Executive committee members of the Prince William Republican Committee.The Prince William Republican Committee has decided to hold a canvass or “firehouse primary” to decide its party’s candidates for the Prince William general elections scheduled for November 3.
These canvass elections will determine the Republican candidates for county supervisors and constitutional offices.
The main differences between a canvass/firehouse primary and a traditional state-run primary are that the firehouse primary takes place over a few weekend hours and does not allow absentee voting.
The Prince William Republican Committee scheduled its firehouse primary for Saturday, April 25, during the hours of 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Registered voters standing in line by 3 p.m. will be allowed to cast their ballots.
Voting will occur at one location per magisterial district and one location for the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park combined.
The following are the voting precincts:
Brentsville: Bristow Run Elementary School, 8990 Worthington Drive, Bristow, VA 20136
Coles: Coles District Volunteer Fire Dept., 13712 Dumfries Road, Manassas, VA 20112
Gainesville: Bull Run Middle School, 6308 Catharpin Road, Gainesville, VA 20155
Neabsco: Beville Middle School, 4901 Dale Boulevard, Dale City, VA 22193
Occoquan: McCoart Administration Building, 1 County Complex Ct., Woodbridge, VA 22192
Potomac: Henderson Elementary School, 3799 Waterway Drive, Montclair, VA 22025
Woodbridge: Beville Middle School, 4901 Dale Boulevard, Dale City, VA 22193
City of Manassas and City of Manassas Park: Grace E. Metz Middle School, 9950 Wellington Road, Manassas, VA 20110
The Republican Committee plans to update their website with a link that will allow voters to find their magisterial district.
The firehouse primary will determine the Republican candidates for four Prince William County positions. The two constitutional positions are sheriff and clerk of the court. Republican primary candidates for sheriff are Glendell Hill and Michael Messier. Republican primary candidates for clerk of the court are Austin B. Haynes, Jr. and incumbent Michele McQuigg.
County positions include chairman at-large for the Prince William County Board of County Supervisors and local magisterial supervisors where more than one Republican is competing for the party’s nomination. Chris Crawford and incumbent Corey Stewart are competing to be the Republican candidate for Prince William County Chairman of the Board of Supervisors.
See the list below for information about the Republican races in Prince William’s various magisterial districts:
Brentsville: no supervisor election; incumbent unchallenged.
Coles: election; Martin Nohe (R-incumbent) vs. Paul O’Meara, Jr. (R-challenger)
Gainesville: no supervisor election; incumbent unchallenged.
Neabsco: no supervisor election; incumbent unchallenged.
Occoquan: election; Ruth M. Anderson vs. Donald Scoggins.
Potomac: no supervisor election; incumbent unchallenged in Republican field.
Woodbridge: election; Stephen H. Chapman vs. Leland Price to challenge Democrat incumbent.
Since it is a party-run primary, voting is limited to those Prince William Republican voters in good standing. Voters will be asked to sign a “statement of intent” that they intend to vote Republican in the general election. This is standard procedure for both parties during primaries or preliminary elections as voters cannot register with a party in the Commonwealth.
The nominees can win their party’s nomination by a plurality, which means each candidate needs just one vote more than his or her competitor.
The primary will be run by the Prince William Republican Committee without help from the state. Democrats and independents are not part of the canvass process.
There are some drawbacks to holding a canvass rather than a state-run primary. Republican Committee Chairman Bill Card said he is sensitive to the fact that absentee voting will not be allowed in the firehouse primary, especially since he served as an active Marine and always cast an absentee ballot.
He said otherwise the firehouse primary should be convenient to most as there is a precinct within each district so voters will not have to travel far from their homes.
Card also said that although conventional wisdom dictates that traditional primaries favor the incumbents while firehouse primaries and conventions favor challengers, recent elections disprove that notion. He noted Dave Brat unseated House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in a regular primary and conventions often favor incumbents as well.
“If you’re a strong candidate, I don’t think you have any concerns about the contest,” Card said.
Still Card thinks it is regrettable that his party was told it could not hold a state-run primary.
In his opinion, the Prince William County Board of Elections should not have allowed a clerical error to prohibit his party from holding regular primaries. He said they would have been in their right to allow state-run primaries, and in denying them to do so, the Board went against the advice of County Attorney Angela Horan.
Additionally, Card feels the decision was unfair to the candidates themselves, who were not responsible for the filing errors. He said, in this way, the decision differs from his committee's decision to deny former Brentsville candidate Scott Jacobs to run as a Republican against now supervisor Jeanine Lawson.
The Prince William Republican Committee challenged the Board's decision via a lawsuit but the judge denied their suit.
At this point, Card said his party is focused on running a smooth, easy and transparent canvass election.
General Assembly Primary Elections
Readers should note that some local elections were scheduled to be held on April 25 as well. However, where there is only one possible Republican candidate, a primary election or canvass proved unnecessary.
There will be a regular primary in the 2nd district on June 9. Republicans Timothy Ciampaglio and Mark Dudenhefer will compete. The winner will run against Democrat Rod Hall.
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