“You don’t want to wait until a week before the election and then decide to put it in the mail,” said Stephanie Iles, the city’s director of elections and general registrar. “There is a possibility that we might not get it in time.”

The United States Postal Service has faced nationwide slowdowns in the past few years due to strains from the pandemic and operational cutbacks. Virginia was hit hard, as Richmond served as a guinea pig for Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s cost-cutting plan of consolidating individual processing centers into larger regional hubs.

Local and state election officials are subsequently pushing absentee voters to request and return their mail-in ballots as soon as possible to avoid missing the deadline.

“I think we are all concerned about it,” Iles said.

Christine Lewis, Virginia Beach’s director of elections and general registrar, said she noted slower services during recent elections.

“It’s taking about three to five days for people to receive their ballots in the mail,” she said. “I would have said pre-COVID, it would usually take people about two days.”

Election Day is Nov. 5 but early voting starts Sept. 20.

To be counted, absentee ballots returned by mail must be postmarked on or before Election Day and received by the general registrar’s office by noon on the third day following the election. If possible, Iles and Lewis encouraged absentee voters who are approaching the deadline to consider dropping ballots off at the registrars’ office or a drop-box location.

“If I had to name what my biggest concern is with the 2024 general election, it would be the operational performance of the United States Postal Service,” she said, adding the department raised concerns prior to last year’s election. “We started hearing from registrars that they were having issues with mail ballots not being delivered to voters, not getting them back in time or ballots coming back as being undeliverable.”

Beals said absentee voters should get started on the process early so any mishaps or delays can be addressed.

“I know folks sometimes get their ballot and go ‘Well I’m just going to let it marinate here and think about it’ — you can’t do that this year,” she said. “You need to make sure that you mail it back (immediately) or drop it off.”

Absentee voting is a popular option nationwide, according to Elliott Fullmer, a political science professor at Randolph-Macon College. Fullmer, who researches voting and elections, said about 40% and 32% of voters used that method in 2020 and ’22, respectively.

He believes it’s always a good idea to take an earlier approach to absentee voting and said officials’ concerns should never be dismissed.

“I am glad they are voicing those concerns now because if there is something that is hurting the processing of ballots, it’s better to flag that now than before it is too late,” he said. “What I am encouraged by is that, despite the significant concerns that everybody had in 2020, I feel like the system worked well.”

Fullmer said Virginia has also made it easier to vote since the pandemic by expanding the number of voting methods.

Although Virginia ranked worst in the nation this year for postal service, there also have been improvements amid pushback from residents and lawmakers. Several federal legislators in Virginia, including Republican Rep. Rob Wittman of Yorktown and Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, met with Dejoy in July for an update.

The on-time delivery rate of first-class mail in Virginia improved from 66% to 77.4% during the first quarter of this year, according to a release about the meeting from Kaine’s office. But this fell short of the goal of 93%.

“The numbers are getting better,” Kaine told The Virginian-Pilot last month. “We still have some parts of the Richmond distribution area out around Charlottesville where it’s bad.

“Then the postal service frightened everyone last week by saying it might have to curtail services in rural areas (in 2025). Rural America relies more on the postal service than urban America does so that went over very poorly — so we have more work to do.”

Katie King, katie.king@virginiamedia.com 

Sutton, a retired Virginia Beach teacher and school administrator, is running for the board’s District 3 seat. His opponent is Mark Bohenstiel, a small business owner. Incumbent Jessica Owens is not seeking reelection.

Bohenstiel sued Sutton last week, and asked the court to keep Sutton off the ballot. Also named as defendants were the city, the voter registrar, and members of the electoral board.

Bohenstiel’s case centers on petitions Sutton submitted to qualify for the race. Candidates had to obtain 125 valid signatures from qualified voters in the district to be declared eligible. While Bohenstiel’s complaint doesn’t challenge the authenticity of the signatures, it does question the dates included with some of them, as well as the process followed when the petitions were notarized.

During a hearing Friday before Circuit Judge Afshin Farashahi, Sutton testified he did his best to follow all the rules for obtaining and submitting signatures. He said he dated the pages of signatures he collected as Feb. 3, which is when he began gathering them. Some, however, were obtained on Feb. 4 and Feb. 5, he said.

