 File Photo: Madison Cummings in March 2005 |
North Garden resident Madison Cummings (D) has announced he is seeking election to the Samuel Miller seat on the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors. Incumbent Supervisor, Sally Thomas (I), is expected to announce in April that she is retiring from the Board at the end of 2009. Cummings told Charlottesville Tomorrow that he would hold a formal campaign launch in mid-April after any announcement by Thomas.
According to Albemarle County Democratic party Chairman, Fred Hudson, County Democrats have scheduled a caucus for Monday, May 11th to select their candidates for the Board of Supervisors. According to Hudson, only the Samuel Miller District is expected to have a contested nomination at this time.
Cummings joins John Lowry, who is already a declared candidate for the Samuel Miller seat
, though Lowry has not indicated if he will run as an independent or as a party candidate. Cummings is currently the County Democratic Party’s Chairman for the Samuel Miller District. The Jack Jouett and Rio District seats will also be on the November 2009 ballot.
In 1997, Cummings was the first elected member of the Albemarle County School Board to represent the Samuel Miller District. He served two terms on the School Board during 1994-2001 and served as its Vice Chairman. Sally Thomas appointed Cummings to the School Board in 1994, before it became an elected body.
Asked about his reason for running for elected office again, Cummings told Charlottesville Tomorrow he was running for “a whole host of reasons.”
“I love Albemarle. I think it is a great place. We have a lot of great things going on and I don’t want to see us go backwards. Education and social service issues are very important to me, but so are public safety matters. I want to see us keep making progress and going forward,” said Cummings.
Cummings turns sixty-six in June and he is currently a part-time pharmacist at the University of Virginia Medical Center. He retired from his full-time work in that same position in 2004. He moved to the area in 1970, is married to Pat Cummings, and has children and grand-children living in the community.
See Charlottesville Tomorrow’s
Election Watch page
for complete coverage of the County’s 2009 elections.
Brian Wheeler
