BreakDown: Martinsville’s Mayoral Election

We had lots of political surprises in the Southside region yesterday. We did a BreakDown on what happened in Pittsylvania County, and now we’re going to do one for Martinsville.

For background on what happened, read Bill Wyatt’s excellent rundown.

That’s the background, and here comes the BreakDown. Let’s bring on the Big Board.

• Just like Pittsylvania County, this didn’t happen on the spur of the moment. And also just like Pittsylvania County, sitting members on the council were caught by surprise.
• Sharon Hodge, Jennifer Bowles & Danny Turner had this planned all along. They never lied about it but they hinted at what was going to happen. The Martinsville Bulletin said “Turner said he believes someone on the panel will nominate him to be the new mayor — he would not identify the person — but “I will not second my nomination.” As for Sharon Hodge, the Bulletin wrote “Chuckling, she said that in her two years on the council, she has learned there are “times when it’s appropriate to keep your mouth shut,” and she believes this is one of those times.” Jennifer Bowles was conveniently unable to be reached for any comment. The fix was in.
• Sharon Hodge knows how to play the game. She’s proud to cause racial divisiveness and she doesn’t back down. She stood her ground on that quilt incident and laughed at the idiotic effort to get her recalled (and that effort never would have worked anyway). She knew that Danny Turner was the “odd man out” on lots of issues and she knew that she could use that factor in forming her alliance.
• Even though Danny Turner apologized for Hodge’s remarks in 2013, that didn’t stop him from joining her alliance so that he could become mayor. Hodge never would have gotten enough votes to become mayor herself and she knew that… but she could use newcomer Jennifer Bowles’ vote to “take over” the council with the help of Danny Turner.
• Gene Teague and Mark Stroud are left on the sidelines now, and that’s just like the situation in Pittsylvania County.
• Jennifer Bowles was elected due to a bullet voting strategy in Martinsville’s black precincts. The election results show that a majority of voters in those precincts voted only for Bowles. Hodge will probably take advantage of that strategy as well and win reelection if she runs.

Here’s what it all means. Danny Turner was elected mayor due to Sharon Hodge’s plan. Hodge’s alliance is fragile because Turner could flip over to Teague/Stroud if they warm up to him. It’s also fragile because Jennifer Bowles has two ways of breaking free. First, she’s politically naïve and could be easily swayed. Second, she could have upward ambitions of her own. If that happens, Teague/Stroud could help her by forming their own alliance with her. Finally, if Sharon Hodge pulls another stunt like the quilt incident, Bowles might want to put a lot of distance between her and Hodge.

One vote means a lot when there’s only five votes to be cast. Martinsville just got a lot more interesting.