A former student of Sutton’s who now attends the University of Virginia helped collect signatures, along with two of his fraternity brothers, Sutton said. Testimony during Friday’s hearing suggested the students signed off on the petitions they’d circulated before presenting them to a notary of the public, which is not the proper procedure.

Also on Friday, Virginia Beach Electoral Board Chairman Jeffrey Marks told the judge the board would need to know by Tuesday what names to include on the ballot. Mail-in ballots are scheduled to go out Sept. 16, and early voting is set to begin Sept. 20, he said.

Farashahi said he would announce his decision on the injunction request Monday. The ruling, however, is unlikely to end the matter. A trial is still expected to be held before the election, and Farashahi said whatever decision he makes next week could end up changing after more evidence is presented at trial.

Jane Harper, jane.harper@pilotonline.com

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. scored a pair of legal victories Friday in the battleground states of North Carolina and Michigan, and a setback in Wisconsin, in his quest to get his name off of the ballots in some states after he suspended his campaign and endorsed former President Donald Trump.

North Carolina’s intermediate-level Court of Appeals issued an order granting Kennedy’s request to halt the mailing of ballots that included his name, upending plans in the state just as officials were about to begin sending out the nation’s first absentee ballots for the Nov. 5 presidential election.

The court — a three-judge panel ruling unanimously — also told a trial judge to order the State Board of Elections to distribute ballots without Kennedy’s name on them. No legal explanation was given.

In Michigan, its intermediate-level Court of Appeals ruled that Kennedy should be removed from the ballot, reversing a decision made earlier this week by a lower court judge.

And in Wisconsin, a Dane County circuit court judge denied Kennedy’s request for a temporary restraining order to put on hold the state elections commission’s decision to keep him on the ballot.

“A matter of such consequence deserves a full development of the record with appropriate briefing by all sides,” Judge Stephen Ehlke wrote. He set a scheduling conference for Wednesday, a week before the deadline for the printing of ballots.

In separate statements, a Kennedy attorney praised the North Carolina and Michigan rulings, saying they uphold state elections laws and support ballot integrity by ensuring no one must vote for a candidate no longer running in their state.

A favorable outcome for Kennedy could assist Trump’s efforts to win North Carolina, Michigan and Wisconsin.

North Carolina law required the first absentee ballots to be mailed or transmitted to those already asking for them no later than 60 days before the general election, making Friday the deadline. The process of reprinting and assembling ballot packages likely would take more than two weeks, state attorneys have said.

The State Board of Elections formally asked the state Supreme Court late Friday to reverse the Court of Appeals decision. State lawyers asked the justices to act quickly before adjustments to the ballots ordered earlier Friday is complete — likely in a few days.

Kennedy, the nominee of the We The People party in North Carolina, had sued last week to get off the state’s ballots after he suspended his campaign and endorsed Trump. But the Democratic majority on the State Board of Elections rejected the request, saying it was too late in the process of printing ballots and coding tabulation machines. Kennedy then sued.

Wake County Superior Court Judge Rebecca Holt on Thursday denied Kennedy’s effort to keep his name off ballots, prompting his appeal. In the meantime, Holt had told election officials to hold back sending absentee ballots until noon Friday.

More than 132,500 people — military and overseas workers and in-state civilian residents — have requested North Carolina absentee ballots so far, the State Board of Elections said.

In an email, state board Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell told election directors in all 100 counties to preserve current ballots and coding in case rulings revert to keeping Kennedy on the ballot. More than 2.9 million absentee and in-person ballots with Kennedy’s name on them have been printed so far. Counties would have to pay for the cost of reprinting ballots.

With Friday’s deadline not met, North Carolina election officials still are faced with meeting a federal law requiring absentee ballots go to military and overseas voters by Sept. 21. They may try to seek a waiver if new ballots can’t be produced in time.

Friday’s ruling in North Carolina didn’t include the names of judges who considered Kennedy’s request — the court releases the names after 90 days. The court has 15 judges — 11 registered Republicans and four Democrats. Names usually have been withheld from such orders to discourage “judge shopping,” or purposefully seeking out a judge who’s likely to rule in your favor, the court has said.

Kennedy sued Democratic Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson on Aug. 30 to get off the ballot. He filed suit in Wisconsin on Wednesday.

Friday’s ruling from Michigan said that while Kennedy’s request was made close to the deadline to give notice to local election officials, it wasn’t so unreasonable as to deny relief to him. Benson’s office will appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court, a spokesperson said.

