Virginia Beach's black leaders discuss shift in voting system

VIRGINIA BEACH

Leaders in the black community are convinced the city’s voting system is keeping their candidates from winning a seat on City Council.

In a city where about 20 percent of 433,000 residents are black, only two have been elected in its 35-year history – John L. Perry in the 1980s and Louisa Strayhorn (1994- 98).

“We don’t look any different than cities across the nation did in the 1950s,” said Beach NAACP President Georgia Allen, who came in second for an at-large seat on Nov. 4. “Virginia Beach should be embarrassed.”

The Beach has the third-largest black population among cities in Virginia, trailing Richmond and Norfolk. In fact, were they to form their own municipality, the Beach’s estimated 87,134 black residents would create the 10th largest city in the state, settling between Roanoke and Suffolk.

Except for Virginia Beach, the state’s 10 biggest cities all have at least two black council members.

Allen and others blame the Beach’s system, where seven council seats represent districts, three others – and the mayor – are at-large . The catch is, every seat is filled by citywide voting.

“It’s a crazy system,” said Andrew Jackson, one of the two black candidates who lost in the Kempsville district race nearly two weeks ago . “It’s really confusing.”

The city’s NAACP chapter backed Jackson on Nov. 4. The Rev. Joe Flores, another black candidate, also ran in Kempsville, where incumbent Harry Diezel was re-elected.

“Andrew Jackson would be the sitting city councilman in Kempsville right now” if Flores hadn’t run, said Carl Wright, president of the Virginia Beach African-American Political Action Council. “He split the vote right down the middle in the black community.”

Jackson received 38,762 votes and Flores 34,168, for a combined 72,930 – 3,616 more than Diezel garnered.

Flores said he doesn’t believe people automatically vote along racial lines. It wasn’t his candidacy, he said, but the citywide voting that was at fault.

“It’s an antiquated, biased system of election,” Flores said. “Most cities that are progressive understand that.”

Many cities with large minority populations, including Richmond and Norfolk, have moved to ward, or district, systems, where residents of the ward pick their own representative.

Norfolk, with about a 44 percent percent black population, went to the system in the early 1990s, after an eight-year fight that reached the U.S. Supreme Court . Today, three of Norfolk’s eight council members are black in a city with five wards and two “super wards,” or at-large seats.

Norfolk Councilman Paul Riddick was first seated in 1992, part of the wave of African Americans elected after the suit. “Right now, minority to Virginia Beach means Filipino,” said Riddick, referring to the lone minority presence on the Beach’s council, at-large Councilman Ron Villanueva.

The NAACP’s Georgia Allen received 34 percent of the vote to incumbent Rosemary Wilson’s 43 percent for an at-large seat sought by five candidates. Allen doesn’t want a ward system but supports a different solution: If four seats are open and 10 people run, the top four vote-getters win. “Virginia Beach does not have an equal playing field,” Allen said.

She points to Chesapeake, where nearly 66,000 of almost 217,000 residents – 31 percent – are black. On that city’s at-large council, four of nine members are black.

Other Virginia cities with a similar percentage of black citizens as the Beach have black representation. Alexandria, with a 22 percent black population, has two black council members. Roanoke, 27 percent black, has three black council members.

Strayhorn, who lost her bid for re-election in 1998, believes she would have been returned under a ward system. “I could have worked my district instead of the whole city,” she said.

“It’s not just that minorities have a hard time getting elected, it’s anyone who’s not rich,” said Strayhorn, pointing to the $603,000 raised by Mayor-elect Will Sessoms.

The Beach’s Centerville councilman, Bob Dyer, also supports a shift to “true” districts – only voters within the district vote for that seat. He argues economics. “You wouldn’t have to raise buckets to run,” Dyer said. “A district system would allow people to go door to door and really build a bond with the community.”

Diezel, who won in Kempsville, said a ward system wouldn’t benefit the black community because there aren’t strong geographic concentrations of black voters in the Beach. Plus, he said: “You begin to have ward politics versus global politics. It looks like the biggest bully wins.”

Delceno Miles, president of the Beach’s Minority Business Council, believes Diezel’s popularity, not race, decided the Kempsville outcome.

“If you represent one aspect of the community, and you want the whole community to represent you, that may be unrealistic,” said Miles, a former School Board member. “You have to appeal to a cross-section – business, economic and social.”

W. Randy Wright, a Norfolk councilman who was part of the push for wards, suspects any change won’t come from within the city council.

“The relief is going to have to come from the African-American community,” said Wright, who is white. “They’re going to have to go through the legal process, like we did.”

Strayhorn alluded to asking the Justice Department to study the issue. “It’s not in their best interests to change it,” Strayhorn said of council members. “I have a feeling we’re going to have to mount a campaign.”

John Warren, (757) 222-5114, john.warren@pilotonline.com