Joe Williams' big write-in win

At one time in my journalism career, I was responsible for coverage of 11 towns in Rockingham and Shenandoah counties in northwestern Virginia. At the time, I was a staff writer and Sunday night wire editor at the Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg.

For the most part, it wasn’t as crazy as it sounds. I went to as many town council meetings as I could, not only to get live coverage, but also to generate follows and trend stories. Between that and covering Shenandoah County it was not difficult to generate the eight to 10 stories a week they wanted from me, in fact, I sometimes provided more.

But coming into the town council elections in May 1998, I had my hands full. Thankfully, another reporter was assigned to compile the Rockingham County towns’ results, so I was able to concentrate on New Market, Mount Jackson, Edinburg and Woodstock. Still, there was a big surprise in Mount Jackson, and one that I often reminded reporters about through the next 15 years.

While five-term mayor Dewey Jordan was unopposed on the ballot, there was enough discontent in town for a write-in candidate to take hold. Wait, not just take hold, but to dominate. Joe Williams, whose campaign included handing out pencils that said “Write-In Joe Williams For Mayor,” took a 202-122 decision over the incumbent. The loss so discombobulated Jordan that he “resigned” over the phone while I was trying to get a quote from him. The formal resignation happened the next night as the Mount Jackson Town Council appointed Williams as mayor two months before his official full term was to begin.

Williams served as mayor of the nearly 2,000-population town until earlier this week, when he died after a brief illness.

I only covered Mount Jackson for another year after his victory, but working at The Northern Virginia Daily allowed me to keep tabs on the town for years after the write-in win, and I saw Williams take easy victories in 2002, 2006 and 2010. I did not see much of Williams after 1999, but he was always gracious and forthcoming in our interviews while I still covered the town.

When I started covering Mount Jackson in 1997, it was facing a serious water crisis as several of its wells showed nitrate contamination. The first attempt at drilling a new well also failed because the water was similarly contaminated. The council, first with Jordan at the helm and then Williams, worked hard to find a solution with the help of the state. 

One of the things that probably cost Jordan his job was the insistence that Mount Jackson did not need a town manager to oversee its operations. Within a year of his election, Williams and the council hired Charles Moore to take on that job, and everything I heard from our reporters indicated that the town was operating quite well through the years I was at the paper in Strasburg.

It was sad to hear of Williams’ passing, but I was happy that one of the former Daily reporters who did such good work, Preston Knight, thought to pass the word along.

If I took nothing else away from Joe Williams’ victory over Dewey Jordan 15 years ago, it was that write-in campaigns should be taken seriously in local elections where turnout tends to be lower, and people can be more motivated to vote if the circumstances dictate.

There’s the old saw about all politics being local. I know one thing, they are often the most interesting.