__

Associated Press writers Isabella Volmert in Lansing, Michigan, and Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed to this report.

Virginia Beach residents Richard “R.K.” Kowalewitch and Donald Edwards petitioned the Supreme Court of Virginia to force the Virginia Beach Voter Registrar and Electoral Board to remove Mayor Bobby Dyer and Councilwoman Sabrina Wooten from the ballot.

They claim Dyer and Wooten violated the city charter by not tendering their resignations, effective Dec. 31, before qualifying for the ballot. The plaintiffs contend that the registrar and the board placed “ineligible and unqualified” candidates on the ballot.

“They have to put the resignation letter in,” Kowalewitch said by phone Wednesday. “It wasn’t done.”

Dyer’s term as mayor expires Dec. 31. Wooten represents District 7; her term also expires Dec. 31.

Virginia Beach’s charter states: “In the event any councilman, including the mayor, shall decide during his term of office to be a candidate for mayor, he shall tender his resignation as a councilman not less than ten days prior to the date for the filing of petitions as required by general law. Such resignation shall be effective on December 31, shall constitute the councilman’s intention to run for mayor, shall require no formal acceptance by the remaining councilmen and shall be final and irrevocable when tendered.”

Kowalewitch contends resignation letters would have needed to be filed by June 18.

Wooten submitted a resignation letter, effective Dec. 31, to City Clerk Amanda Barnes on Aug. 27. Wooten declined to comment about the lawsuit when reached by phone Wednesday.

Dyer has not submitted his resignation letter, according to Barnes. The mayor also declined to comment.

Another mayoral candidate, council member Chris Taylor, provided a resignation letter, also effective Dec. 31, to the city clerk May 30. Taylor is in the middle of his four-year term as the District 8 representative.

The fifth mayoral candidate, former Councilman John Moss, doesn’t currently hold office. The upcoming election will be Kowalewitch’s fourth run for mayor.

Kowalewitch and Edwards are seeking a writ of mandamus from the court, which is a judicial order that requires a government official to comply with the law. The petition names Virginia Beach Voter Registrar Christine Lewis and the city’s Electoral Board: chairman Jeffrey Marks, vice chair Nanette Miller,  and secretary Lauralee Grim. Lewis declined to comment on the lawsuit. Marks, on behalf of the board, also declined to comment.

The legal action was filed ahead of the start of early voting, which begins Sept. 20. It references a recent opinion by the Virginia attorney general on a election matter unfolding in neighboring Chesapeake, though the issue at hand there appears unique to the city’s charter.

Chesapeake City Council filed a lawsuit against sitting member Don Carey in a dispute over whether he should have resigned — in this case, officially stepped down from his current seat — in his bid for mayor.

The Chesapeake city charter calls for a resignation by June 30, six months before Carey’s term ends. But it was established when Chesapeake held elections in May.

General Assembly action in 2021 shifted the city’s elections to November, but the accompanying provision for resignation was not altered, according to an opinion issued in May by Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares. His opinion concluded that Carey was required to step down by June 30.

In contrast to Chesapeake, the Virginia Beach charter states that the resignation to run for mayor must be made 10 days prior to the deadline for filing a petition to run, which occurs in June. But it is effective Dec. 31.

Kowalewitch says Miyares’ opinion proves candidate eligibility requirements in a municipal charter must be upheld.

“There’s a value in that,” said Kowalewitch.

He cited another part of the city charter which states that the term of office for each council member continues until his successor has been duly elected and qualified. Kowalewitch worries if Dyer and Wooten didn’t follow the proper resignation procedure, they could stay in office beyond their term should a problem arise with the election of their successor.

Kowalewitch and Edwards previously filed a federal lawsuit contending that the city illegally changed its voting system prior to the 2022 election. The lawsuit was dismissed. A separate state lawsuit challenging the city’s district voting system was allowed to proceed in circuit court.

When the resign to run issue arose in Chesapeake, The Virginian-Pilot asked Virginia Beach City Attorney Mark Stiles if Dyer and Wooten each was required to submit a letter of resignation.

“No,” Stiles wrote back in an email on Aug. 6. “The resign to run provision states that the effective date of the resignation is December 31. Because their terms end on that date anyway, there is nothing for them to resign from.”

On Aug. 12, The Pilot asked Stiles to provide more context as to why Dyer and Wooten were not required to submit a resignation letter.

