Leesburg Town Council Candidates So Far

Three candidates have announced intentions to run for the four Town Council seats up for election in May. They are David Tevis, Frank Holtz and David Butler. David Tevis is running to unseat Mayor Umstaddt, Frank Holtz and David Butler are running for seats on the Council. Here is what they each said about their candidacies.

• David Butler

  Butler said he sees himself as a consensus builder, seeking and implementing solutions that will improve Leesburg residents' quality of life.
  
  "Whether it's improving our roads and trails, lowering taxes through economic development, or making our town more environmentally friendly, I always try to bring people together to make the best decisions for Leesburg," Butler said. - Leesburg Today

• David Tevis

  "They've turned into a spending organization, not representation for the citizens," the 32-year town resident said.
  
  Tevis -- who owns Dominion Pest Control -- said he will announce his mayoral run at a press conference at noon next Thursday on the Town Green. He said he plans to run on a reform ticket and wants to be a fiscally conservative representative body to town council. Tevis added that he chose to run for mayor because he didn't think he could affect the change he wanted to at solely the council level.
  
  "I don't think a council member could push through any ideas unless they were part of a reform coalition," Tevis said. "There's times I've talked to people and even they're afraid of the machine in place." - Leesburg Today

• Frank Holtz

  "It's so burdensome for businesses to come to Leesburg," Holtz said. "It's a very, very complicated process. I want to join those on town council who want to take the charge and make this town friendlier to businesses so we can attract more jobs and business tax revenue."
  
  Holtz also wants to take the charge on an issue that has not been addressed by the town council - illegal immigration and overcrowding.
  
  "Town council hasn't brought forward a serious discussion on illegal immigration and overcrowding," Holtz said. "There hasn't been any information about what this is costing us now. It's like they want to wait and see what the county is doing." - Leesburg Today

Based on their comments so far, Frank Holtz and David Tevis are running against the record of the current Council, advocating less spending and a hunt for undocumented migrants. Dave Butler is running on general continuation of the current Council's policies, but improved communications from and among the Council. (The issue of difficulties for businesses locating in Leesburg is one the current Council is actually dealing with now. It is likely that a raft of changes to that process will be in place well before the new Council takes office.)

Mr. Holtz and Mr. Tevis represent candidacies based on repudiation of the progress made in Leesburg over the past few years. Leesburg has its problems - all Towns do - but the Council and Town government has done a good job of looking for and implementing simple, cost-effective solutions, managing and negotiating growth and development, and providing transparency and accountability to its citizens. It is the responsibility of candidates Tevis and Holtz to present a positive case for their candidacies, as the simple case against "the machine" and "the undocumented" are not good reasons for their election to the Council.

The campaign for Council is just beginning, and we will surely see more candidates declare in the coming weeks, including word on which current members are running for re-election. We do well to listen carefully to what they have to say as we consider who to support in May.