Town Council running well

Judging solely by the record number of candidates (11), the upcoming Town Council election is likely to be the most watched in recent memory.

The past three council elections have had similar results with the winner taking about 20 percent of the vote and the rest of the field not far behind, mostly in the mid- to upper teens. In 2004, there was only a five-vote difference between fourth place (which won a seat) and fifth, which was out of the running. That was with only about 1,000 voters.

There should be more voters this year. But with so many candidates the odds of the difference between fourth and fifth is likely to be very thin. While it is a cliché to say every vote counts, one vote may very well make the difference between winning and losing this time around. 

Three incumbents are running (Chris Snider, Mike Olinger, and Chip Coleman) and one former Town Council member (Bobby Ryan). While there are a lot of issues at stake, it is clear that illegal immigration was the prime issue for a slate of four candidates I call the HPC4 (Jerry Beckett, Pat Baker, William Platts and Julie Peppe). HPC is the anti-illegal immigration group that calls itself Help Protect Culpeper.

While some of those candidates like to give the impression that they are all independent and are not single-issue candidates, HPC president and TC candidate Beckett told the Star-Exponent in January that “We have four candidates running and we all have similar views.”

I have little doubt that their prime reason for running was their hopes of taking over the town council with fellow HPC member Steve Jenkins. Jenkins told the CSE last week that he wanted to see “the town of Culpeper adopt a resolution similar to the one adopted last year in Prince William County” that would increase police powers to enforce immigration laws and deny certain public services to illegal aliens. Jenkins acknowledges that such policies can open the town to expensive litigation but “that’s no reason” not to do it.

Even before any lawsuits, the policy will cost Prince William County taxpayers $6.4 million just to begin imple-mentation, then millions more annually. But perhaps more important in the long run is that the anti-immigrant image makes it hard to sell PWC as “progressive, dynamic, and thriving” said the chairman of the county chamber of commerce recently in the Washington Post. But this is the direction that the HPC4 wants to take Culpeper. And to do that they need to take over the Town Council.

In some of their CSE interviews, the HPC4 has tried to portray themselves as concerned about multiple issues. But invariably, when they would attend council meetings they would leave shortly after their public comments or after immigration issues were finished being discussed. In fact, during last Tuesday’s budget meetings, none of the HPC4 candidates showed up at either the afternoon or evening sessions. I guess how the people’s money is spent is not real important to them.

The HPC4 candidates have long been openly confrontational with the entire board (except for Jenkins). If they are elected, forming a working relationship with the remaining council members — critical to getting the tough work done on the real problems facing the town — will be very difficult, if not impossible.

During the incumbents’ watch the past four years, overall taxes have been lowered while services have improved. Those incumbents also have the hands-on experience necessary to deal with the often complicated issues.

But if you think keeping illegal immigrants from getting library cards is more important than experience, lower taxes and more services, by all means vote for the HPC4.

Last word: Those three incumbents have been criticized by some for presiding over the rapid growth the town has seen in recent years. But the zoning that made all those housing developments possible was approved decades ago, some of it before two of the incumbents were even born.

Robert Legge is an independent columnist and resident of Madison County. His column appears on Thursday. E-mail