“Because their terms naturally expire, there is nothing for them to resign from and there is no need for a special election to fill the balance of their terms,” Stiles wrote.

On Wednesday, Stiles said he would not comment on the lawsuit because the city’s not a party in it.

Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, stacy.parker@pilotonline.com

A legal complaint filed by Mark Bohenstiel names his opponent, John Sutton III, along with the City of Virginia Beach, and the city’s Director of Elections and three Electoral Board members as co-defendants. Bohenstiel alleges that 14 of Sutton’s petition signatures are dated Feb. 4, 2024, while the witness’s signature is dated the prior day — therefore his candidacy is invalid because he would not have reached the required 125 signatures.

Presiding Circuit Court Judge Afshin Farashahi said he would rule on the matter this week so that it could be resolved prior to ballots officially being printed.

Following the brief hearing, Sutton called the complaint “frivolous” and said it is an example of his opponent engaging in the “politics of personal destruction.”

“In my 18 years as a teacher and administrator, my integrity has never been questioned,” Sutton said in an interview.

John Kaptan, Bohenstiel’s attorney, said after the hearing that the citizens of Virginia Beach deserve “qualified” candidates for school board. Asked if he was referring to whether Sutton was personally qualified or legally qualified, Kaptan said his words “speak for themselves.”

Gavin Stone, 757-712-4806, gavin.stone@virginiamedia.com

“He’s a good speaker. He made some mistakes in his past,” said Allan Jones, a 59-year-old truck driver, at the campaign event near his home in Colfax, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) west of Raleigh. “Haven’t we all? Did we learn from them? Let’s go forward.”

Robinson, a favorite of former President Donald Trump, is the party’s nominee for governor in the November election. He is looking to succeed term-limited Democrat Roy Cooper in a state that has voted for Trump twice and has backed Republicans for the presidency all but once since 1980. Robinson is popular for his working-class history and a blunt speaking style that at times resembles Trump’s.

But Robinson also has a history of inflammatory comments that his opponent, Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein, has said makes him too extreme to lead North Carolina. It raises the prospect that campaign struggles for Robinson could hurt Trump’s chances to win a state he cannot afford to lose to Democrat Kamala Harris.

On a Facebook post in 2019, Robinson said abortion in America was about “killing the child because you weren’t responsible enough to keep your skirt down.” In a 2021 speech in a church, he used the word “filth” when discussing gay and transgender people.

Democrats led by Cooper, a top surrogate for Harris, have tried to make the case that North Carolina’s 16 electoral votes are ripe to win. Trump’s 1.3 percentage point victory in North Carolina over Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 was the narrowest for Trump. Cooper argues that Republican candidates with views closely linked to Trump — Robinson and state schools superintendent candidate Michele Morrow among them — could turn out people who otherwise would not have voted for Democrats.

Stein, after a campaign event last month at Wilber’s Barbecue in Goldsboro, said he did not know whether such views by those candidates would affect the presidential race but he thought they could be on voters’ minds.

“These are not normal people or candidates, and I think it’s going to have a big impact on the way voters look at the Democratic Party in our state and the Republican Party in this light,” he said.

There are no public signs that Trump is distancing himself from Robinson, who appeared on the stage for Trump’s recent rallies in the state.

Stein had a lead over Robinson in two polls of North Carolina voters conducted in August. Robinson’s campaign released a memo this week from a pollster arguing that Robinson has been faring better than the two previous GOP nominees for governor.

“Reverse coattails or other Democratic fever dreams are not real, particularly in a presidential election cycle,” state Republican Party spokesperson Matt Mercer said. “What is real is the electoral strength of Donald J. Trump in North Carolina.”

Stein and his allies have been successful so far in defining Robinson in the closely divided state. Robinson’s views on abortion have been front and center, and Democrats have used a stockpile of footage from Robinson’s social media posts in their television commercials and videos.

Data from AdImpact, which monitors campaign spending, show that Stein has outspent Robinson by more than a 3-to-1 margin since the March primaries, an edge that would widen based on spots reserved between now and the fall general election.

“Mark Robinson is the chief spokesperson for the Josh Stein attack campaign,” said Paul Shumaker, a veteran GOP consultant whose clients included a candidate who lost to Robinson in the primary.

