Underwood unseats BOS chairman Coates

Liz Mitchell / Culpeper Star Exponent
Published: November 7, 2007

In perhaps the biggest upset of the night, Salem voters elected newcomer Tom Underwood, tossing  16-year incumbent John Coates off the Board of Supervisors.

Coates, who ran as an independent because Underwood won the Republican nomination from him, has been chairman of the board for eight years.

"I'm glad I won. It was a tight race," Underwood said. "I'm pleased that the voters wanted a change in direction, which is what I ran on, and I look forward to serving them and working with the current board to perhaps improve our processes a little."

Underwood won 39.5 percent of the vote to Coates' 35.3 percent. Democrat Kim Williams, a former supervisor, got 25.2 percent of the vote.

Coates said the difference was in the three-man race, which hurt his chances at re-election. He was surprised he lost the Eldorado precinct, which he usually carries. He plans to continue farming and jokingly said he would probably get a paper route now.

"I wish Mr. Underwood the best, and I appreciate Kim offering his services to run," Coates said. "I think we had an interesting race; it offered people a chance for which way they would like the county to go."

Williams, who runs the Culpeper County High School art department and coaches cross country, said he did not have as much money to spend and ran a low-key campaign, which showed in the results.

"Oh, well," he said. "I gave it a good shot and probably could have done more, but on the other hand I was hoping some of the issues would be out there - they still have funding issues they have to deal with. I just hope it's not business as usual within the county. Hopefully they will take a close look at what they're doing and how they're doing it."

Underwood's first order of business is to meet with the other board members and learn about the position.

"I know I've got a lot to learn," he said. "Certainly the platform beliefs and desire for fiscal responsibility and transparency are what I am going to do and bring to the table, but I need to build a good working relationship with the other six board members so we can govern efficiently."

Liz Mitchell can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 110 or .