Danville Treasurer: Lyn Barbour (unopposed)

Danville Commissioner of Revenue: Jimmy Gillie (unopposed)

60th District Delegate: James Edmunds (unopposed)

16th District Delegate: Don Merricks (unopposed)

9th District Delegate: Charles Poindexter

14th District Delegate: Danny Marshall

Danville City [...]]]> Here’s the easiest way to look at all of SouthsideCentral’s endorsements for Election Day. Get out & vote!

Danville Treasurer: Lyn Barbour (unopposed)

Danville Commissioner of Revenue: Jimmy Gillie (unopposed)

60th District Delegate: James Edmunds (unopposed)

16th District Delegate: Don Merricks (unopposed)

9th District Delegate: Charles Poindexter

14th District Delegate: Danny Marshall

Danville City Sheriff: Mike Mondul

Danville Commonwealth’s Attorney: Claudette Robertson & James Martin

Halifax County races: J.T Davis, Tom West, William Fitzgerald and Wayne Conner for Board of Supervisors (all unopposed), District 2 School Board: Karen Hopkins, District 3 School Board: Kim Farson & District 6 School Board: Fay Satterfield & Stanley Brandon.

Statewide Races: Bob McDonnell for Governor, Bill Bolling for Lt. Governor and Ken Cuccinelli for Attorney General.

This year’s local political races have been significantly more interesting than the statewide races. In our opinion, there’s a distinct difference to each of the candidates and each race seems to have a clear choice.

Governor: We [...]]]> We’re wrapping up the political endorsements today and quickly covering all three major statewide offices at once.

This year’s local political races have been significantly more interesting than the statewide races. In our opinion, there’s a distinct difference to each of the candidates and each race seems to have a clear choice.

Governor: We feel Bob McDonnell is the better candidate of the two running for the office. McDonnell has promised to have either himself or LG Bolling visit Southside every month, and his proposal to lower the number-of-jobs threshold to qualify for tax incentives in “economically distressed” areas will help out the regional economy.

Lieutenant Governor: Bill Bolling is the clear choice over Jody Wagner. Wagner has ignored the Southside region and her campaign (and identity) is a mystery to a majority of voters in this region. Wagner’s campaign has gone negative in the past month with things like a cartoon cigar-smoking Bolling controlling the health-care industry. That’s ridiculous and so is Wagner.

Attorney General: Ken Cuccinelli is our choice in this race, and our mind on this race was made up when his opponent continually tried to make it seem that the position of the Attorney General was the chief prosecutor of Virginia. When Steve Shannon kept running ads touting his experience as a prosecutor and saying he was tough on child pornography, we wondered if he realized that the Attorney General’s job was to be an impartial lawyer that writes legal opinions for the state. Mass hysteria has been created by people who believe that Cuccinelli will purge the AG’s office of anybody that’s gay. Ridiculous, and Cuccinelli wins by default. Cuccinelli will make a good AG and all of this false negativity against him has only helped his cause.

SouthsideCentral believes that Bob McDonnell, Bill Bolling and Ken Cuccinelli will do great jobs in their respective offices and we encourage our readers to cast their votes for them on Tuesday, November 3rd.

Michael Newman, Claudette Robertson and James Martin are the three candidates that are looking to replace 10-term [...]]]> Danville voters have to make a choice for Commonwealth’s Attorney on Tuesday. With three qualified candidates running and no incumbent, it’s going to be a tough choice. SouthsideCentral is ready to make our endorsement in this race.

Michael Newman, Claudette Robertson and James Martin are the three candidates that are looking to replace 10-term incumbent Bill Fuller in the job of Danville’s lead prosecutor. All three candidates have experience as a prosecutor and are all highly qualified to hold the office.

Michael Newman is currently one of three senior assistant Commonwealth’s Attorneys (although he has often said that he is “the” senior assistant… not true) and has served under Fuller for many years. Newman has had the front-runner attitude and confidence for most of this campaign cycle, but we feel there’s a fine line between confidence and arrogance. Unfortunately for Newman, in the last forum (sponsored by the Danville Ministerial Alliance), Newman crossed that line multiple times and sounded like an ass at times to the other candidates. We find that attitude to be hostile and unacceptable.