Robinson also has received bad press for his family’s businesses, including a nonprofit run by his wife that state regulators found had numerous problems in administering a child nutrition program.

Robinson says his past words have been twisted by others and he blames the “weaponization” of state government for the attack on his wife’s business. He remains optimistic entering the final two months of the race.

“Certainly when you look at a poll, you may get dismayed by some numbers,” Robinson told reporters outside the Olympic restaurant. “But we’re not looking at numbers, we’re looking at people and we’re going after votes. And we know we can still win this race.”

Experts say concern about a candidate whose views are seen as extreme can hurt enthusiasm among the party faithful.

“Trouble and dissension down ballot can have an effect on party turnout, which can influence the results at the top of the ticket,” said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. He said moderate North Carolina Republicans could vote for Harris and Stein “to send a message to the GOP.”

Trump endorsed Robinson before the primary, calling him “Martin Luther King on steroids,” in reference to the civil rights leader, for his speaking ability. Robinson would be North Carolina’s first Black governor if elected.

Morrow, the schools superintendent candidate, attended the Jan. 6, 2021, rally in Washington before the attack on the U.S. Capitol, suggested at the time that the military could keep Trump in office and has called public schools liberal “indoctrination centers.”

Robinson has pushed back on the abortion issue and gone on offense. He has released economic and public safety platforms and is running a commercial accusing Stein of failing to address rising crime and violence. Robinson began running an ad last month in which he appears to accept the state’s current 12-week ban on most abortions enacted by the Republican-dominated General Assembly last year. The ad also revealed to a broader audience a previous disclosure about his wife’s abortion decades ago.

Robinson described to a table of restaurant patrons this past week how he supports an abortion ban after roughly six weeks of pregnancy, but that the 12-week limit won out at the legislature.

“As an elected official, I have a personal opinion, but also as an elected official, I have to go along with what’s called consensus,” Robinson told reporters afterward as he began a statewide campaign tour. Stein’s campaign alleges that Robinson would seek a total abortion ban with no exceptions if elected.

Shumaker, the Republican consultant, said polling shows Stein is performing better than Robinson among independent voters. One unaffiliated voter, Richard Morgan, 68, attended the Colfax event and votes Republican. He said he has told Robinson that he needs to sharpen his abortion commercial to highlight his support for women.

As for Robinson’s past controversial comments, Morgan said he gives Robinson “the benefit of the doubt that he’s a changed man because everybody else does for other candidates” who say things they regret later.

It may be too late to convince other independents.

Susie Hess, 64, a retired social worker who attended the Stein event, said the things she has heard that Robinson has said are “horrible.” She said she has voted for Republicans before and believes some of them hold the same values she does, but that does not seem to be the case this year.

“Because a lot of them are falling in line with Trump,” Hess said, “they’re kind of giving up on their values.”

___

Associated Press polling editor Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux and chief elections analyst Chad Day in Washington contributed to this report.

Chesapeake resident Nelson Velez filed the lawsuit in Chesapeake Circuit Court this week, asking the court to compel the Virginia Department of Elections and the local registrar to find Carey ineligible to run, remove him from the ballots and delay printing them.

It’s the second legal action taken amid an ongoing dispute over Carey’s candidacy. A majority of City Council members in July approved a lawsuit seeking to compel him to resign his council seat.

At issue is a resign-to-run provision on the books in Chesapeake that requires any council member running for mayor to vacate their council seat by June 30. The provision was established when Chesapeake held city elections in May, but it was not altered when the General Assembly acted in 2021 to shift city elections to November. Carey’s council term will end Dec. 31.

Velez’s complaint states because Carey didn’t resign, he didn’t fulfill all necessary requirements to be a mayoral candidate.

Reached by phone Friday, Carey said the move was “disheartening” and “anti-democratic.”

“It’s just an attempt to disenfranchise not only myself, but the people that I represent and the issues that we’re fighting for,” he said. “I would have never thought to see something like this happening in the city of Chesapeake.”

Carey and Mary Lynn Pinkerman, the city’s elections registrar, confirmed to The Virginian-Pilot that Carey filed all necessary documentation to be considered a candidate. Pinkerman, who’s named in the complaint, didn’t comment on the pending litigation.

