6 Candidates File to Run for 23 Falls Church City Council Seats in May

Brown joined two others citizens – Lou Mauro and Joseph Bodmer – at the City registrar's office on filing deadline day Tuesday to file to run for the Council, bringing the total number to six seeking to fill three seats that will be up for election May 4.

Bodmer, Brown and Mauro barely know each other and all will be running completely independent of each other and of any political or civic association.

They will contend against three other candidates who will be running as a slate, including two incumbent Council members. Incumbents Robin Gardner and Lindy Hockenberry were nominated by the City's oldest civic organization, the Citizens for a Better City (CBC) last month to be on its Council candidate slate along with newcomer David Chavern.

Falls Church Voter Registrar Debbie Taylor confirmed to the News-Press Tuesday that not only had all six candidates filed to run, but all had met the requirements and will be on the ballot.

So, snip this next part out and put it on your refrigerator in anticipation of the May 4 election. Here are the six candidates (in alphabetical order) and their affiliations, in case you are subjected to a pop quiz:

• Joseph Bodmer (independent)
• Greg Brown (independent)
• David Chavern (CBC)
• Robin Gardner (CBC -- incumbent)
• Lindy Hockenberry (CBC – incumbent)
• Lou Mauro (independent)

Although this line-up is ostensibly three CBC'ers versus three independents, at least two of the independents have a clear history of activism against the CBC and its incumbent Council members.

In 1996, Brown's candidacy was part of an anti-CBC slate of independents backed by the Falls Church Citizens Organization (FCCO). Two of his colleagues – Sam Mabry and Mary Ann Capria – won that year, but he lost.

After eschewing the 1998 and 2000 elections, Brown ran unsuccessfully again in 2002, but as an independent whose campaign was nonetheless closely tied to those of other "independents," including his former FCCO ally, Sam Mabry, who narrowly won. That group of "independents" ran joint political advertisements throughout the campaign. Brown said that will not happen this time, that he's running pm his own apart from anyone else.

Mauro, who, like Bodmer and Chavern, is running for public office for the first time, was the motivating force behind a City of Falls Church public referendum in the fall of 2002 aimed at changing the City charter to restrict residential development in the City's commercially zoned areas. The referendum was aimed against the CBC-led City Council's effort to bring mixed use development, a combination of commercial and residential, to the downtown areas of the City, and was defeated soundly, 63% to 37%.

But Mauro, who was quoted about his candidacy in last week's News-Press, insists he's running on more than the downtown development issue. He said he's concerned about taxes, schools and quality of life issues in Falls Church.

Bodmer, who was seen frequently gathering petitions in front of the Falls Church Post Office last week, handed out fliers to interested persons outlining 19 points he hopes to stress in his campaign, including support for mixed-use redevelopment on the Route 7 and Route 29 corridors and support for current school construction projects.

Brown said his main reason for running "is to prevent the City from being dominated by one party, to bring balance in the ways we look at the City's infrastructure and fiscal issues."

Chavern, in joining the CBC slate of Gardner and Hockenberry last month, said he's for continuing the progress being made on the current Council. He stepped in when incumbent Ron Parson, who was endorsed by the CBC four years ago, decided not to run for re-election. Gardner and Hockenberry chose to seek re-election, they said when they first announced in November, to continue to current direction of the Council, which has either approved or given preliminary approval to three large-scale mixed use projects in the 400 and 500 blocks of W. Broad St., and has undertaken formal negotiations with the Akridge Group to redevelop the downtown City Center area.

No new candidates filed for the three Falls Church School Board seats up in May, meaning that the three candidates endorsed by the CBC last month – incumbent Kieran Sharpe, Craig Cheney and Joan Wodiska – will be unopposed.