Roanoke Democrats have nominated Joe Cobb, Vivian Sanchez-Jones and Peter Volosin for their November ticket for three seats on city council.
The only votes remaining to be counted in the race are mail ballots, which can arrive through Friday, but the margin appears too great for fourth-place finisher Terry McGuire to make up the difference.
With all the other votes counted, the results are:
Cobb: 3,111
Sanchez-Jones: 2,710
Volosin: 2,587
McGuire: 2,309
Cobb and Sanchez-Jones are incumbents, although only Cobb has faced voters before. Sanchez-Jones, the first Latino to serve on city council, was appointed to council after one member resigned. This is Volosin’s second try for council; he was a Democratic nominee two years ago but lost in the general election.
In Roanoke, all council seats are elected at large. Roanoke voters will have many choices in November. In all, four seats will be on the ballot – three in a regular election, one in a special election to fill an unexpired term.
The winners from Tuesday’s Democratic primary will be running for the three seats with four-year terms. For the first time since 2014, Republicans will field a full slate of candidates: Dalton Baugess, Nick Hagen and Maynard Keller. No Republican has won a council seat in Roanoke since 2000. In addition, former Mayor David Bowers, previously elected as a Democrat, will be running as an independent for council. Meanwhile, there may be two other independent candidates who make the ballot once their paperwork is confirmed so Roanoke voters could conceivably have nine candidates for three seats.
Meanwhile, in the special election, Democrat Luke Priddy will be running against Republican Peg McGuire. That special election was necessitated when councilman Robert Jeffrey forfeited his seat after being convicted of embezzlement.
That means Roanoke City Council will gain at least two new members after November’s election: Incumbent Bill Bestpitch is retiring and Anita Price, appointed to fill Jeffrey’s seat on a temporary basis, did not choose to run for the rest of the term.