It didn’t take long for announcements and candidate suspects to hit the rumor mill after Delegate Onzlee Ware’s announcement that he was stepping down from his 11th District House of Delegates seat Thursday.
Besides his ailing mother as one of the reasons for stepping down Ware is expecting a judgeship appointment said Joan Washburn a Democratic consultant and fundraiser. A judgeship appointment can’t go to a sitting delegate or senator said Washburn who was out of state on other business.
In the phone call she said that the resignation and replacement for Ware had been in the works for a month and that Councilman Dave Trinkle with the backing of Virginia Senator John Edwards was prepared to step in as a candidate. He will announce his candidacy on Tuesday. There is a council meeting on Monday when another candidate Sam Rasoul is expected to announce for the seat.
Vice Mayor Court Rosen is also mounting a campaign. It wasn’t clear to Washburn whether he will step aside for Trinkle since the numbers are racking up in support for Trinkle in South Roanoke.
According to Tom Clarke, President and CEO of the Kissito Health Inc. Dave Trinkle’s Fork in the City restaurant and bar is in the process of being taken over by the Kissito for-profit subsidiary JMS Builders/Developer. In an email Thursday night he said, “we are days away from filing ABC documents for the FITC. We will be renaming it … all profits will go to local causes and Kissito’s work in Africa.” This has been in the works for some time. Read about it here: Fork in the City, Kissito and a “community philanthropub”
Dave Trinkle’s family has a long-standing reputation in Roanoke. He is associate dean for community and culture at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and Research and geropsychiatric consultant to the Geriatric Assessment Clinic at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital.
Trinkle has served on the Roanoke City School Board prior to being elected to city council in 2006. His current term ends July of 2014.
The Roanoke City Electoral Board will set the date of the special election. A firehouse primary is expected to select the Democratic candidate.
Since this article was posted last night two other candidates have come forward and are vying for the Democratic nomination – activist and former SCLC President Jeff Artis and Trish White-Boyd, a Democratic activist who campaigned for Governor-Elect Terry McAuliffe. She is the Director at Griswold Special Care and a former social work.
There is a draft Octavia Johnson for delegate movement and she is said to be considering running for the seat as a Republican. Johnson lost her Roanoke city sheriff position in the November 5 election to Democrat Tim Allen.
– Valerie Garner
