You win some, you lose some. That was the theme for local Democrats who gathered at Fork in the City on Tuesday night to watch election returns.
Early on it was also a curious blend of election watchers and runners, many of whom had completed the pub-runs that the Fork hosts every other week. But once 8 pm rolled around it was mostly members of Roanoke City Council, candidates and campaign workers that watched the TV’s or checked their smart phones for results.
They were pleased for the most part: Democrat Terry McAuliffe won the governor’s race; locally Sherman Holland was reelected to a fifth term as Roanoke City’s Commissioner of the Revenue, besting Republican challenger Roger Malouf by a 2-to-1 margin. In something of an upset perhaps, Tim Allen beat incumbent GOP sheriff Octavia Johnson by five percentage points. Allen, retired from the regional jail and the Roanoke City Sheriff’s department, got up periodically to give supporters at Fork in the City an update on how the vote was going. He won by about 800 votes.
Things didn’t go quite as well in the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors race in the Hollins district for Democrats. Conservative Republican Al Bedrosian topped Democrat Brian Lang and independent Gary Jarrell – who split the balance of the vote right down the middle. Elsewhere in the county Republican Joe McNamara returned to the board in Windsor Hills, besting one term incumbent Ed Elswick, running as an independent.
Roanoke City councilman Bill Bestpitch, on hand for the election night vote watch, said he feared that when Lang chose to run in Hollins (Lang is also the county Democrat Party chairman) it could hand the election to Bedrosian, since Lang and Jarrell would split the rest of the votes. That seemed evident on Tuesday.
In the 17th District for the House of Delegates it was déjà vu all over again for Democrat challenger Freeda Cathcart, beaten handily for a second time by Republican incumbent Chris Head, 62% to 38%. Cathcart thanked her supporters at Fork in the City and said she would continue to fight on issues like education, despite losing the election.
Sherman Holland showed up at Fork in the City towards the tail end of the night, praising the work volunteers did on his behalf. “You have to sit and wait, you never know [for sure] the results,” said Holland, who beat Malouf handily. “I’ve been at it for a long time, I’ve been providing good customer service. I think that showed in the results.”
Allen said he would bring the “necessary leadership to the [Sheriff’s] office…my years of service and my experience [as well]. Fresh new ideas. I would like to upgrade in several areas of the office.” Allen will oversee a department with about 240 employees, sworn deputies and civilians. He would like to develop and implement a reentry program for jail inmates that are released, hoping it leads to less recidivism. “That’s one of my goals.”
Allen said his campaign team did a late day “flushing,” in an effort to get more people out to vote. “We went door to door, pretty much all day. We pushed it extremely hard.” In some cases his team offered rides to the polls. “I knew I’d have to work extremely hard [to beat Johnson]. That’s what I had in mind.” Allen said he fielded calls “every single day” from people willing to help out on the campaign trail.
Allen also said he wanted to enjoy his victory for a while. Since leaving the city sheriff’s department in 2008, he worked at the regional jail until retiring earlier this year as a Major. He’ll do a full assessment before deciding on his first move. “I’ve been looking in from the outside [since 2008],” said Allen.
City Council member Sherman Lea said he was “proud” of Allen. “He had some tremendous ideas for the sheriff’s department.” A long time corrections department official, Lea appreciated Allen’s emphasis on programs to help inmates about to be released. “He will do some tremendous things for the department. Our jails are overcrowded with non-violent drug offenders. What are we doing to prepare them for their eventual release back out in to the community?”
By Gene Marrano
