Kendra Hamilton, City councilor since 2004, has decided not to seek re-election in November. “It was about creating some balance in my life,” says Hamilton. “It’s a big job, and it takes some time. It just wasn’t a good time for me professionally.”
“I don’t think anybody can prepare you for what you’re going to encounter. And of course the first thing I encountered after I was elected was the Scottie Griffin controversy, so I don’t think anybody could prepare me for that,” Hamilton says, referring with a laugh to the controversial schools superintendent who lasted less than one year on the job. “Things have been calm since then.”
 David Brown, Kendra Hamilton and Kevin Lynch all won election to City Council in 2004. Hamilton is bowing out after serving one term. "Tell everybody I had fun," Hamilton says. She hasn’t ruled out re-entering politics in the future. |
Hamilton looks to devote more time to her day job, to promoting her book of poetry and to finishing a nonfiction book tentatively titled The Secret Lives of Porgy and Bess, which explores a different side of Charleston from the “moonlight and magnolias” point of view that one regularly finds. “Porgy was a real person, and my grandmother knew him. He was this legendary badass, a gambler and a pimp. They say he used to beat his women with his little goat whip.”
Lessons she’s learned? At a conference for newly elected representatives, Hamilton was told, “The slow pace of government is your friend.” She explains, “Even though when people are pushing for something and they want it and want and want it—they want it right now—there’s no substitute for deliberative process. Because you can do so much damage so quickly. Really you have to be thinking, ‘If we allow nine-storey buildings, what will Charlottesville look like in 50 years?’”
Hamilton is the only woman and the only African American currently serving on Council. After mentioning her decision at the recent Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in Richmond, she was told “another woman bites the dust” after one term. Since 1972, men have been slightly more inclined to serve multiple terms on City Council than have women.
So far, Hamilton is the only sitting councilor to make a definitive decision on whether to run. The seats of David Brown, mayor, and Kevin Lynch are also up in November.
“I’m incredibly grateful to the citizens of Charlottesville,” says Hamilton, “the ones who challenged me as well as the ones who were saying, ‘Keep your chin up.’”
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