In a move toward broader inclusion, 84 members of the Charlottesville Democratic Committee voted last night to change its process for nominating candidates to city office from a mass meeting to a "firehouse primary."
The city Democratic primary will be distinct from the June 9 state primary for state-wide offices like governor and attorney general. The "firehouse primary" will be held at least 30 days before the state primary and organized solely by Charlottesville Democrats. Those voting will be required to take a loyalty pledge, a measure to keep out GOP and independent spoilers.
Still, the process will be significantly more accessible than in the past—which should mean more people vote on the city’s highest office, City Council, which has typically been held by Democrats. Under the old system, a mass meeting caucus was held on a Saturday, doors were locked at a set time, and participants had to hang around for as many hours as it took to whittle the field.
In 2007, only 431 people participated in the Democratic nominating convention. All three Democratic nominees, David Brown, Holly Edwards and Satyendra Huja, easily won in the general election in November.
Democrats made several other changes to open up the process. They voted to allow absentee ballots in the primary, and moved to an "instant-runoff" system, whereby voters will rank all candidates to avoid having to vote multiple times to whittle the field.
Read more in next week’s C-VILLE.