James Martin has worked in the Danville Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office for many years and currently is in a law firm partnership with his wife. He has ran an “new ideas” type of campaign featuring initiatives like creating a “drug court” to help unclog the court system (which we are in complete agreement) with, and “vertical prosecution” where one assistant CA handles a case from start to finish. “Vertical prosecution” has probably gone over the heads of most voters who have no idea how the inner workings of a prosecutor’s office operate. Before we took it upon ourselves to learn more about the processes, we didn’t know these things either.

Claudette Robertson is the most “outsider” of the three candidates but still brings just as much experience to this race as the other two candidates. She has worked in both Danville’s and Pittsylvania County’s prosecutor’s offices and she currently has her own private practice. Robertson started off the campaign by proposing “open-file discovery” where the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office sits down with a defense lawyer and tells them exactly what they’ve got against their client. Open-file discovery is used by most of the neighboring jurisdictions (which is enough proof for me that it’s a good policy) and has been shown as a big time-and-cost saver by getting cases cleared out quickly. If the defense attorney sees that they’ve got enough to convict his client, he’s going to go back to his client and say “They’ve got you, it’s time to talk.” Robertson also has talked about the grand jury system procedure that is currently in place in Danville. Six times a year, police officers are pulled off the street or paid overtime to appear at the grand jury when their testimony is not needed. Robertson has proposed that police officers should only be placed on-call and only pulled out of duty if their testimony is needed. The cost savings of this policy would be immediate savings to the taxpayers and makes sense to us.

Thoughts:

• Bill Fuller (the outgoing 40 year Commonwealth’s Attorney) has not made an endorsement in this race and we do find that interesting since Newman has highly stressed his current tenure in the office in his campaign. When asked about this at the DMA’s forum, Newman deflected that direct question by saying he was looking for the endorsement of Danville’s voters. With Newman’s “If you liked Bill Fuller, you’ll like me.” type of campaign, the lack of endorsement from Fuller sets that type of campaign back.
• Although the Danville Register & Bee has endorsed Michael Newman, we find their endorsement to be useless because it seems they have based it on a desire to see criminals continue to be prosecuted. All three candidates (and any other person in the office) would continue to prosecute crimes because that would be the duties of the job. The R&B endorsement did not cover the other candidates’ strengths and ideas. (We’ll have an OpinionCentral on the inanity of the R&B’s endorsement later today.)
• During the DMA forum, the candidates were asked which candidate they would vote for if they were not running. Both Newman & Robertson said that they would vote for Martin. Martin coyly diverted his answer into a vote for Bob Adams (another senior CA). Unfortunately, Martin has turned those sound bites into a TV commercial which promotes himself at the expense of the other two candidates’s praising of his qualification. Although the commercial is cute and humorous, we are disappointed that Martin used a forum question like that to advance his own campaign while his opponents were just saying good things about him. We feel that Jim Martin is better than that commercial.
• We believe that you can bring new ideas into a prosecutor’s office like the drug court and open-file discovery without being labeled “soft on crime”. Newman has not embraced any of these ideas and has been openly hostile to the idea of open-file discovery (with the attitude of “we’ve never used it before and it’s a bad idea”). Open-file discovery is a great idea that is used by most neighboring jurisdictions and has been shown as a very good policy to implement. We applaud Martin & Robertson for introducing new initiatives into a campaign that will introduce a new Commonwealth’s Attorney into the office.
• The job of Commonwealth’s Attorney is more of a management job than an active prosecutor’s job. The Commonwealth’s Attorney will only be in court for the most violent and highest-profile cases, so we are looking for a candidate who brings a managerial attitude as well as prosecutor experience.

Michael Newman is a well-qualified candidate for the office, but we feel that there’s time for a change in the 40-year old “we’ve always done it this way” mentality and Newman does not have that point of view. James Martin is a well-qualified candidate for the office and would bring a refreshing attitude to the office.  Claudette Robertson is also a well-qualified candidate and would also bring a new attitude to the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office. We are highly impressed with both Martin & Robertson and the way that they have conducted their campaigns and presented themselves along with the issues. That being said, we feel that all three candidates would make an excellent Commonwealth’s Attorney… but we know that voters have to select one at the voting booth. On SouthsideCentral, we’re not restricted to endorsing one candidate and we’re going to use that non-restriction now. It’s going to be a tough decision for us when it comes time to step into the voting booth Tuesday.

