Mayoral and council candidates file paperwork ahead of deadline

The list of Front Royal Town Council and Mayor candidates has been finalized after the June 21, 2022, 7 p.m. deadline to appear on the ballot in the November 8 general election.

Warren County Registrar Carol Tobin said in a Friday email that a lone candidate has filed in the mayoral race. Vice-Mayor Lori Cockrell is stumping for that seat after current council member Joseph McFadden nixed his announced plan to run for mayor.

Back in February, both McFadden and current council member Gary Gillispie announced their intentions to seek the Republican nod for the mayoral seat, but Gillispie did not submit the documents needed to qualify as a candidate, nor did he file to appear on the November 8 ballot. His term expires on December 31, 2022.

Per the Town Charter the election is supposed to be nonpartisan, but since the Warren County Republican Committee began endorsing candidates over a decade ago most conservative candidates have almost always sought out the committee’s nod.

Four candidates will vie for three seats, each for 4-year terms, on the Town Council in the general election: Joshua L. Ingram, Councilman Zachary W. Jackson, Councilwoman Amber Faith Morris, and H. Bruce Rappaport.

Ingram, who ran in a previous council election, serves on the Front Royal Planning Commission. The council appointed Jackson earlier this year to fill the vacancy created when E. Scott Lloyd resigned. Morris won a special election last November to fill Jacob Meza’s unexpired term that ends December 31, 2022. Rappaport has run for council twice before, including losing to Morris in the special election following Meza’s resignation.

Letasha T. Thompson did not file campaign documents; her term expires on December 31, 2022.

Lloyd’s resignation this year necessitates a special election to fill his unexpired term that ends December 31, 2024. Potential candidates have until 5 p.m. August 19 to file documents, according to Ms. Tobin.

She stated in the email that “there is one candidate that has filed documents at the present time for that seat and that is Thomas Hall Sayre.”

Sayre was elected as a Front Royal Town Council member on May 2, 2006, and re-elected on May 5, 2010. He was elected to the Warren County Board of Supervisors on November 3, 2015, and served one term before losing the Shenandoah District seat to current Supervisor Walt Mabe.

Tobin said there is still a process of qualifying and certifying these candidates with the Department of Elections before placing them on the ballot.