Satisfaction: Voters in Staunton, Waynesboro stay the city-council course

Story by Chris Graham

The people have spoken – 20 percent of them, anyway.

The one-in-fives who did the speaking for Staunton and Waynesboro in this week’s city-council elections in the twin cities stated loudly and clearly that they are very much in favor of the status quo. Read more

How an election is won: Election Day is a long day for candidates

Story by Chris Graham

Election Day started early for Chuck Ricketts.

“I was out at five this morning putting up campaign signs,” the Waynesboro mayor said as the day wound down toward the 7 p.m. close of the polls at Westminster Presbyterian Church, the city’s Ward D voting precinct.

And then it was to the polls by 6 a.m. to get his own vote registered. Read more

No changes at the top: Voters in Staunton, Waynesboro in re-electing mood

Story by Chris Graham

The votes are in, and the winners are …

Drum roll, please.

OK, so there were no real surprises in Tuesday’s general elections in Staunton and Waynesboro – with all six incumbents running for re-election to the respective city councils winning handily. Read more

Study in contrasts: Monroe, Reynolds vying for Ward B council seat

Story by Chris Graham

Tom Reynolds won election to represent Ward B on Waynesboro City Council in 2000 after receiving more than 80 percent of the votes cast in his two-way race with Blue Ridge Area Food Bank chief-executive officer Marty White.

On Tuesday, Reynolds, a member of the faculty at Fishburne Military School, is being challenged for re-election by Waynesboro native and disabled Vietnam War veteran Howard Monroe. Read more

Ricketts v. Egleston: Political heavyweights square off in at-large race

Story by Chris Graham

Waynesboro Mayor Chuck Ricketts was unopposed in 2000 – but he wasn’t in 1996, when he came out at the top of a five-candidate race for the at-large seat on Waynesboro City Council.

One of the candidates that he defeated in that election was DuBose Egleston, who won a seat on city council representing the city’s Ward D two years later.

Egleston, who was upset by then-former council member Reo Hatfield in the Ward D race in 2002, is back in the at-large field again, challenging Ricketts, who has served as mayor for eight years. Read more

Wide open: Six candidates up for four spots on Staunton City Council

Story by Chris Graham

Staunton’s all at-large election system should make for an interesting time on Tuesday.

Six candidates – incumbent council members Dickie Bell, Dave Metz, Dick Robinson and Rita Wilson and challengers Doug Manning and James Welsh – are running for the four seats open on the seven-member public body. Read more