Pat Nicosia has decided to forego her run for the Waynesboro city treasurer constitutional office in the Nov. 3 general election, but embattled Treasurer Sandee Dixon will have a challenger.
Stephanie Beverage is back in the running for the post after falling short in her 2005 campaign. Beverage is the daughter of former treasurer Nancy Beverage, an employee in the Waynesboro Emergency Operations Center and the Jim Snead Ford dealership in Waynesboro.
“People had been asking if I was thinking about running again, and I was hesitant because of the press last time. It was really hard on my kids,” said Beverage, who felt her campaign was undermined by local press attention on a contentious divorce and bankruptcy filing that resulted afterward.
“But I kept getting approached and approached and approached. My kids are older now, and it’s just what I wanted to do. So I’m giving it one more shot,” Beverage said.
Nicosia decided to drop out of the race after getting promoted from her job as city budget director to the head of the city finance department.
“I feel I can do more for the city in helping oversee fiscal and money matters in the finance office,” Nicosia said.
Dixon, for her part, has been under fire from auditors for internal-control problems in her office that have resulted in checks for tax bills from taxpayers being deposited weeks late and oversight issues that were magnified when a former deputy ended up charged and convicted of embezzlement.
Beverage, a Republican, pledged to correct the problems with internal workings in the treasurer’s office as part of an overall streamlining of its internal operations.
She hopes voters interested in change in the office get the message that the race is no longer a three-way race with two challengers.
“I still hear from people about how they’re going to have to choose between Pat and me. The message hasn’t gotten out yet that Pat isn’t in the race anymore,” Beverage said.
– Story by Chris Graham
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