Bowers crushes Harris

By Jay Warren
WSLS10 Anchor
Published: May 6, 2008

David Bowers savored victory Tuesday night. It’s been 12 years since he’s done that. After losing five straight elections including one for Roanoke City Democratic Party Chair, Bowers got back in the game.

This election night is punctuated with words beginning in “R.”

The first “R”: he’s resurrected.

WARREN: “Has your political career been resurrected?”

BOWERS: “Well, yeah but it was longer than the third day.”

Bowers won handily, beating incumbent Democratic Mayor Nelson Harris by 1,500 votes, almost 14% of the vote. You don’t often see incumbents lose by those margins. The second “R”: it was a resounding win.

“I am gratified and humbled by that vote and I’m going to do my very best and work very hard and I hope the people of Roanoke will be proud of their mayor,” Bowers said after his victory speech.

So what fueled this? Was it the issues of Rockledge, the amphitheater, or downtown development? If so, would the other Democrats have won? They all did. Harris was the only Democrat to lose Tuesday night.

The third “R”: the voters sent a message repudiating Harris’ leadership as mayor.

WARREN: “Was this an absolute repudiation of Nelson Harris’ leadership?

BOWERS: “I will say that the people of Roanoke from this mayor to Nelson Harris should be thankful for his service to our city. I will be a gracious winner. I will extend the hand of friendship to Nelson.”

It wasn’t all victory at this party. Bowers’ independent ticket-mate Brian Wishneff narrowly lost his bid for a second term on council by less than 1% of the vote. He’s likely to call for a recount.

“Whatever comes out, comes out. Nothing gained, nothing ventured,” Wishneff said.

But the night is about David Bowers. He’s back in power, soon to occupy an office he held for eight years and hasn’t seen since 2000. He had to leave the Democratic Party he led for many years to do it. He bucked the city’s leadership and the business community. He went against the grain and won.

Bowers was happy to add his own “R” to the story.

“You know there was another R. You might be forgetting that one. It was ‘Run David Run.’ That was a good slogan. It caught the imagination of our people. It inspired me.”