Velez’s complaint, which seeks an emergency injunction, urges a hearing no later than Tuesday, but as of Friday, no hearing was scheduled. His attorney, Christopher Woodfin of Woodfin Law in Williamsburg, told The Pilot on Friday that Chesapeake judges have recused themselves, and a judge is being appointed. Still, he’s confident the court will expedite the process before the election.

It’s also unclear when the City Council’s lawsuit will be heard. All Chesapeake Circuit Court judges also have recused themselves in that case and no hearing was on the docket as of Friday.

When Carey declared his candidacy in March, he announced he was switching political parties to become a Democrat in the nonpartisan election. He is running against incumbent Rick West in the Nov. 5 election.

Pinkerman said the window for creating, proofing, printing and delivering ballots begins Sept. 6 and spans to Sept. 20, the start of early voting at the registrar’s office.

Velez’s complaint also states that if Carey is included on ballots, he asks that Carey be forced to resign as a council member and pay back the salary he earned after June 30.

Reached by phone Friday, Velez said he filed the lawsuit because he “needed to act” before the start of early voting.

“I pretty much filed it because I’m a citizen of Chesapeake, and I’m concerned about this absolute disregard of law,” he said.

John O’Bannon, the chair of the Virginia Board of Elections, also is named as a defendant in the lawsuit. He did not respond to a request for comment. Andrea Gaines, a Virginia Department of Elections spokesperson, declined to comment on the pending litigation.

Natalie Anderson, 757-732-1133, natalie.anderson@virginiamedia.com

Doug Emhoff, husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, will be in Newport News on Labor Day, a spokesperson for the Harris presidential campaign confirmed this week. No other details were provided.

Emhoff has helped his wife’s campaign since she replaced President Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket last month.

“This is only the beginning. I promise you this: we are going to do the work, fight hard, and win,” Emhoff wrote Wednesday on social media, alongside a video of himself and Harris embracing onstage at last week’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Though information about Emhoff’s Newport News trip has not been released, there’s at least one notable political event slated for Monday.

Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Newport News, will hold his annual Labor Day cookout — a longstanding tradition that often draws federal and local legislators. In a release this week, Scott said he will be hosting several “special guests” this year, including U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine.

“As we all know, the stakes could not be higher for the election this November,” Scott said. “My Annual Labor Day Cookout provides a platform for voters to engage with political candidates seeking office in Hampton Roads and throughout the Commonwealth before casting a ballot this fall.”

Gwen Walz, wife of Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, also will visit Virginia soon. She will headline an “Educators for Harris-Walz” event Friday in Manassas, according to a campaign news release.

A Roanoke College poll released Aug. 20 found the Harris campaign is slightly leading former President Donald Trump in Virginia. Harris had a three-point lead (47% to 44%) over Trump in a head-to-head matchup in the commonwealth, and a similar lead (45% to 42%) when other candidates were included.

Katie King, katie.king@virginiamedia.com

As he approached 30 years in public service, Kaine said he took time to reflect before seeking another term in the Senate. He had already served as a city councilman, mayor, lieutenant governor, governor and Virginia senator for two terms. And in 2016, he was Democrat Hillary Clinton’s running mate in her bid for the White House.

Maybe it was time for a new chapter?

“I really grappled with what was the right answer,” he said. “I wanted to do either (decision) whole-heartedly.”

Kaine, 66, ultimately concluded this wasn’t the right time to step away. He is running for his third Senate term and faces Republican political newcomer Hung Cao, who has former President Donald Trump’s support. During a Monday interview with The Virginian-Pilot, Kaine discussed the concerns that kept him in politics and shared his thoughts on this year’s unprecedented presidential election.

“It’s been a whipsaw of a two months,” he said.

This summer was marked by political upheaval. President Joe Biden’s debate performance in June caused panic among some Democrats and sowed divisions within the party about whether the 81-year old should halt his reelection bid. A gunman attempted to assassinate Trump at a campaign rally just two weeks later.

Kaine described the debate as painful, but said he understood why the president wasn’t pressured to drop out sooner.

“President Biden did a great job at the State of the Union,” he said. “Not only was the speech great but he stayed in the chamber visiting with everybody … I don’t think anybody was in a position before June 27 to say ‘Hey, we’ve got to go a different direction.’ ”

Kaine, however, noted presidential debates are typically held in September or October. He suspects Biden’s campaign may have offered to debate earlier this year to ensure there would be time to change candidates if problems arose.

