ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, May 26, 1996 TAG: 9605280057
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: SCOTTSVILLE
SOURCE: MIKE ALLEN THE NEW YORK TIMES
The posters, some handwritten and some stenciled, appeared one by one this spring in the window of Coleman's Mercantile, at the Silver Grill, and on lampposts, pickup trucks, and cars: ``Write In A.R. Thacker for Mayor.''
For 30 years, A. Raymon Thacker has been mayor of this tiny town. Residents, who seem jinxed by fires and floods, rely on him for everything from trash collections to tax rulings to hope.
Scottsville, nestled in a horseshoe bend of the James River about 70 miles west of Richmond, was a booming antebellum port of 1,500 people. But its population had dwindled to 240 by 1990. Along with three ``100-year'' floods from 1969 to 1985, fires destroyed the hardware store, lumber yard, and Methodist church.
The town then rebounded to today's population of 520 after Thacker finally persuaded the federal government to spend $4 million on a levee to shield downtown Scottsville. At one point, he lured bureaucrats and lawmakers to town for a sales pitch disguised as a covered-dish supper.
Thacker, now 86, announced last year that he wanted to retire and would not run in the election, which was held on May 7. In February, Gov. George Allen declared a statewide Raymon Thacker Day, and townsfolk hired a bus to go to Richmond for the event.
Andy Johnson and Bobby Spencer, both lifelong residents and members of the Town Council, mounted campaigns to replace the local legend.
But as the election neared, Thacker found himself answering the bell. Neighbors were begging him to run, and he decided that it was not such a bad idea. A week before the election, he announced that he would serve another two-year term if elected, and he became the instant favorite.
But his endorsement of the write-in campaign dismayed the other two candidates. They felt blindsided, they said, and the town was thrown into a tizzy.
``We've survived because we stuck together, but this has set brother against brother,'' said Jacqy Grove, 77, whose forebears moved here in 1813.
A backlash began to build against the mayor among some residents, who said he should accept their thanks and make way for the future.
On Election Day, 196 Scottsville residents - a turnout of 73 percent - filed into the cinderblock rescue squad building and voted.< As the ballots were counted a drizzle started, and residents huddled under an overhang outside the rescue squad. A few people tried to peek through the Venetian blinds.
Thacker was chatting with a constituent when his 33-year-old son, Matthew, burst into his office with a rain-soaked sample ballot bearing the results: Spencer, 87 votes; Thacker, 62; Johnson, 47.
``That's fine,'' Thacker said glumly. ``That is fine. It'll let me get away from town once in a while, without having to leave my phone number, to be called all the time. That's wonderful. That's fine.''
LENGTH: Medium: 58 linesby CNB