SouthsideCentral gives our endorsement to both Claudette Robertson & James Martin because we feel that they are the best people for Danville’s Commonwealth’s Attorney. We strongly support their campaigns and urge our readers to vote for one of them in Tuesday’s election.

We’ll start out with the unopposed candidates for the Board of Supervisors. Although it’s a shame that there has [...]]]> Halifax County has four unopposed races for the Board of Supervisors and three contested races for the School Board. SouthsideCentral has listened to all of the candidates and we are ready to make our endorsements.

We’ll start out with the unopposed candidates for the Board of Supervisors. Although it’s a shame that there has been no opposition for the Halifax County Board of Supervisors for the past two election cycles, we feel all of the candidates have made a good case for their re-election.

J.T. Davis (District 1), Tom West (District 2), William Fitzgerald (District 3) and Wayne Conner (District 6) all bring a businesslike attitude towards running the county and in a time of economic downturn in a county that is having problems making ends meet, the businesslike attitude is the one to have. Although we have major questions and issues with the idea of “land use taxation”, none of the candidates up for election have mentioned this controversial topic. None of the candidates expressed any views on the uranium mining issue which sadly doesn’t surprise us either. Halifax County’s revenue stream is currently limited to real estate and property tax (with a meals tax initiative on Tuesday’s ballot). Wayne Conner surprised us by mentioning the possibility of a 1% local option addition to the state sales tax during his speaking time at the candidates’ forum. While that idea isn’t immediately DOA, we find it very hard to believe that a local option 1% sales tax increase would have much popularity with county voters. All things considered, SouthsideCentral believes that all of these candidates are worthy of re-election.

SouthsideCentral believes that J.T. Davis, Tom West, William Fitzgerald and Wayne Conner have been effective leaders in Halifax County and we give our endorsement to all four candidates. We encourage our voters to give these candidates courtesy votes in Tuesday’s election.

Now let’s go to the School Board races:

District 2: Steve Anderson is not running for re-election, and Karen Hopkins & Mark Irby have stepped forward to run for the open seat. Hopkins is a nursing instructor at the SVHEC, with Irby being the safety manager for a construction company. Both candidates have showed a strong desire to serve and would make good School Board members. Listening to the candidates speak at Thursday’s forum, we felt that Mark Irby really wants to learn about the School Board and educational process but doesn’t have the same level of experience that Karen Hopkins showed. As the Halifax County School System is nearing a spectre of greatly reduced funding, we feel that actual experience with the educational process trumps a great desire to learn on-the-job.

SouthsideCentral believes that Karen Hopkins is the more experienced candidate of the two and we feel that she will fit right into the School Board processes. We endorse Karen Hopkins for the vacant District 2 seat and urge the District 2 voters to vote for her.

District 3: Arthur Reynolds is the incumbent and is facing a challenge by Kim Farson. This is the only race where an incumbent is facing a challenger and we’ve wondered if this race will boil down to a referendum on Superintendent Paul Stapleton. Reynolds has been a supporter of Stapleton and his policies but there has been a lot of county-wide grumbling about skyrocketing education costs and other Stapleton initiatives. Farson has brought an “outsider” viewpoint to this and has educational experience in the form of school volunteering and having children in the HCPS system. She’s proved herself to be very vocal (including calling me out on some things that I’ve said!) and that’s refreshing to see in such a stodgy environment that the School Board can become. Farson has been very open during the campaign and vows to continue her open-door policy with her constituents (in the spirit of Joe Gasperini’s first term). Reynolds is running on a “I’ve been on the School Board since the 2001 elections” platform and that’s not the most positive thing that can be said. We feel it’s time for a change on the Halifax County School Board and electing Farson would be a continuing factor in injecting fresh blood into the system.

SouthsideCentral believes that Kim Farson will make an excellent School Board member and we give her our endorsement. We strongly encourage all District 3 voters to
vote for Kim Farson on Tuesday, November 3rd.

