The Roanoke Times is reporting that Roanoke City Councilman Alfred Dowe has resigned his seat. Last week, the paper reported on Dowe's extravagent spending habits. On this blog, I gave Dowe the benefit of the doubt, saying he may not have acted unethically, but it was certainly poor judgement. Unfortunately, I was wrong.
Dowe billed the City AND the State for expenses related to 5 trips he took to Richmond last year. We can only assume he pocketed half the money. I am not a lawyer, but this sounds like fraud to me. Dowe may be facing something far more serious than losing his seat on Council.
I am told that the Board of Elections will call a Special Election to be held on the same day as our normal Council and Mayoral elections this May. That means Roanoke City will be electing 3 Council members to a 4 year term and 1 to replace Dowe, who has 2 years left in his term.
I am sure the Demcrats will nominate a candidate. One of those that lost earlier this month at the Party's Firehouse Primary would be a safe bet.
This is a great opportunity for a Republican to run. We don't have any candidates for the 4 regular seats, so this would be a chance to redeem ourselves.
As I have mentioned before on this blog, there is no shortage of Independents interested in running. They now have to decide if they want to run for one of the 3 regular seats, or for the 1 seat in the Special Election. They may wait to see who the Democrats and Republicans nominate.
UPDATE: Roanoke City Republican Chairman Adam Boitnott has expressed interest in running as a Republican for Dowe's seat. I have known Adam for several years and consider him a friend. He would be a fine nominee for our Party and would serve us well on Council.
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