11 people turn packets in for November Town Election – Certification process continues

A call to Warren County Voter Registrar Carol Tobin on Wednesday, June 10, one day after the deadline for filing petitions and applications to be on the November Town Election ballot, revealed 11 packets had been turned in. Though Tobin noted that her and the State Electoral Board certification processes confirming the necessary number of verified town voters on petitions would likely not be completed until next week.

Eleven people will be jockeying for four elected seats serving out of Town Hall in November – with 2 incumbents not seeking re-election. Royal Examiner Photo/Roger Bianchini

Three candidates have filed for mayor – uh oh, I can’t play favorites here, I’ll list him last – incumbent Chris Holloway whose council seat is not up for election this year; James Favors, believed to be a recent residential transplant from the Stephens City area of Frederick County and we have been told, a real estate agent in this area; and Royal Examiner Publisher and National Media principal Mike McCool.

Interestingly, in addition to Tewalt’s redirection from the mayor’s seat to council, two of three council incumbents whose seats are up will not be seeking re-election. They are Vice-Mayor Bill Sealock, retired, and Valley Health outpatient facilities manager Jacob Meza – Oh Jake, I’ll miss your not answering my questions.

Running for Meza, Sealock and Lori Cockrell’s council seats will be: Mayor Eugene Tewalt who apparently has had enough of butting heads with the council majority with only a tiebreaking vote; Cockrell who was appointed to fill Tewalt’s vacant council seat upon his November 2019 special election victory over Hollis Tharpe to replace Interim Mayor Matt Tederick; former Town surveyor, Planning Commission member and local Blue Ridge Heritage Project Manager Darryl Merchant; Fussell Florist’s owner and recent council majority critic Betty Showers; another recent council critic and Project Manager for Accuracy International North America (they make sniper rifles) Bruce Rappaport; local fitness trainer and Town Planning Commissioner Joseph McFadden; Joshua Ingram, a project manager for a securities integrator firm; and attorney, former Trump Administration refugee affairs administrator, anti-abortion activist and anti-abortion fiction author Scott Lloyd.

As previously reported and seen in our June 8 council meeting video, the 2020 Town Election season has already turned partisan and hot, hot, hot. More on these candidates as their ballot applications are certified and information becomes available.

Alisa Carson’s June 8 town council meeting political attack on the Virginia Beer Museum and Town, County and media officials who attended a non-bikini clad ribbon cutting there the day prior to the bikini-bike washing event behind a back biergarten privacy fence. – Don’t you love Election Season?

And this reporter and Royal Examiner Publisher McCool want to state that all candidates will be given equal space to make their electoral cases, including McCool’s opponents in the mayor’s race. Like I told Mike, “You will receive no preferential treatment from this political reporter – just don’t fire me for carefully navigating the rather complicated political waters your candidacy has created for us. – THAT would look bad on the campaign stump, ‘Citizen Kane’.”