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Vickie Williams doesn't have a lot of time to research political candidates.
The 47-year-old Spotsylvania County native works 70-hour weeks managing a grocery store. But she wants to be well-informed when she votes in this fall's Board of Supervisors election.
That's where some other county residents hope they can help. Two political action committees have spent hours poring over candidate surveys, interviewing some of the aspirants and watching them field questions at forums.
The Committee of 500 and the Voters to Stop Sprawl issued endorsements this week for candidates running in the Nov. 4 board election.
Williams, who lives in the Chancellor District, said she will consider the groups' advice. "They've already done the legwork for me," she said. "It will help me make a better decision."
All seven seats on the Spotsylvania board are on the ballot this fall, and five of the races--including the one in Chancellor--are contested.
The campaigns have been low-key so far, but traditionally voters have not shown interest in local elections until after Labor Day.
Merl Witt, chairman of the C500 PAC, hopes to see more of the fervor people showed in opposing a controversial rezoning application earlier this year. Residents turned out in force to speak against the proposed Town of Chancellorsville, which would have put nearly 2,000 homes on a farm along a scenic, historic stretch of State Route 3 in the western part of the county.
Supervisors ultimately rejected the plan, but the process drew some residents onto their county's political playing field for the first time. Now some are ready to draft new leaders, Witt believes.
Witt, a longtime preservation activist in the county, and other like-minded residents decided a couple of years ago that Spotsylvania needed fresh leadership.
"Our supervisors were out of touch," he said. "They really weren't responsive to the people."
More people came on board after Chancellorsville. "They were looking for a way to have a voice," Witt said.
The committee set out to recruit 500 people who would give at least $100 and volunteer at least four hours to work for endorsed candidates. The membership stands at 125, but that hasn't slowed the PAC's work, Witt said.
Members worked for more than 25 hours on the endorsements announced yesterday at a rally, he said. "This was not a whim by any means," Witt said.
VSS spent about the same amount of time putting together its recommendations, said Kevin Leahy, spokesman for the group's Spotsylvania chapter. The PAC, which does not have a membership roll, also has seen public interest piqued since Chancellorsville.
"People are really going to look at this election," Leahy said. "I think it's going to be a turning point."
VSS endorsed Bob Hagan in last year's special election for the Courtland District seat.
Volunteers handed out fliers and erected bright yellow, plywood-sheet-size signs for Hagan at the three Courtland polling places. "Lower Taxes Stop Sprawl Vote Hagan," the signs read.
Hagan, who captured 64 percent of the vote, believes VSS' presence at the polls was a factor.
Like any endorsement, Hagan said, "It provided a short cut for deciding who to vote for. It's like getting the Good Housekeeping seal of approval."
But veteran Supervisor Emmitt Marshall, who is running for his seventh four-year term, does not place much stock in what the groups say.
"The endorsements weren't important enough for me to seek," he said. "I don't think it's going to matter in any district in the county."
Marshall, who has been out talking to constituents in the Berkeley District, said no one has mentioned the PACs. County voters "are smart enough to decide for themselves who to vote for," he said.
Jim Smith, chairman of the county's Democratic Party and a former county supervisor, said the endorsements can help draw attention to issues, but he's not sure how much impact they will have.
"The people will judge each one of the candidates on what they stand for and their past actions," he said.
Smith's party is not running any board candidates. "Partisan politics doesn't really have a strong place in local politics," he said. The Democrats plan to direct their energies to state Sen. Edd Houck's re-election campaign.
But the county GOP is taking a different approach. Four candidates are running as Republicans.
Hagan, one of the Republicans, said partisan politics don't play a substantial role in local government, but the party label is another clue for voters.
"There are people who will vote for a Republican before they will vote for a Democrat," he said, "because it does suggest a pattern of voting on size of government and taxes."
To reach BETTY HAYDEN SNIDER: 540/374-5427 bsnider@freelancestar.com