Herndon sticks with status quo
By Gregg MacDonald
A steady line of voters flowed through the Herndon Community Center all day Tuesday as candidates stood outside, introducing themselves and pressing the flesh of as many voters as they could reach.
Former mayor Mike O'Reilly, who was himself ousted from office two years ago in this very locale, stood in the center's parking lot and urged residents to vote. “Not quite as many voters as two years ago,” he noted.
But there were enough to re-elect all incumbents to their council seats, with Richard Downer replacing the seat vacated by losing mayoral candidate Harlon Reece, and enough to put Steve DeBenedittis back in the mayor's chair.
By the end of the night, 2,500 voters, approximately 25 percent of the 10,000 or so registered voters in Herndon, upheld the status quo by delivering a decisive victory to DeBenedittis by a vote of 1,313 to Reece's 940 votes and Jasbinder Singh's 250 votes.
Incumbent Connie Haines Hutchinson received the most votes of any candidate, 1,468, and by tradition will likely become the Town's vice mayor.
“I was just hoping to get re-elected,” she said as she heard the news.
The current Vice Mayor, Dennis Husch, received the least votes of any incumbent, squeaking out a victory over seventh-place finisher Arthur Nachman by only 10 votes, 1,237 to 1,227.
Downer, a former councilman, will be entering his third non-consecutive decade of service to the town. His 1,245 votes were enough to put him back on the council he has served on twice before.