District 6: Fay Satterfield and Stanley Brandon are running for the seat that Mac McDowell is vacating. Satterfield brings over thirty years experience of HCPS work, while Brandon is a local business owner. Satterfield is running on a platform of experience while Brandon is running on a “New person. New Attitude.” campaign. In the District 2 race, we chose experience over a desire to learn on-the-job, but in this race we just can’t dismiss Brandon’s humor and spirit. District 6 will not lose with either of these candidates, no matter who wins.

SouthsideCentral believes that both Fay Satterfield and Stanley Brandon will make a good School Board representative and we give both candidates our endorsement. We encourage District 2 voters to vote for their own choice of candidate on Tuesday.

>>>>>

Endorsement Recap:

Halifax County Board of Supervisors:

• District 1: J.T. Davis (unopposed)
• District 2: Tom West (unopposed)
• District 3: William Fitzgerald (unopposed)
• District 6: Wayne Conner (unopposed)

Halifax County School Board:

• District 1: Karen Hopkins
• District 3: Kim Farson
• District 6: Fay Satterfield AND Stanley Brandon

Danny Marshall is running for his fifth term in Virginia’s House of Delegates and barely survived one of Southside’s all-time classic elections against Adam Tomer in 2007. That campaign got infused with over [...]]]> Danny Marshall has been a very good and effective Delegate for the 14th District and we believe that he deserves re-election.

Danny Marshall is running for his fifth term in Virginia’s House of Delegates and barely survived one of Southside’s all-time classic elections against Adam Tomer in 2007. That campaign got infused with over $1,000,000 and got out of hand quickly but this year’s campaign has been quite uneventful compared to 2007′s.

Former Danville mayor Seward Anderson is the Democratic candidate in this cycle and he’s ran a non-eventful campaign with most of his talking points coming in one-man press conferences (and one of them becoming painfully funny). Anderson tried a negative campaign direct-mail piece that really offended our sensibilities. With missteps like these, Anderson’s campaign has never really gotten off the ground. Marshall has played off of his successful experience as a Delegate in this campaign and that strategy has been effective enough to take the spotlight off of his challenger.

Marshall is a successful businessman who knows his way around economic development. He is also a member of the Tobacco Commission which gives Southside VA another voice in how that funding is distributed. His close working relationship with Don Merricks & Robert Hurt gives the region a larger and more unified voice in the Virginia legislature. We see no reason to consider anyone other than Danny Marshall for the 14th District seat.

SouthsideCentral believes that Danny Marshall has represented the 14th District well in his House of Delegates career and we are proud to endorse him in his bid for re-election. We urge our 14th District readers to vote for Danny Marshall in the November 3rd election.

Mike Mondul, Thelbert Childress and Wayne Booth are the candidates for this year’s Danville City Sheriff election. Each candidates bring a different set of qualifications to the table.

In his first term as a Delegate, Poindexter has a typical run. He had a few bills passed including the “drug court” authorization for Franklin County. Otherwise, he did a good job of learning the ropes. Poindexter survived a [...]]]> Charles Poindexter is running for his first re-election and we believe he’s a worthy candidate.

In his first term as a Delegate, Poindexter has a typical run. He had a few bills passed including the “drug court” authorization for Franklin County. Otherwise, he did a good job of learning the ropes. Poindexter survived a close open-seat election but his main competitor did not return after losing twice. Poindexter does have token opposition in Sherman Witcher, a candidate from the Independent Green party, but he’s shown us no real reason to even consider not recommending Poindexter. We feel that Charles Poindexter will continue to grow as a second-term Delegate.

SouthsideCentral believes that Charles Poindexter is a very good representative for the 9th District and we encourage our readers to vote for him in the November 3rd election.

As we’ve said before…

Ward Armstrong (D) is the incumbent House Minority Leader and that makes him a partisan hack by default. Partisan Yuck. Ed Creed (R) moved into the district to run against [...]]]> How’s that for an oxymoron of a headline? Anyway, voters have to make an unappetizing choice from this buffet.

As we’ve said before…

Ward Armstrong (D) is the incumbent House Minority Leader and that makes him a partisan hack by default. Partisan Yuck.
Ed Creed (R) moved into the district to run against Armstrong. Carpetbagging Yuck.

Armstrong has some of the last vestiges of legislative power that the Southside region still holds on to but his partisan whining has always turned us off. Creed seems like a decent guy and would probably make a good Delegate, but his carpetbagging move is an automatic disqualification for an endorsement. If Creeed fails to win in this election, it will be interesting to see if he moves right back out of the 10th District.

