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Dear George, Here's a few more pennies to throw in the discussion pot. I think both David Repass and Lloyd Snook are missing the point of the last election: Higher voter turnout on local issues may reflect different views than held by the party leadership. The Republican-vs-Democrat battle scenario is partisan and avoids substantive discussions. The question is not whether Republicans will take over. The fear is that not all Democrats will agree on all issues. Moving local elections to November was a big gamble. Increased participation does not necessarily mean increased support for status quo. The elected school board referendum in Nov. 2005 is an example of that. 7,106 voted for and 2,597 against (http://sbe.vipnet.org/nov2005/local/540.htm), close to half of all registered voters. At the council meeting on Nov. 21, some party leaders even said they had vote against the referendum. In the May 2004 council election, the top vote-getter Kendra Hamiltion won a landslide with 3,465 votes, with one in four people actually voting. What if 10,000 had voted in 2004? Just moving elections to November spells big trouble for the small group who have controlled city governmental policies for so long. The 2005 House of Delegates race clearly shows the city to be Democratic. 8,034 voted for David Toscano; 1,813 for the Republican Thomas McCrystal. If they had both been Democrats or Independents, there may have been a different outcome. It was widely reported that the two candidates were more similar than different in their positions. The power struggle with the Republicans is a straw tiger and allows local candidates to win just by saying "I'm not a Republican." No need to talk about ideas, unless it's more or less of what we're already doing. If the Democratic leadership would pledge not to descibe dissenters as monolithically Republican, the discourse will elevate itself. The fear of a ward system is simply personal fear of losing power and prestige. The fear is that other Democrats, ones not in your circle of friends, will bring new ideas and greater scrutiny to city government. When you include more people, you get a more responsive government. What happened to the Democrats for Change and Meredith Richards? Did they unite with the old guard to oppose the Republican threat? I'd like to think of Charlottesville as a progressive community that abhors discrimination, whether it be racial, ethnic, religious, class, or gender-based. So it doesn't make me proud to see people demonized on the basis of political creed. What about content of character and merit of ideas? The next battle will be to resist the changes that come with increased participation. We're already seeing that. Sincerely,
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