Independent candidates in ‘non-partisan’ Town Election explain absence from Republican Candidates Forum

As reported in our lead story on the August 19 Warren County Republican Committee Candidates Forum, only four of the 11 candidates on the November Town Election ballot showed up at the Villa Avenue Community Center for the first formal candidates question and answer event. And those four were the four active county Republican Committee members likely to receive the committee’s four planned endorsements – three for council, one for mayor – anyway.

Mike McCool

Royal Examiner decided to inquire of those forum no shows about their absence. Due to easy proximity down the National Media hallway from the Royal Examiner office, I first inquired of our publisher and mayoral candidate Mike McCool, a former committee member, about his decision.

“The Republican Forum is where the local committee will select the candidates they will endorse in the upcoming election. Front Royal elections are non-partisan. As elected local officials, we should be about doing the citizen’s business, not the interest of any political party whose interest may not be in the best interest of all the town citizens,” McCool said, further observing of the non-partisan aspect of Town Elections, “Also, cooperation between elected officials belonging to different parties is more likely. As mayor, I will work for all citizens of Front Royal, not for the Republicans or Democrat’s interests as it appears now.

“Even California, as liberal as it is, doesn’t allow political parties to endorse candidates in non-partisan local elections,” McCool concluded with a not-too-subtle jab at the county Republicans’ stance on partisan endorsements in what by Town Charter is designed to be a non-partisan election resulting in municipal government by common sense, rather than partisan ideology.

It was not the last we would hear on that theme.

We next spoke by phone to another former county Republican Committee member, current Front Royal Mayor Eugene Tewalt. Tewalt won a Special Election victory over another former mayor, Hollis Tharpe, last November. He left his council seat at the beginning of the year to assume the vacant mayor’s chair that had been manned by Vice-Mayor William Sealock since Tharpe left council in early May of 2019 to deal with later dropped misdemeanor legal charges.

Here chairing a council work session, Mayor Eugene Tewalt has said much like Rodney Dangerfield, that he has gotten ‘No Respect’ from the Republican Council majority due to conflicting opinions on key issues. So, he running to regain a voting council seat. Royal Examiner File Photo

Council’s current Republican Committee majority appointed fellow committee member Lori Athey Cockrell to fill Tewalt’s vacant council seat. Cockrell did attend the Republican Candidates Forum with fellow council incumbent Chris Holloway, running for mayor this election while his council seat is not up for re-election, and new council challengers Joseph McFadden and Scott Lloyd.

Tewalt has elected (pun intended) to run to regain a voting council seat after often finding himself in a non-voting minority, other than tie-breaking votes, against the Republican-endorsed council majority this year on various issues, particularly the hostile and litigious stance council and its interim town manager have taken against the existing and re-tooled EDA; and corresponding move to create a second, unilateral, Town-funded EDA in competition with the County-overseen EDA the Town continues to keep a legal membership stake in.

Of his decision to skip the Republican Forum Tewalt said, “The main reason is our Town Charter says we’re to be non-partisan. I’ve stressed that since I’ve been on council. Last year when I ran for mayor they asked to endorse me and I told them I was running as a non-partisan candidate but they went ahead and endorsed me anyway. But that’s what I told them and it holds true today as well.”

Betty Showers, independent council candidate – courtesy photo from candidate

The rest of the responses we received were by email following daytime phone inquiries. Next we heard from Fussell Florists proprietor Betty Showers.

“I received an email from Mr. Kurtz in July letting me know about the Republican forum and inviting me to attend. I thanked him for including me but informed him I was not interested in being endorsed by the Republican Committee, that I was running as an independent, therefore I would not be attending.

“My understanding is that the Town Election is supposed to be non-partisan, therefore I do not want to be endorsed by either Republican or Democratic Committees,” Showers told Royal Examiner.

“My reason for not attending the Republican Committee forum was purely simple,” long-time town resident and military equipment manufacturing company employee H. Bruce Rappaport told us, continuing a recurring theme and observing that the endorsement all candidates should be seeking will come on November 3^rd.

H. Bruce Rappaport, independent council candidate – courtesy photo from candidate

“I am a non-partisan candidate running to serve my hometown and if elected I will serve our constituents to the best my ability. I am not looking for an endorsement from any particular party, rather the people of the Town of Front Royal will let all the candidates know who they will endorse on November 3^rd. The goal is to be a champion for all of Front Royal, rather than for one particular party.”

Then it was former Town Planning Department land surveyor, cartographer and local Blue Ridge Heritage Project Chairman Darryl Merchant’s turn.

Darryl Merchant, independent council candidate – courtesy photo from candidate

“I was invited by text message from Steve Kurtz to participate in the recent Republican Party candidates forum. I was informed by Mr. Kurtz that candidates for Town Council would be queried on various topics and then the committee would select three individuals for endorsement by the local Republican Party.

“I informed Mr. Kurtz that I was an independent candidate and was not seeking the endorsement of any political party or group, and therefore I would not be attending the event. I strongly believe that by being an independent candidate I can best represent the interests of the Town of Front Royal and its citizens, without the undue influence of political dogma.”

Our final council candidate to weigh in was electronic security integrator project manager Josh Ingram, who put an exclamation point on the theme of political partisanship’s negative impact on the conduct of current town government.

Josh Ingram, independent council candidate – courtesy photo from candidate

“Although I’m a Republican, I chose not to seek the endorsement of the Warren County Republican Committee because of the disenfranchisement they’ve caused the residents of Front Royal at the local level. The overwhelming sense that I’ve gathered from the people here is that the current political establishment has put its own interests ahead of the residents’.

“By running as an independent candidate, I want the people of Front Royal to know that I’ll truly represent THEIR interests,” Ingram told Royal Examiner by email, capitalized emphasis in context.

The only non-attending candidate we did not get a response from by publication was mayoral candidate James Favors, a recent Frederick County transplant whom we first contacted by phone about an emailed reply as he was heading into meetings the morning of Monday, August 24. This story will be updated with his response when and if it is received.