M. Park GOP candidates to run as independents

By Kipp Hanley

Published: June 19, 2008

According to Manassas Park Vice Mayor Bryan Polk, toeing the party line isn't necessary at the local level.

This may partially explain why he and two other like-minded councilmen are running for re-election this fall as independents. Polk won as a Republican in 2004, yet he and former Republican Mayor Bill Treuting and fellow Councilman Keith Miller, a registered Republican, will be running as independents on Nov. 4.

"The good thing about Manassas Park people involved in leadership is they're influenced more by what is right or wrong for Manassas Park and less by party affiliation and party mantra," Polk said.

Former councilman and active local Republican Noreen Slater criticized the trio's decision. Slater said the widespread popularity of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama may have influenced the trio's decision to run as independents.

"It's a bad time to be Republicans," Slater said. "They just took the easy way out."

All three candidates denied their decision had anything to do with national politics and hesitated to criticize the local party itself. However, Miller did say that neither the local Republican or Democratic party seemed that organized and said he needed the assurance of being on the ballot by collecting the 125 signatures necessary to run as an independent.

Treuting agreed with Miller, stating that he started to collect signatures in 1998 before he was nominated as the Republican candidate for council because he felt he wasn't a lock for the nomination.

The group's decision to go independent was motivated by a lack of confidence in the party's ability to nominate a candidate in time. All three expressed concern about the timing of a June 1 mass meeting scheduled by party chairman Bill Wren. 

Before local elections, a mass meeting can be held by either political party to nominate a candidate. Because the meeting was scheduled just nine days before the Virginia State Board of Elections deadline for candidacy nomination, all three chose the independent route.

That meant spending April collecting signatures from the community to be placed on the ballot this fall. At one point, Treuting said he wasn't even sure if there was going to be a mass meeting.

"When I started the process back in April, if not March, I looked ahead and called Mr. Wren, asked him what were his plans," Polk said. "I knew June 10 was the filing deadline and Mr. Wren hadn't set a date [for the mass meeting]. He indicated the party's mass meeting would be in June so I just wanted to cover my bases."

Wren admitted he initially posted an incorrect date for the meeting and that there was some confusion on the delivery of e-mails to the candidates in regard to the timing of the meeting.

However, he said he was disappointed with council members' decision to run as independents and wondered how they could "abandon" the party of former mayor Ernie Evans. Slater added the candidates could have done more to find out about the party's mass meeting.

The exodus from the party, along with the fact that current councilman Cynde Gardner will not be running for a second term, leaves no Republican incumbent on council. Former Republican and current Mayor Frank Jones is running unopposed as an independent because of the Hatch Act—a law that prohibits federal employees from running as a partisan political candidate.

Current council members Fran Kassinger and Michael Bunner were both elected as independents in 2006.

The Republican Party nominated Brian Leeper as its candidate this year. Leeper, Democrat Peter Farrell, Polk, Treuting and Miller will be running for one of three four-year terms soon to be vacant. Democrat Suhas Naddoni is the lone candidate for the upcoming two-year term vacancy.

Miller said going the independent route wasn't a stretch because he does not consider himself a hard-core conservative. And because of a miscommunication in 2004 in which he missed the deadline to run as a Republican, Treuting—the then-current mayor—had to run for re-election as an independent.

Treuting was defeated by Jones but was appointed to the council in 2006 when Adam Larson left after just a few months in office. Miller was also appointed to the council in 2006, taking the place of Vonna Privett.

Staff writer Kipp Hanley can be reached at 703-369-5738.