Republicans swept the Lynchburg City Council election Tuesday, with the party’s candidates seizing all three open seats and knocking two incumbents off the council.
With 20 of 21 precincts reporting, Stephanie Reed (11,726 votes), Larry Taylor (11,186) and Martin Misjuns (10,215) bested four other candidates, including incumbents Treney Tweedy (9,937) and Vice Mayor Beau Wright (8,048), who came in third and fourth, respectively.
Patrick Earl (6,834 votes) came in fifth, followed by Walter Virgil Jr. (3,537 votes).
The only votes not yet tallied as of publication time were provisional ballots and mailed absentee ballots that were received by the vote deadline but have not been processed.
Tuesday’s winners all will fill at-large seats; the Lynchburg City Council also has four members who represent the city’s four wards.
Local Republicans chose Misjuns, Reed and Taylor at a mass meeting this spring, while Earl, Tweedy and Wright were endorsed by the city’s Democratic committee. Virgil ran as an independent.
Tuesday’s results give the GOP a solid majority on the council; two of the other four members – Chris Faraldi and Jeff Helgeson – are Republicans. The remaining two, Mayor MaryJane Dolan and Sterling Wilder, were endorsed by the local Democratic party.
Randy Nelson, who held the third at-large seat, did not seek reelection and has resigned from his seat, telling The (Lynchburg) News & Advance that he wanted to give his successor time to get up to speed before the body started discussing the new budget in January. He said the council can call a special meeting to appoint one of the winners to fill his seat.