May 15, 2008
City voters preserve status quo
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WILLIAMSBURG - While "change" has been the keyword in the national election this year, city voters opted to stay the course Tuesday.
Williamsburg voters endorsed the current government over youth and passion, returning incumbents Clyde Haulman and Paul Freiling to City Council.
To fill the third available seat, vacated by Mickey Chohany's retirement, voters picked Planning Commission member Judy Knudson, the challenger who's philosophy is most in tune with the incumbents.
"I think that's right," Knudson said Tuesday evening. " I think the other three challengers were more one-issue candidates, while we take a broader view of the city."
Freiling, who won Stryker precinct and the absentee ballots and only missed winning Berkeley precinct by three votes, downplayed leading the ticket.
"I'm just happy to have the opportunity to serve the citizens of Williamsburg again," he said.
Matt Beato, a junior at the College of William & Mary, finished a disappointing fifth, meaning a well-organized and well-financed campaign to register students fell short of achieving representation on council.
Beato said Tuesday night that he was shooting for a vote total of 1,000. He missed that by 107 votes, easily exceeding the totals achieved by student candidates in the last two elections.
"I'm very disappointed," he said Tuesday night. "I felt good today. I thought we had good support. I can't explain it."
What Beato didn't count on was an upsurge in voter turnout.
While 1,000 votes would have easily won a seat in 2006, when two were up for grabs, this year Knudson had to get 1,058 votes to finish third in the six-person field. All three winners, plus Beato and fourth-place finisher former Mayor Gil Granger, exceeded the 866 votes that won Bobby Braxton his seat two years ago.
Slow growth advocate Terence Wehle trailed in sixth place with only 488 votes.
Turnout citywide was up from 1,908 in 2006 to 2,257 Tuesday. Because of an expanded pool of registered voters, largely from the registration of W&M students who weren't allowed to register in the city two years ago, the turnout percentage only rose from 31% to 32%.
Freiling doubted there was a "backlash" in the community against student voters.
"If more residents turned out to vote, then they were led by the students who showed them that they had a responsibility to get involved too," he said.
Hundreds of students showed up at the polls. However organizers of the student registration drive had hoped for more.
Informal counts had the number of students registered at around 1,400.
Judging by Beato's total of 673 votes at Stryker Precinct where the vast majority of students vote, less than half of them turned out. The end of the semester may have led some to leave town without voting absentee.
Some of those who did voted only for Beato.
Although he'd asked his supporters not to one-shot vote, some did anyway.
"I know some students who only voted for Matt because they said they didn't really know that much about the other candidates," said Caroline Mullis, a W&M student who was working a table outside Stryker Precinct for Beato.
Copyright © 2008, The Virginia Gazette
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