By Shauna Muckle
Lexington voters will elect three out of four candidates running for City Council next Tuesday.
The race pits incumbents David Sigler and Chuck Smith against newcomers Nicholas Betts and Collette Barry-Rec.
The typically low-key city election sparked a bit of controversy after voters heard about Barry-Rec’s Facebook posts calling the 2020 presidential election a coup.
“This bunch of arrogant evil fraud corrupt hurtful American hating commie A-holes need to be gone! Hold the line!” Barry-Rec wrote in a Facebook post dated one year ago. “Do whatever you can every day then get on your knees and pray for guidance to do more! No election on November 3. It was a COUP.”
Citizen action groups like 50 Ways Rockbridge have publicized the Facebook posts. Barry-Rec said at a September candidate forum that her Facebook account was hacked. She has deleted her social media accounts.
Instead, Barry-Rec said her first campaign goal is fostering civility, according to a handout distributed by Lexington’s Republican Party.
Barry-Rec also drew audible groans at a candidate forum Oct. 25, where she said she believes a woman’s place is in the home.
Meanwhile, letters published by the Lexington News-Gazette have framed the race as a battle between Barry-Rec, who supporters describe as a fresh voice that will protect citizen interests on council, and a slate of Washington and Lee-affiliated candidates. Sigler and Smith have spouses at Washington and Lee, while Betts is a graduate of the university’s law school.
“As the largest employer in the city, do we want over half of our city council with Washington and Lee ties making decisions for the residents of Lexington?” wrote resident Patricia Anthony in the News-Gazette Oct. 26. “Lexington residents deserve an independent city council, not one managed by W&L.”
Another resident, Tinni Sen, a professor of economics at Virginia Military Institute, slammed Barry-Rec’s disparaging Facebook posts. She wrote Sept. 28 that Barry-Rec’s history stands at odds with the typical congenial relationships on council.
“There is just one candidate this year, Collette Barry-Rec, with an unprecedented personal record of public disparagement, name calling, and incitement to harassment,” wrote Sen. “She is now attempting to cover her behavior by 1) deleting her social media accounts, and, worse, 2) perfuming her past with a campaign platform of unity and civility.”
Here’s a closer look at each of the candidates:
Nicholas Betts
Betts said he’ll be laser-focused on improving housing opportunities in Lexington if elected to City Council. That’s key to attracting young and diverse talent, he said.
“We have so much talent,” he said at a candidate forum Oct. 25. “We have so much potential. We need to have places where people can live.”
As vice-chair of the city’s Planning Commission, Betts said the way to improve housing in Lexington is to incentivize local construction, encourage dense, multi-family housing and to work with entrepreneurs to boost affordable housing in the region.
Betts graduated from Washington and Lee’s law school in 2019, and practices law in Lexington. He’s expecting his first child with his wife, Lindsey.
This isn’t Betts’ first race. He challenged Rep. Ben Cline as a Democrat in the race for Virginia’s 6th Congressional District in 2020. Betts lost that race, earning 35.3% of the vote to Cline’s 64.7%.
Collette Barry-Rec
Barry-Rec has three attributes she’s telling voters she’ll bring to City Council: common sense, caring and communication.
Barry-Rec wants members of City Council to be more accountable and citizens more engaged. She’s proposing term limits for all elected and appointed officials, while supporting the referendum to elect Lexington City Schools’ board.
Unlike the other three candidates, she’s also said she’ll focus on lowering local tax rates.
Though candidates for City Council run as independents, the Rockbridge County Republican Party has collected donations on her behalf. Barry-Rec is also distributing campaign signs and candidate fliers through the local headquarters.
Barry-Rec organizes the Care Box Project, a program for local soldiers. She emphasizes that she’s the only candidate whose family is independent of Lexington’s two universities.
“I am not a politician. I am not a lawyer. We are not affiliated with Washington and Lee University or VMI,” Barry-Rec wrote in a campaign advertisement. “My goal is to meet the ever-changing needs of you, the citizens of Lexington, by listening to you!”
David Sigler
Sigler, who’s running for a third term in office, says he’s a passionate “student of local government.”
“I live for Thursday night council meetings,” he said at the candidate forum Oct. 25.
The 43-year-old said he’s running for re-election to continue addressing Lexington’s most pressing needs, particularly developing a thriving, young workforce and attracting newcomers to the city with more housing options.
Sigler is a financial analyst at VMI and is married to Haley Sigler, director of education studies and a professor at Washington and Lee.
Sigler said his two biggest priorities if re-elected would be working with regional partners to improve shared services and engaging the public.
“No issue can be solved by one government entity,” he said. “When you call 911, it might take an ambulance 25 minutes to get there. That’s inexcusable in 2022, but the solution is regional.”
Chuck Smith
For Smith, who’s running for a fourth term on City Council, Lexington’s biggest challenge will be increasing revenues and reducing costs to fund big-ticket projects.
Those projects include renovations to Rockbridge County High School, a new county jail and updates to a wastewater treatment plant expected to cost up to $40million, Smith said. Lexington will share the costs for all those updates.
“We’ll need creative thinking to solve the economic problems before us,” he said. “I see some sacrifices coming before us that we’ll have to take.”
The 59-year-old has owned Washington Street Purveyors, a wine, cheese and sundries shop in downtown Lexington, since 1996. He’s married to Elizabeth Knapp, a geology professor at Washington and Lee.
Like Betts and Sigler, affordable housing is another focus for Smith. He’s highlighted the need to develop properties once owned by the city, like the parcel on Spotswood Drive that’s slated to become an apartment complex.