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Culpeper's Chase faces two in bid for 8th term

October 13, 2009 12:35 am

BY DONNIE JOHNSTON

Bill Chase will be trying to establish a record in the Nov. 3 election. Not since the beginning of Reconstruction in 1872 has any person been elected to the Culpeper County Board of Supervisors for more than seven terms.

Next month, Chase, 72, will be seeking his eighth. Only Abe White (Cedar Mountain District, 1920-48) served as long as the present supervisors chairman, who was first elected in 1982.

An eighth term, however, will not come easy because the retired Army officer and West Point graduate has plenty of competition this time around.

Gardiner Mulford, a 48-year-old Realtor, and Dewayne Payne, a 28-year-old farmer, are both challenging Chase for the Stevensburg District seat.

Both are considered formidable opponents.

Mulford has long been an outspoken critic of Chase and last year the two engaged in a heated verbal exchange during a Board of Supervisors meeting.

But Mulford insists that it is patriotism and not his dislike for Chase that is the motivating force in his run for supervisor.

"I want to serve on the BOS because it is my duty and responsibility to serve my community, as it was for me to serve my country," he says.

Mulford was an Army Ranger and an officer. Besides being the owner of a real estate company, Mulford is also a farmer and an avid horseman. He is president of the Culpeper Horse Owners Association and has pushed for a series of public riding trails in the county for several years.

He is a past member of the Brandy Station Foundation board of directors and graduated from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks.

Although he considers himself "a Reagan Republican," Mulford is running as an independent. He had sought the local Republican Party's nomination, but was not considered because of deadline issues.

Mulford, who has never held public office, considers growth, education and transportation the three major issues facing Culpeper County in the near future.

Payne, the Republican nominee from Stevensburg District, was less than 2 years old when Chase was first elected to the Board of Supervisors.

The James Madison University graduate, together with his father, operate the largest commercial hay-making operation in Culpeper County.

While he has never held elected office, Payne has served four years on the Culpeper County Planning Commission and as a member of the Town Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee.

He won the Culpeper Chamber of Commerce's Outstanding Agribusiness Award in 2008.

Payne says he believes that budget concerns, planned manageable growth and working toward better relations between the county and town are the three most- important issues in this race.

"Culpeper County faces many challenges in the coming years, some unlike it has ever faced," says Payne. "I am running to give the residents of the Stevensburg District a choice in who will attend to these issues."

Like his two opponents, Chase is a farmer, although he also is president of a coal-mining operation in Pennsylvania.

While he was a Democrat for the majority of his political career, Chase has chosen to run as an independent this time around.

The father of four grown children is involved in numerous community activities and is an elder at the Mitchells Presbyterian Church. A Vietnam veteran, he has a chest full of military awards, including a Purple Heart.

Why, after 28 years, is he still interested in running for supervisor?

"I feel that the people out here need good representation and I think I am the best candidate," says Chase. "I know people and I know how to get things done."

Managing growth, keeping taxes low and services high and working with the town are Chase's three most-important issues in this race.

Chase is currently serving as board chairman for the second time in his long career.

The Stevensburg District race is the only contested board seat on this year's ballot. Supervisors Bradley Rosenberger of the Jefferson District and Larry Aylor of the Cedar Mountain District are both running unopposed. Both are Republican nominees.

Donnie Johnston:
Email: djohnston@freelancestar.com