Third time's a charm: Brannen wins Walkersville special election
Apr. 18—Betsey Whitmore Brannen was elected to the Walkersville Town Commission on Tuesday night, according to unofficial results, making the council whole again after months of vacancies.
Brannen won with 147 votes, followed by David Toohey with 82 votes, according to an email from the town. The other two candidates, Bob Yoder and Chris Ragen, received 60 and 35 votes, respectively.
A total of 326 votes were cast in the election. There was one blank ballot and one invalid ballot, Town Manager Sean Williams wrote in an email Tuesday evening.
There are 4,649 registered voters in Walkersville.
Results will be certified within 48 hours.
"It feels very surreal," Brannen said in an interview after the results were announced. This was the third time Brannen had run for commissioner.
Brannen is succeeding former Commissioner Michael Bailey, who announced his resignation at a town meeting in December. He had accepted a job opportunity in North Carolina. His vacancy was effective Jan. 12.
Brannen will finish Bailey's term through Sept. 13, 2024.
In an interview following the results, Toohey said he was happy for Brannen. He also said he enjoyed meeting and talking to voters.
Ragen said he was glad the race wasn't adversarial. At the polls, the candidates gathered by a tent and spoke to each other, as well as voters.
Ragen said all of the candidates were pretty similar in their ideas. He said he will try to serve on the planning or parks commission, and plans to run in the next town commissioner race in 2024.
Yoder said he was somewhat surprised by the results. Based on comments and knocking on doors, he felt Walkersville residents were looking for what he was offering.
Like Ragen, Yoder said all of the candidates were similar but Brannen clearly won over voters.
"The people have spoken," he said.
This election was the second special election in Walkersville this year. In February, Commissioner Michael McNiesh was voted back into his seat after he was ousted from office in the fall of 2022.
The other three current commissioners are Mary Ann Brodie-Ennis, Tom Gilbert and Gary Baker.
Lenore and Paul Lawrence said at the polls that they voted for Brannen. Lenore said she wanted to see another woman on the commission and Brannen's ideas line up with her own.
"She has said it's really important to represent all the areas of Walkersville, the old and new," Lenore said.
Lenore said she believes in keeping Walkersville the same, but not stagnant. She said she would like to see buildings in Walkersville renovated to attract new businesses.
One issue for which Lenore said she doesn't know where she stands yet is FoodPro, which plans to build a food distribution center in the area, but she said it doesn't seem smart to put more big trucks on Walkersville's roads.
Joe and Amy Schmidt also voted to keep Walkersville the same. Amy said they want Walkersville to stay safe and not "go crazy" with growth and development.
They said they are conservatives, and voted for a conservative candidate.
"We want Walkersville to stay the way Walkersville is," Joe said.
Tim Hessler said he was happy with the candidate he voted for, but he declined to say who that was.
He voted because of broad issues in Walkersville, like FoodPro's proposal, but also on issues that will affect him directly, he said.
The town is looking into building a new stormwater management system that would be virtually in his backyard, Hessler said.
He and his wife moved to Walkersville 36 years ago for the farmland view.
And that's why coming out to vote in local elections is so important, Hessler said.
"It is our neighborhood, our town, and I think the most important election is all the local ones because it's your town," Hessler said. "They affect you the most."