As referenced above, SouthsideCentral has major fundamental disagreements with both of the candidates in the 10th House District and we make No Endorsement in this race. Although we encourage all registered voters to go to the polls, we cannot recommend either of these two candidates.

does bring a degree of notability to the Southside area and

Don Merricks cruised to an easy win (64-36) over Andy Parker in his first election for the seat which was vacated by Robert Hurt’s election to the State Senate. Merricks had a fringe [...]]]> Don Merricks is in his first re-election cycle but gets the free pass with no opposition. He’s deserving of our endorsement.

Don Merricks cruised to an easy win (64-36) over Andy Parker in his first election for the seat which was vacated by Robert Hurt’s election to the State Senate. Merricks had a fringe opponent earlier in the year but he withdrew from the race in mid-May. Even though Merricks would have easily won that race, he’s got the luxury of no opponent now. Merricks is a successful businessman, owning J.W. Squire Company, and is a past president of the Danville-Pittsylvania Chamber of Commerce. He also has a lot of experience in the banking field.

Merricks knows the issues that small businesses face and is proposing a fund base similar to the Governor’s Opportunity Fund which would be exclusive to Virginia small businesses. He also has some good ideas in the healthcare field including having military corpsmen go straight to the registered nurses’ exam after leaving the military. Merricks’ first term has been non-eventful and that’s a good thing. We feel that he has great potential in the legislature and would not be surprised to see him run for Robert Hurt’s Senate seat if it is vacated in the next few years.

SouthsideCentral believes that Don Merricks is an excellent representative for the 16th House District and we strongly encourage that our readers give him a courtesy vote in the November 3rd election.

When Clarke Hogan surprised everybody by announcing that he would not run for re-election, rumors flew on who would run for the now-open seat. Hogan had quickly moved up the political ladder in the House and [...]]]> Although James Edmunds is now running unopposed, SouthsideCentral feels that he’s deserving of our support for this election.

When Clarke Hogan surprised everybody by announcing that he would not run for re-election, rumors flew on who would run for the now-open seat. Hogan had quickly moved up the political ladder in the House and had became an influential Delegate. Edmunds was the first person to declare his candidacy and locked in the Republican nomination. Dave Guill became the only Democratic candidate to declare but withdrew from the race leaving Edmunds unopposed.

James Edmunds is currently serving on the Halifax County Board of Supervisors and is a noted outdoorsman. Edmunds led the fight to save and re-organize the Halifax County Fair. He also donated 100 acres of his family’s land to the county to give the county the first park.

Edmunds seems like the type of person who will represent the 60th District in the same spirit as Clarke Hogan did and it will be interesting to see if he can match Hogan’s rise through the political ranks. While we question one of Edmunds’ initiatives that he’s been promoting in Halifax County (land use taxation), and think he’s totally wrong in his complete opposition to uranium mining “even if the government said it was safe” (from his website’s position paper), neither of those issues are a litmus test for our support.

We feel that James Edmunds will be a good representative for the 60th District and strongly encourage our 60th District readers to give him a courtesy vote in the November 3rd election.

Jimmy Gillie has been Danville’s Commissioner of Revenue for a very long time. Under his administration, the Commissioner of Revenue’s office [...]]]> Like the Treasurer, Danville’s Commissioner of Revenue is running for re-election unopposed. That being said, we believe James Gillie is doing a great job and is deserving of SouthsideCentral’s endorsement for this election.

Jimmy Gillie has been Danville’s Commissioner of Revenue for a very long time. Under his administration, the Commissioner of Revenue’s office has never had any problems and has always been helpful to anybody who has any type of questions. From helping fill out state tax returns to getting the headache of the meals tax straight, we have never heard of an major issue with Gillie’s office. Gillie is well deserving of a courtesy vote on November 3rd.

We believe that Gillie is highly qualified for the office and we urge our readers to cast a vote for James Gillie.

Lynwood Barbour is running in his first general election after winning the unexpired term of the previous City Treasurer in a special election. Barbour has done a very good job in making everybody forget about the [...]]]> The Danville Treasurer’s election is an unopposed race, but SouthsideCentral believes that a worthy candidate deserves the endorsement.

