Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

What About Doug?

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by

James A. Bacon
in

In our latest Agree to Disagree column, Thad Williamson and I don’t disagree about much when it comes to the Richmond mayor’s race.

Barring a huge change in existing conditions, this is Doug Wilder’s race to lose. Should he decide to run again, that is.

And that is really the question: will Doug run again? I’d place a small wager that he does. If so, he sweeps the field, but has a much harder time doing so than in his first outing back in 2004, when he rolled up 80% of the vote and carried each of the city’s nine wards.

However, if he decides there is no more good china left to smash on Broad Street and decides life was better in Charles City after all, then I expect the field to grow by leaps and bounds…and provide local political junkies with the show of their lives.

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  1. Church Hill Dem Avatar
    Church Hill Dem

    I think you’re right on target — except even with Doug’s likely candidacy, local political junkies and even their apolitical neighbors will have the show of their lives. A field with Doug, Jackie Jackson, Paul Goldman, Dave Hicks, Bill Pantele and lord knows who else will be a barrell of laughs.

    The prime question for the mayor isn’t if he can win 5 of the 9 districts again, but if he can win a majority on City Council and School board so he has others to break the fine china for him.

    Doug had a minority on both the City Council and School Board during the first two years of his term despite his lukewarm support for endorsed candidates (I think he appeared in mailers for endorsed candidates, but didn’t do much else.) Did he help as much as he should have? No. Did he learn from that? No.

    As we saw in the last election cycle, the mayor complained about how little he was able to get done due to an obstinate City Council and School Board, yet we did not find him actively supporting candidates.

    If the mayor isn’t going to get out there and go out on a limb for the candidates he wants to get elected, then I refuse to sympathize.

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