A new Buena Vista mayor, two new members of Buena Vista City Council and one new member of the Rockbridge County Board of Supervisors were elected last Tuesday, Nov. 4.
Jesse Lineberry, who holds a technical position for Modine North American Heat, was elected Buena Vista mayor, defeating incumbent Tyson Cooper. Lineberry won with 1,103 votes (54.5 percent) to Cooper’s 916 (45.3 percent).
Of the three candidates who were elected to Buena Vista City Council, two are newcomers – Stephanie Noel-Branch and Amy Gilliam. Vice Mayor Danny Staton was successful in his bid for reelection to City Council. Election totals for the seven candidates for three seats on Council are as follows: Noel-Branch, 921; Staton, 821; Gilliam, 777; Stanley Coffey, 741; Frank Huffman, 704; Melvin Henson, 559; Pamela Camden, 509.
Lisa Kerr, Roy Mohler and Ray Gilbert were reelected to the Buena Vista School Board. They were the only candidates on the ballot for four pending vacancies. Write-in results for the fourth seat won’t be known until the official canvassing of votes takes place in the Buena Vista registrar’s office today, Wednesday, Nov. 12, at 1 p.m.
There were 739 write-in votes cast in this race. The two leading candidates are Mike Cartolaro and Charles Jolley, each of whom received more than 200 votes, but the race was too close to call until the canvassing of votes is completed.
In the county, Steve Hart was elected to be the next Kerrs Creek District member of the Board of Supervisors, succeeding Dan Lyons, while Jay Lewis was reelected Walkers Creek District supervisor. Hart collected 1,145 votes to Boyd Brown’s 625. Lewis was the choice of 702 voters to 648 for Toria Brown and 631 for Steve Reese.
Rockbridge County and Lexington Sheriff Tony McFaddin was elected to the position he has held on an interim basis since the first of the year. He received 5,926 votes to Chris Norris’s 2,945 and Fred Smith’s 637.
Buena Vista Sheriff Randy Hamilton was reelected with 1,080 votes to Chris Wheeler’s 740 and Alan Buzzard’s 227.
Reelected without opposition were Buena Vista Commonwealth’s Attorney Joshua Elrod, Commissioner of Revenue Ashton Beverly and Treasurer Amy Hudson; Rockbridge County School Board members Catie Brown of the Kerrs Creek District and Corey Berkstresser of the South River District; Glasgow Mayor Paul Williams and Town Council members Tom Camden, Kent Dunn and Lisa Rogers; and Lexington Treasurer Pat DeLaney. Kelly Glass was elected without opposition to be Lexington’s next commissioner of revenue. She will be succeeding Karen Roundy, who is retiring.
In local House of Delegates races, Republican Del. Ellen Campbell of the 36th District and Republican Del. Terry Austin of the 37th District were both reelected. Campbell received 57.8 percent of votes district-wide to 42.1 percent for her Democratic challenger, Makayla Venable. Austin got 69.8 percent of the votes to 29.8 percent for Democratic nominee Andrew Hartless.
It was a Democratic Party sweep of the top three state offices. Democratic Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger won 57.3 percent of votes to 42.5 percent for Republican Winsome Earl-Sears. Democratic Lt. Gov.-elect Ghazala Hashmi won 55.4 percent to Republican John Reid’s 44.3 percent. Attorney Gen.-elect Jay Jones won 52.9 percent to Jason Miyares’s 46.7 percent.
Locally, Republican candidates prevailed in Rockbridge County and Buena Vista while Democrats won the vote in Lexington.