Lynwood Barbour is running in his first general election after winning the unexpired term of the previous City Treasurer in a special election. Barbour has done a very good job in making everybody forget about the antics of the previous officeholder, and that’s no small feat considering she pleaded guilty to 28 charges including embezzlement.
The Treasurer’s office is running as smooth as it ever has and we believe that’s the best reason to give Lyn Barbour the courtesy of a vote in the November 3rd election.

We believe that Barbour is highly qualified for the job and we urge our readers to cast a vote for Lynwood Barbour.

We visit Reidsville, NC quite often and feel that it’s a growing city with a great attitude. While there is a lot of work to be done in certain areas of the city, the downtown area [...]]]> Reidsville’s election is Tuesday, October 6th, so it’s time for the first endorsement of this election cycle.

We visit Reidsville, NC quite often and feel that it’s a growing city with a great attitude. While there is a lot of work to be done in certain areas of the city, the downtown area has became a destination for visitors and shoppers. The new Market Square is the centerpiece of the downtown area and has a lot of potential to host festivals and concerts. The winner of the mayoral election will have an important role in continuing the progress that has been made in the past few years.

There are three candidates running for mayor. James Festerman is the incumbent mayor running for re-election, Donald Gorham is the current mayor pro tem and is giving up his re-election bid for City Council to run for mayor and Chuck Faint is a relative newcomer to the race. Festerman is the former Reidsville police chief and served 2 terms on council before being elected to mayor. Gorham is a retired school administrator & current councilman and Faint is the owner of his real estate agency.

In a mayoral race like this, you have to ask “Is there a need for change?”. From what we have seen about Reidsville, the answer is a resounding “No”. James Festerman is doing a great job as mayor and he’s very approachable on the streets. For Donald Gorham, he never explained his side of the “October surprise” documents in which the city manager ordered the police department to not give him any more information because he was “meddling” and “micromanaging” the daily activities of the department. Although we have concerns on who leaked those documents to WGSR-TV, the documents are quite damning in regards to his activities of last year. As for Chuck Faint, we know very little about him and feel he doesn’t come close to the qualifications that Festerman & Gorham possess.

For the reasons stated above, SouthsideCentral endorses James Festerman for Mayor of Reidsville.

There are three candidates running in this primary election. Voters will choose between Creigh Deeds, Terry McAuliffe [...]]]> SouthsideCentral is a non-partisan site. This endorsement is only for Tuesday’s Democratic primary and not for the general election. That being said, SouthsideCentral believes that Creigh Deeds is the best candidate for the Democratic nomination for Governor.

There are three candidates running in this primary election. Voters will choose between Creigh Deeds, Terry McAuliffe or Brian Moran.

While Brian Moran has a good leadership resume, he’s associated himself with Tim Kaine far too much for my tastes. He seems to have forgotten about Southside VA during the last 4 weeks of his campaign except for invoking the name of Ward Armstrong whenever he can. Unfortunately, he’s gone too deep into the negative campaigning sewer and hasn’t said much about himself lately.

Terry McAuliffe is an enigma to me. I originally was 100% against him and everything that he stood for because I considered him a carpetbagger. He was no better than Hillary Clinton when she chose New York as her new home state to advance her political career. That’s before I attended the debate at the Institute. I listened to what McAuliffe had to say and read his business plan. I spoke to him and honestly was surprised enough to have positive thoughts about him and his campaign. Overall though, I came to realize that McAuliffe IS an outsider who chose Virginia to advance his political career. I look at McAuliffe and I see Bill & Hillary Clinton. He’ll come in 2nd place in the endorsement race.

Creigh Deeds wins the endorsement with one word. “Bipartisanship”. Any candidate that wants to throw the permanently-polluted redistricting process to a non-partisan solution instantly gets my attention. Deeds seems to be the only one of the three candidates that will remember Southside VA. Deeds’ idea for one year of student loan forgiveness for every three years of teaching in a high-need area. Combining these ideas with Deeds’ other relatively middle-of-the-road positions on issues, he’s earned SouthsideCentral’s endorsement.

I feel that Creigh Deeds will make an excellent opponent for Bob McDonnell in the general election. If Deeds wins this primary, that’s going to be a great race.