Kaine, who never added his voice to the public chorus calling on Biden to step aside, said his gut told him the president would make the right call. Biden later withdrew from the race in July and was replaced by Vice President Kamala Harris.

Kaine said Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, are off to a strong start and have unified the party. But he’s still expecting a tight race to the White House.

Explaining that economic issues are a priority for most voters, he urged the candidates to tout the Biden administration’s record on infrastructure, job creation and new business registrations.

“Democracy and freedom are good (campaign themes) but put the economy in and have there be three pillars,” he said. “The Republican economic message is so simple and straightforward, cut taxes and cut regulation and they’ve had that as the theme since Reagan. The Democrats never had a simple theme, so how about one that takes advantage of the Biden-Harris accomplishments — Make, Build, Grow?”

As for his own campaign, Kaine said he isn’t taking anything for granted. But if reelected, he hopes to focus on “unfinished business” related to immigration reform. It’s a heated issue, but he sees reasons to hope for a bipartisan solution.

“The unemployment rate in this country is low and the birth rate is low,” he said. “We are not going to meet the needs of the shipbuilding industry or hospitals or hotels without a workforce-based immigration reform bill.”

Kaine, who was governor during the 2007 mass shooting at Virginia Tech, said he also has more work to do on firearms. He wants to continue pushing for measures, such as magazine limitations and universal background checks, aimed at reducing gun violence.

Strengthening alliances abroad would be another priority, he said. Kaine co-sponsored legislation last year, which was passed as part of the annual National Defense Authorization Act, to prohibit any president from withdrawing from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization without congressional approval.

“It’s the one thing that China and Russia never really have had, although you see them realizing as they’re watching what’s going on in Ukraine that they better be closer together because NATO and other alliances like that are such a value add for the democracies,” he said.

“I really feel like more work in the diplomacy space to strengthen alliances both for military and other cooperations is something I’m really excited to be (a part of) in the future.”

Katie King, katie.king@virginiamedia.com

Ultimately, city staff helped the mayor’s stepbrother resolve a sewer-related issue he faced in Nahunta, Georgia, while attempting to build on a 29-acre property, according to emails, memos and text message exchanges obtained by The Virginian-Pilot.

Though the city of Chesapeake doesn’t have a written ethics policy for elected officials, one council member and an ethics expert say the mayor’s actions at least raise a red flag.

West’s actions prompted calls for investigation at this week’s City Council meeting, though members sought two very different inquiries.

Robert Ike said at Tuesday’s meeting he’s formally asked the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office to independently investigate the incident. He also tasked the city attorney’s office with providing an accounting of all city resources used to help the mayor’s stepbrother.

“The bottom line is, the mayor used city resources for his own interest,” Ike told The Virginian-Pilot. “It would be very similar if I had public works (staff) come over and landscape my yard, plant trees and some shrubs, and didn’t pay for it.”

Council member Amanda Newins, however, appeared focused on finding how the information was leaked. She tasked the city attorney’s office with searching through the emails of former City Attorney Jacob Stroman, who assisted the mayor in 2022. She asked for a search of all emails Stroman might have deleted or sent to his personal email account before his departure last year.

When pressed by council members and a reporter on why she made the request, Newins declined to offer any specifics but said it was to “protect the city’s interest.” She asked for a report on any ethical concerns as a result of the search and actions council could take if any are spotted.

Even so, West, who’s been mayor since 2017, said this week that he didn’t view the request as unethical since it’s his job as mayor to help people with local government issues.

Reached by phone, Jonathan West, said he didn’t see the request as unethical since he only asked his stepbrother to check on legal options and “whatever was done was done on the city attorney’s behalf.”

“I did not ask him to do anything but to give me an opinion of what I could tell my stepbrother,” Rick West told The Pilot. “That’s all I asked him to do.”

___

The ask for help

Details of the mayor’s request to Stroman are laid out in a series of emails, memos and text messages that began Aug. 9, 2022, when Jonathan West emailed Rick West about the sewer-related issuein Georgia. Jonathan West said he was attempting to connect his property to the city’s sewage system but faced a sewer and septic tank moratorium in Nahunta — a city roughly 80 miles northwest of Jacksonville, Florida.

“I was going to see if maybe you could have one of your lawyers for the city take a look at it and see if this is something worth fighting for or if we are in a losing battle with the city,” Jonathan West said in his email to Rick West. “I have wasted a pile of money already if we are and do not want to waste another ($3,000 to $10,000) to find out there is nothing we can do legally.”

