Town of Chevy Chase Election Results

The Town of Chevy Chase held its municipal elections today for three of the five seats on the Town Council. There were two open seats as Mayor Mary Flynn and former Mayor Scott Fosler decided not to run for reelection.

Barney Rush (i) 566
Kirk Renaud: 552
Wicca Davidson: 493
Fred Cecere: 349
Deborah Vollmer: 66

Fred Cecere’s decision to run made the election more interesting because he was the candidate elected to a term in the 2015 stealth write-in campaign. Confusing “not illegal” with “right,” only people in his support group were alerted to his decision to run and they were told to keep it secret. Another example of the decay of democratic norms even in a small town.

Fred stepped down reluctantly after a term, as he had promised to serve only one term. After a year, however, he decided to run again, this time openly. In a good example of how breaking norms results in new laws to get people to adhere to what were formerly common sense values, the Town now requires write-in candidates to register with the Town before the election.

Running in her umpteenth election, Deborah Vollmer is best known in the Town for her seemingly endless failed lawsuits against her neighbors. (Disclosure: I was mayor of the Town at the time and Deborah also sued the Town unsuccessfully to try and overturn the permit.)

More recently, Deborah has gotten press for refusing to pay the monthly fee that Pepco charges if you didn’t let them replace your old meter with a smart meter. Though the fees have piled up, I don’t think her lights have been turned off yet.

Instead of Fred and Deborah, the Town reelected Barney Rush, who is tipped to be the next mayor. Joining him will be new councilmembers Kirk Renaud and Wicca Davidson. Kirk has been active on the town’s committee on climate change, while Wicca has chaired the committee on community relations. Continuing with them will be Cecily Baskir and Joel Rubin, who is currently seeking election to the House of Delegates as a Democrat,.

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