Jim Kelly won the Jamestown District seat for the Williamsburg-James City County School Board on Tuesday. The James City County Board of Supervisors race for the Jamestown seat was tight and still awaiting absentee ballot tallies as of late Tuesday night.
Update: as of early Wednesday, all votes were accounted for, giving the Board of Supervisors race to Jim Icenhour.
Board of Supervisors
Democrat Jim Icenhour, who was drawn out of his Powhatan District and into a new Jamestown District during the recent redistricting, was ahead of challenger Republican John Wright on in-person votes, but the vote was so close that absentee ballots could shift the tide. As of late Tuesday night, the absentee numbers were not in.
Update: As of Wednesday morning, Icenhour had 4516 votes, or 55.1 percent of votes cast, and Wright received 3653 votes, or 44.5 percent. Before the roughly 6,000 countywide absentee votes were counted, Icenhour had 3,293 votes, or 51 percent of votes cast. Wright had 3,130 votes, or 48.5 percent.
Just before 11 p.m., Wright said he was ready to go to bed after a long day that started at 4 a.m., and expected to hear results by morning. Earlier in the evening, Icenhour said he was eagerly waiting to hear the absentee count.
Close races have happened before in James City County — in 2011, only 28 votes separated Democrat John McGlennon and Republican Jack Fraley for the Roberts District seat. In 2007, only 82 votes separated Republican Mary Jones and Democrat Carlton Stockton in the Berkeley District.
A win by Icenhour would mean his Powhatan District seat would become vacant, which would put the Board back in the position it was in earlier this year with two Republicans and two Democrats and a vacant seat — this led to several tie votes for the split Board, and the need for the court to step in and determine a fifth Board member.
Should Icenhour lose, he could remain in the Powhatan seat until his term expires in 2013.
Wright retired in 2010 from Northrop Grumman, where he was an Information Technology Program Manager. He serves as chairman for New Town’s Residential Advisory Board. He served 17 years on the Board of Directors for Bayport Credit Union, and spent 10 years as chairman of its Audit Committee. He also was a member of the United Way Budget Committee.
Icenhour was an Air Force fighter pilot from 1967 to 1987 and an airline pilot for Pan Am and Delta from 1987 to 2005. He was elected to the Board of Supervisors in November 2005, and is currently serving his second term on the Board as the Powhatan District supervisor.
School Board
In the race for the Jamestown District seat on the School Board, Jim Kelly received 63 percent of the vote, over 36 percent for Reese Peck, before absentee ballots were counted.
Update: Once all the votes were counted, Kelly received 64.1 percent of the vote, and Peck received 34.9.
Kelly was appointed to the Jamestown District seat in February. Previously, he served the Berkeley District until the voting district lines were redrawn. He first joined the board when Mary Ann Maimone resigned in 2009. He is an engineer with Newport News Shipbuilding, and with his wife Kelly, a teacher at J. Blaine Blayton Elementary School, has raised three children who attended WJCC schools.
He will have to decide whether to run again in November 2013. The Jamestown seat was up for special election to complete former Jamestown representative Ruth Larson’s term, which will end December 2013. Due to redistricting, Larson was moved into the Berkeley district, which she now represents.
“It’s very humbling and an exceptional honor to be elected to the Jamestown District,” Kelly said Tuesday. “It’s a clear sign voters of the Jamestown district not only believe our school system is headed in the right direction, but also believe partisan politics does not belong in our school board election.”
Kelly said he will likely run again in November, and depending on the James City County Board of Supervisors’ decision about whether to adopt staggered terms for county elected officials, could end up running again in two years. “I’ve saved all the [campaign] signs in the garage,” Kelly said.
Peck, a first-time school board candidate, is a former chair of the James City County Planning Commission. He is a certified financial planner currently setting up his own investment advisory firm in Williamsburg.
He is a former Deputy Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources in South Dakota. He has a bachelor’s degree in political science from SUNY Albany and a master’s of public administration from the University of South Dakota. He also earned a teaching certificate from Old Dominion University.
He said he will continue to be involved in WJCC schools. He was glad the election gave him an opportunity to draw attention to issues he cares about, including a need for an attendance policy and more parental responsibility.
“I think issues of getting some transparency and specific measurable objectives are important and the superintendent is working toward that with his dashboards,” Peck said.