The mayor replied the same day that he’d check with Stroman. The city attorney texted the mayor the same day, telling him “we are happy to see what we can find out.”

Over the course of several days, emails, memos and text messages — first reported by WHRO — show correspondence among the mayor, Stroman and his staff tasked with looking into the issue, including current Deputy City Attorney Ellen Bergren, who typed up a summary on the issue and weighed in on relevant city ordinances.

On Aug. 12, 2022, Jonathan West emailed Stroman directly to thank him for the city’s efforts after learning the Georgia Department of Health approved his septic tank permit.

“Please let me know what I owe you for your time,” Jonathan West said. “If you ever find yourself in Southeast Ga I owe you a cold beer or two at least!”

“You don’t owe us a dime; we were happy to help,” Stroman said in a same-day reply. “I don’t get to South Georgia very often these days, but when I do, I’ll take you up on that beer!”

Stroman told Jonathan West he reached out to the Nahunta city manager and city attorney and filed a Freedom of Information Act request for that city’s relevant ordinances. Chesapeake staff also spoke with a Georgia Department of Health contact to help resolve Jonathan West’s issue.

“We shared with him our experience that in Virginia a local ordinance imposing a moratorium on new septic or alternative onsite systems when sewer was not available would be preempted (overruled) by state law,” Stroman said in the email. “I suspect that is what did the trick.”

Stroman also credited Bergren’s assistance, noting she was a utilities law expert.

Bergren did not return a call and message left with her city office. Stroman, who no longer works for the city, also did not return calls requesting comment.

The city doesn’t have a formal written ethics policy for elected officials, so there’s no specific provision that would deem the mayor’s behavior unethical or in violation of city policy. City Attorney Catherine Lindley told The Pilot that the Virginia State Bar allows the city to perform pro bono work. It’s not clear whether the mayor’s request would be considered allowable pro bono work.

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Lack of ethics rules

Rick West’s request for his stepbrother came just two months after he voted against renewing Stroman’s appointment in June 2022. He resigned in January 2023, though plans were already in the works to terminate him before the option to resign was presented seemingly due to disagreements over legal interpretations Stroman provided at the time, The Pilot previously reported.

West is being challenged by sitting council member Don Carey, who is facing a divided call to resign from his current seat during his mayoral bid in order to comply with the city charter. At Tuesday’s meeting, he and council member Ella Ward pushed Newins to explain what prompted her request for an investigation into Stroman’s emails. At the time Newins did so, no mention of the mayor’s 2022 request had been made, and she told Carey to ask City Attorney Catherine Lindley what motivated Newins’ request. Lindley was not present for Tuesday’s council meeting.

Carey, Ward and Ike all voted against Newins’ request, but it passed 6-3.

“I think citizens should hear the purpose of us sending our city attorney’s office on what seems to be, dare I say, a witch hunt, for, again, God knows what,” Carey said at the meeting.

In Chesapeake, the city attorney is hired by City Council, so Rick West was considered Stroman’s boss. But even with the power dynamics at play, it’s still incumbent on a city attorney to notify his bosses that an action may be perceived as unethical or not allowed, said Frank Shafroth, director of Center for State and Local Leadership at George Mason University.

Shafroth once directed policy with the National League of Cities and said worked with elected officials in the city of Alexandria to craft ethics policies, though he said he was met with resistance.

“(It’s) a challenge because, in effect, you’re asking them to judge themselves, and I don’t think we ever trust someone to judge themselves in a way that is necessarily fair or unbiased,” Shafroth said.

But having an ethics policy on the books is about public trust, he said.

“(You) ought to have a code so people respect it, respect the elected officials and understand how a process works if there’s a question about or a challenge to an action taken by an elected or appointed city official,” Shafroth said. “(You) need one that’s enforceable, so the people know what the code is. They understand what the violations are, and they understand the process for a violation of that code.”

Chesapeake has an ethics policy for employees, but council members are only bound to a Rules of Order and Procedure, which Shafroth said was problematic.

“You can’t say there’s one standard for employees of the city and a different standard for the elected officials,” he said.

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated Ellen Bergren was the deputy city manager. She is the deputy city attorney.

Natalie Anderson, 757-732-1133, natalie.anderson@virginiamedia.com