Wednesday, November 4, 2015

About the election


Goochland voters went to the polls yesterday, November 3, 2015, and elected Dale Agnew as Clerk of Court, and Jennifer Brown as Commissioner of the Revenue by overwhelming majorities. Congratulations to these fine women for running civil campaigns, and thanks to both of them for years past, and future, of distinguished service to our community.
In spite of a deluge of inflammatory emails, robocalls and advertising, Goochland voters repudiated nasty campaigns that loudly hurled scurrilous charges to detract from candidates’ total lack of relevant skills and experience.

As a community, we should be especially grateful to the good people who work from “cain’t see to cain’t see” every Election Day to man the polls.

Also, our fine Electoral Board: Robin Lind, Bess Stewart, and Wanda Taylor put in countless hours throughout the year to ensure fair elections. Registrar Frances Ragland, the best, in the Commonwealth goes above and beyond the call of duty to ensure that all eligible voters cast ballots.

As the county has no real newspaper and the Chamber of Commerce decided not to get involved, this year’s election was held in a vacuum. Well-funded rumor and innuendo replaced open, thoughtful discussion of issues. Goochland voters saw through the smoke and mirrors, but it wasn’t easy.

Goochland badly needs an impartial organization to organize candidate forums where voters can hear candidates to state their case for election and respond to charges from their opponents. Without a mechanism where citizens can pose questions to the candidates, the campaigns get to control the election narrative.

The Goochland Chapter of the NAACP is to be commended for holding this year’s only election forums. Sadly, they were lightly attended.

It’s time for all political parties, churches, and civic organizations like the NAACP to come together and create a mechanism where voters can “kick” the tires of all candidates in all elections. Forums could be live streamed and archived for greater distribution.

It’s time to make sure that all local elections, which all too often take place below the radar screen of Goochland citizens, get the attention they deserve.




3 comments:

Pat said...

Given the availability and widespread participation in social media - why not set up a forum for the candidates to debate issues on Facebook, for example?

Perhaps citizens would post questions, but "only" the candidates could respond. A failure to participate would say something about the candidate, that might be useful in selecting whom to vote for. If enough citizens want to participate, a separate forum could be set up to copy candidate positions to a place where citizens could debate among themselves over what the candidates had to say.

As to who would set this up - how about the county electoral board, since they seem to do a fair and impartial job of managing elections?

Anonymous said...

Is this blog part of the propaganda engine run by the Times Dispatch? Or is Warwick one of the "good ol' families" of Goochland? Or is it just run by a stooge who wants the crumbs raked from the tables of the true owners of Goochland?

Surely, no one who is familiar with the truth of Goochland can read such fluff and feel "informed". Surely, many readers wait in vain for the real news of Goochland..such as how the wife of the Sheriff can be Clerk of the Circuit Court (a little old-school, don't ya think?) or how other family relations and old buddies are infesting the local government. Or maybe how the board so often votes in lock step as if they know they are being watched.

Or how about how board members and other "elected" officials who have personality changes as soon as they entered office. Are they being blackmailed and extorted by the ruling class of Goochland, or are they simply carefully screened for those who will cower in obedience in exchange for graft? It is amazing how positions are vacated, assigned by special people, and then the voters just happen to agree and vote for the same people that the special people have chosen.

Maybe we should talk about the Freemasons who have run the county for the longest time. Are you sure it's the voters who are in charge instead of them?

I like the way you say to "remember" that if you don't vote you can't complain. Thanks for telling us what we can and can't do, repeating the same old mind-numbing propaganda of authoritarianism. But for my part, I can't waste fossil fuels to participate in fraud elections that always manage to keep "the family" in charge of Goochland. I will just wait for real news to appear, perhaps all of those stories covered up over the years by the Times Dispatch (and maybe you).

Pat said...

Wow, is Anonymous new to Goochland County, and therefore unaware that the entire government was essentially overturned after decades of the same people being in office? They've only served one term, except Creasey, if my memory is correct.

I was concerned at the huge takeover by Republicans, and I still am; but so far they haven't insisted on teaching Intelligent Design or mandated prayer in school or rounded up immigrants to deport them. From what I read, the financial situation in the county has improved and my taxes haven't changed much. Nobody ran against them, so they can't be doing that bad a job! My Supervisor has always responded to any request or question I may have had. The transfer station is well run and maintained, the good people in Administration are pleasant and competent.

Anonymous has made some accusations, without providing any details. I'd be interested in knowing about all these personal relationships that are infesting our local government. If there's a problem, I'm interested in hearing about it. Perhaps Anonymous would help Ms Warwick uncover all this nefarious business. It should be quite a scoop!

Can Anonymous provide evidence that the Freemasons are running the county? Name some names perhaps? Tell us about those old stories covered up over the years. I'm a whiner and I can find little to whine about, so give me some dirt.

Talk about your "fluff."