April 18, 2009

The Charlottesville Democratic Party hosted candidates for City Council and the Sheriff's Office Saturday morning to discuss important issues in their upcoming races.

Looking specifically at the Charlottesville City Council candidates, they talked about the need for affordable housing, improvement in schools, and the relationship between the city and Albemarle County.

Kristin Szakos and Mayor Dave Norris answered questions from a small audience Saturday morning and it was apparent that there are more similarities between the candidates than differences.

Mayor Norris said some of the issues he ran on in 2005 are still important today.

"Things like affordable housing, environmental sustainability, opportunities for youth, and poverty in our community; these are major challenges we've made some good progress in the first three years," said City Council Candidate, Mayor Norris (D).

Reaching out to everyone and closing gaps is crucial to his opponent, Kristin Szakos.

"We have one of the higher achievement gaps in our schools. We do not have enough jobs for people in the community. We have not enough affordable housing for people who work in our community to live here," said City Council Candidate, Szakos (D).

Mayor Norris said the biggest differences between he and his opponents are their backgrounds.

"Generally speaking, we have the same common interests in seeing Charlottesville truly become a good place to live for all of our citizens, and [we have] an interest of seeing us work better with Albemarle County on resolving issues on a regional level," said Mayor Norris.

Szakos said she agrees with many of Mayor Norris' initiatives.

"He has a lot of experience in issues of environmentalism, which I think is very interesting and I'm very interested in learning more about that," said Szakos.

However, their biggest similarity is their desire to win a Charlottesville City Council seat come November.

There is one independent candidate who is thrown his hat in the ring for the City Council race, 22-year-old Andrew Williams. Also of note, so far no Republicans have decided to enter the fray.

Also present at the breakfast were two of the three candidates for Sheriff, James Brown and Philip Brown, who discussed a variety of issues and ways they would like to see the Sherriff's Department improve.

All these candidates hope voters turn out for the firehouse primary on May 9 at Burley Middle School.