Jeff Kent becomes SCDC chair, and braces for 180 days of early voting and three election events in 2024.
by Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Bob Martin, now former chairman of the Spotsylvania County Democratic Committee, strode to the podium at Salem Church Library in a festive blue Santa hat and gave newly elected chair Jeff Kent his Christmas present – the gavel.
The roughly 40 people who attended Monday night’s meeting of the SCDC were in a festive mood following November’s sweep of School Board seats and the election of Josh Cole to the General Assembly.
Kent, however, is clear-eyed about the challenges before the party. And he believes that “engagement with the voters” is what the committee needs to focus on in the coming year.
We need to “get in front of people, talk to people, to present candidates to them … and then figure out ways to encourage them to talk to their friends, because studies have shown that nobody can convince you who to vote for better than your family or friends.”
Getting people out to vote isn’t the only issue, however. It’s going to be critical to get people signed up to work the polls in 2024 – an exhausting job by most any measure.
Kent reminded SCDC members that there are three election events this year, and a large numer of early voting days.
With 29 precincts to cover in Spotsylvania, it’s going to take a lot of people power to man rhem.
Enthusiasm shouldn’t be an issue. Turn out for November’s off-year election was at an astonishingly high level – 46% according to Kent. No doubt that number was driven by the School Board race.
Local races won’t dominate the ballot as they did in ‘23, but rather it will be national races.
Trump will likely be on the ticket; so, too, Biden. Abigail Spanberger will be ginning up her campaign for governor, promising a bruising battle to replace her in Congressional District 7.
With so much at stake, expect turnout to soar at all three election events.
School Board Begins to Lay out Its Agenda
Lorita Daniels also spoke at the SCDC meeting, and talked about the challenges the new Board will face.
We have to “collaborate more,” she said. “We can’t return to where we were the last two years.”
For Daniels, that means regaining trust the Board lost. We have to “build confidence with this community,” she said.
And while she spoke of being strategic in how the new Board will move, she also told those in attendance that “we have work to do, and I am ready for the challenge. We’re going to be moving forward like a train.”
Nicole Cole, who will also sit at the dais, told the FXBG Advance after the meeting that “first and foremost we need to move forward making the best decisions with the school division in mind, and the students, and that’s the agenda.”
“We’ve had two years of decisions being made that benefitted school board members and small factions of the community, and not the students,” she continued.
“The new school board will have a mind for making sure that the Spotsy County Public Schools and our students are the greatest benefactors of the policy, funding, and staffing decisions we make.”
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