First a note:
Oct. 27 6;45 PM showing of the Movie Iron Jawed Angels @ the Lyric Theatre in Blacksburg
Now…for the rest of the story:)
Well, ya see, it’s like this. If a town or city wants to be sure to have nonpartisan elections, it must be in their Town Charter. Blacksburg has recently updated its Town Charter to do just that. The Commonwealth of Virginia, State Board of Elections publication: November 3, 2009 Elections Candidacy Requirements for Local Offices has a footnote on page 2, the calendar that addresses this. Look at foot note 1, paragraph 3 and you will see the following:
Guess that pretty much brings all of those arguments about party politics damaging the local elections if moved to November right back home to roost.
A quick glance at the City of Radford and Town of Christiansburg Charters show….(drum roll)…no restriction concerning the elections being nonpartisan.
Given that information, it looks like the elections, whether in May or in November could become partisan on a whim. There is nothing preventing it from happening. The timing of the elections is not the issue. It is the absence of language in the Town Charter restricting this.
Of course, this was just a quick glance and I will be looking for and requesting additional information, but it seems that if current elected officials are concerned about ‘partisan politics’, they simply need to get on the ball and do something about their Charters. They might even want to look at Blacksburg’s recent Charter changes as a model for how to do it.
