Let’s recap the Danville City Council election…

The 2009 Danville City Council election is in the books. I’m smelling a “random thoughts” type of article…

The results…

• Both of the incumbents, Adam Tomer & Gary Miller, won re-election easily (as expected).
• Challengers Alonzo Jones and John Gilstrap won the other two available seats (also as expected).
• Thomas Motley ends up on the outside looking in by a surprising 1200 vote margin of defeat.
• Neal Morris falls short of a write-in victory but still comes through with 1621 votes. For a 5-day campaign, that’s an amazingly high number.

The thoughts…

• Voter turnout was downright disgusting. 22% is friggin’  ridiculous. Danville’s non-voters ought to be ashamed of themselves.
• Oh, what might have been if Thomas Motley had not spent 9o% of his campaign’s message on utility rates. What did he do on his last week of campaigning? Motley can learn a lot from his defeat and he can also turn his new-found name recognition into a power of good if he sets his mind to it.
• I’ve got to think that Neal Morris would have been in contention if he had started the race with everyone else. 1621 votes from a five-day write-in campaign should make City Council know that the citizens aren’t totally happy. Let’s see if Morris rides the momentum that he’s generated and becomes even more visible in the processes.
• Write this prediction down. Sherman Saunders will be re-elected mayor by a 9-0 vote.
• Who’ll be Vice Mayor for the next two years? I’m looking at three possibilities… Buddy Rawley, Fred Shanks & Larry Campbell (in no particular order). More to come on this as things develop…
• While I’m honored to receive a write-in vote from somebody in my home precinct, I totally wasn’t expecting it. One of our producers wrote that down on a cue card and I was um… quite surprised by that.
• Let’s see if the youthful injection of Alonzo Jones adds some spark to council, as Adam Tomer has brought over the past four years.
• I’m looking at the ward-by-ward breakdown of voting patterns and will write an article on what I see later this week.
• Of course I’m biased, but Star News’ coverage of the elections went off flawlessly. With Mark Childrey and me in the studio, Jessica Griffith at Danville City Council chambers, Charles & Jonathan getting all of the video while traveling between Martinsville, Danville & Reidsville, and Matt Smith & Blaine Ziglar producing the show, we kept our viewers informed with up-to-the-minute information.

In conclusion, it was a well-mannered campaign overall with the candidates running good campaigns. Danville would have been well-represented with any of the six candidates. Let’s hope Danville continues to move forward with the new version of City Council that will debut on July 1st.