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A New City Council for Charlottesville May Bring Greater Cooperation

RadioIQ

Charlottesville seems to be closing the book on one of its most unhappy chapters – electing three new members to city council yesterday.  When that panel convenes in January, not one person from before August of 2017 will remain. 

Charlottesville is a largely Democratic city, so a crowd at the Three Notch’d Brewery was in high spirits, watching a Blue Wave wash over the state.  Celebrants were also cheered by the election of three candidates who decided to run as a block for three open seats on city council – Seana Magill, Michael Payne and long-time party activist Lloyd Snook.

“My sense in talking to voters was that they were not as interested in the specifics of policies as they were in  getting a new tone in council," Snook explains. "That’s why we had some luck between Michael Payne and Seana Magill and me, because we like and  respect each other.”

But he conceded there was someone else who might have helped Democrats statewide.

“Even if Donald Trump wasn’t on the ballot, he was on the ballot," he joked. "People told me, when you get in there, I want you to do something about Trump. I said, ‘That’s not in the power of city council in Charlottesville,’ and they said, ‘I don’t care.  I want you to do something about Trump!’ That’s why they came out in such big numbers today.”

Also winning election in surrounding Albemarle County, a petite woman named Chan Bryant who will succeed long-time sheriff Chip Harding.  

Sandy Hausman is Radio IQ's Charlottesville Bureau Chief