It looks as though there will be no need for a primary election in Danville in February. Monday marked the deadline for candidates to file petitions if they planned to run for mayor, city treasurer or Danville City Council members and not enough filed to require a primary vote. Sandy Delhaye, Executive Director of the Danville Board of Election Commission, (shown in photo) says it takes five candidates running for an office to trigger a primary vote.
Four people have filed to run for mayor. They are current Mayor Rickey Williams Jr., Donald Crews, Steve Nichols and James McMahon.
McMahon ran earlier for mayor but lost. Nichols is currently serving as a Ward 6 alderman – a position he has held since 1993. And Crews is employed as an environmental inspector in the City of Danville’s Legal Department.
Others who have filed petitions to run include:
- Stephanie Wilson, the current City Treasurer who is seeking re-election. She has no opposition.
- Brenda Brown, current Ward 1 Alderwoman who wants another term;
- Trina Perkins, who filed petitions on Monday seeking the Ward 1 seat currently held by vice mayor Brenda Brown;
- Rick Strebing, who wants another term as Ward 2 alderman;
- Jerry Hawker, who hopes to unseat Strebing in Ward 2;
- Sharon Pickering, who is seeking re-election in Ward 3;
- Damara Jones, who also wants the Ward 3 seat;
- Michael O’Kane is seeking re-election as Ward 4 alderman and has no opposition;
- Tom Stone filed for another term as Ward 5 alderman and is unopposed;
- Jon Cooper is another incumbent who hopes to keep his city council seat in Ward 6. He is facing some opposition though.
- Tom Pruitt, a retired assistant fire chief, wants the seat currently held by Cooper;
- Aaron Troglia is also seeking the seat that is up for grabs in Ward 6;
- And in Ward 7 incumbent Lloyd Randal is facing some opposition.
- Bob Iverson is seeking the seat currently held by Randal.
Danville businessman Frank Wright had recently announced he was going to run for mayor, but on Monday Wright said he had changed his mind. He cited ‘’personal reasons’’ for his decision to withdraw from the race. Some others had also picked up petition packets earlier expressing an interest in running for mayor or city council members but did not meet Monday’s deadline to file petitions.
Since none of the races attracted five candidates there appears to be no need for a City Primary Election in February. However anyone who wants to run still has until December 20th to declare their intent to run as a write-in candidate. The General Election is set for April 2nd, 2019.
