Ask any candidate for Richmond City Council what their three priorities are, and they’ll almost certainly recite some version of the three following sentences: Get our financial house in order. Provide adequate resources for our public schools. Deliver basic services efficiently for our citizens.
These big-picture items define candidate platforms for council incumbents and challengers alike from all nine districts, underscoring a deep-seated frustration with the performance of local government over the last four years. City Council, the nine-person legislative arm of City Hall, is no small part of that. An August poll conducted by the Wason Center for Public Policy at Christopher Newport University found that half of the 600 people surveyed were unhappy with the job council has done.
“People want to see forward progress on the big issues the city faces,” says Bob Holsworth, a longtime observer of city politics. “By and large, people think there’s a lot of good things going on in Richmond, but the government doesn’t work, and they want to see it function effectively and fairly.”
Several headline-grabbing disputes between council members and the administration of Mayor Dwight C. Jones cemented the perception of City Hall’s dysfunction. The mayor’s ill-fated proposal to build a baseball stadium in Shockoe Bottom is the most prominent example. There was also the Economic Development Authority-negotiated Stone Brewing Co. deal. There was the back-and-forth over the Broad Street bus rapid transit line. A preoccupation with “big shiny things,” as some mayoral candidates have derided them, adds to the perception that City Hall’s leaders are out of step with the residents who elected them.
Three incumbents seeking re-election — Chris Hilbert (3rd District), Ellen Robertson (6th) and Reva Trammell (8th) — face challengers asking what they have to show for their long tenures. The four open seats — the West End’s 1st District, the Fan-anchored 2nd District, the Westover Hills area’s 4th District and South Side’s 9th District — have drawn three or four hopefuls respectively. Many of the newcomers have received backing from influential local interest groups (see “Races to Watch,” pages 90-91).
“Even the Democratic Party is abandoning some of these incumbents on the council and School Board,” says Richard Meagher, a professor at Randolph-Macon College. “It’s a house-cleaning election … People want new ideas.”
