want to bring to some sort of resolution is the community water plan and obviously I want to continue to support the public education system in the City," said Taliaferro.

Taliaferro praised the City’s recent efficiency study as well as the City’s fiscally conservative outlook on budgeting, and attributed this approach to allowing the community to weather tough economic times with few service cuts.

“This council has taken a leadership role in implementing green city initiatives that will protect our environment,” said Taliaferro to a gathering of about thirty supporters.  He said he is particularly proud of the enhancement of transit services secured within the last few years .

Watch the video below:

Taliaferro also defended Charlottesville’s revenue-sharing agreement with Albemarle County. “I have been somewhat dismayed at some of the careless remarks of some of the County leadership regarding our long-standing annexation agreement.” He summarized the history of the agreement, and insisted that the County is getting a good deal in return for the City’s lost potential for annexation. He said he would like to stop arguing over revenue sharing and work toward the consolidation of some City and County services.

In response to another question from the media, Taliaferro acknowledged that he attended a recent citizen protest of the proposed Meadowcreek Parkway on the previous Saturday. As City Councilor, Taliaferro voted in favor of easements for the Meadowcreek Parkway in June 2008. He told reporters that he hadn’t changed his mind yet, but that he is listening carefully to the opposition’s arguments and is leaning “a little more” against the project then he had been previously.

Taliaferro stood with several current and former public officials while giving his address in front of City Hall. Former City Mayors Tom Vandever and Blake Caravati, current City Treasurer Jennifer Brown, current City Commissioner of Revenue Lee Richards, current City Commonwealth Attorney, Dave Chapman, and candidate for City Sheriff, Mike Baird, all stood to show their support for Taliaferro’s re-election campaign.  Brown, Richard and Chapman’s positions are elected in the City and will also appear on the November 2009 ballot.

See Charlottesville Tomorrow's Election Watch page for complete coverage of the City's 2009 elections for City Council.

Daniel Nairn & Brian Wheeler

Kristin Szakos launches campaign for City Council

On February 14, 2009 outside the Downtown Transit Center, Charlottesville Democrat Kristin Szakos (D) announced her campaign for one of two seats on Charlottesville City Council.  Democrats will select their nominees at a "firehouse primary" to be held on a date between May 8th and June 9th.  The general election will be held on November 3, 2009.  Two of the five at-large seats on Charlottesville City Council will be on the ballot and they are currently held by Democrats Dave Norris and Julian Taliaferro who were both elected to their first terms in 2006. 

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Listen using player above or download the podcast: Download 20090214-szakos

Szakos has been a Charlottesville resident for the past fifteen years.  She is married to Joe Szakos and has two daughters.  A former journalist, Szakos has spent the past two years as Volunteer Coordinator for the 2008 Obama presidential campaign in Charlottesville.  

Szakos told a crowd of supporters that she had never considered herself a potential candidate for political office until experiencing the Obama campaign.  “I never thought that I’d want to run for office,” said Szakos.  “Yet here I am and I am feeling really good about it.”

Szakos said the intends to channel the energy from the Obama campaign into local issues at City Hall.  “We need to talk about why there are still such great gaps in opportunity and education in Charlottesville, and work hard to close them,” said Szakos.  “We need to speak out about inequality in a town as seemingly progressive and prosperous as ours, and we need to work to change it.”

Watch the video below:

Szakos identified the following items as her campaign pledge:

• Make City government more responsive to under-served neighborhoods
• Get people involved in the decisions that affect their lives
• Listen to all perspectives and strive to find common ground
• Find new and creative solutions to persistent community problems
• Find new ways to save money and reduce energy consumption, and
• Use “people power” to bring needed change

See Charlottesville Tomorrow's Election Watch page for complete coverage of the City's 2009 elections.

Brian Wheeler

Livable Communities expert addresses area planners

The executive director of an Atlanta-based organization that encourages quality growth made a presentation to an audience of Charlottesville and Albemarle County planners on September 5, 2008. Jim Durrett of the Livable Communities Coalition was invited by Albemarle County to make the presentation, which reviewed several strategies that communities can use in order to create mixed-use communities with greater housing density in response to market forces showing increased demand for these types of neighborhoods.

Watch the video below: