If only candidate’s wife had voted
WINCHESTER — All Bill Monroe needed was one vote.
And he didn’t get it from his wife.
On Election Night, Monroe, 50, was sitting upstairs in his home when his wife Kathie came to report the results of the Winchester City Council race. This is his recollection of their conversation.
Kathie: “Bill, you lost.”
Bill: “Well, how much did I lose by?”
Kathie: “One.”
Bill: “Get out of here.”
Kathie: “And I didn’t vote.”
It’s a good thing he has a sense of humor.
“She was embarrassed by it at first. ‘Oh my God, look what I’ve done,’” he said Thursday.
But what she’s done is preserve her husband’s health. The former councilman had filed to run again on Feb. 23. He served back-to-back terms from 1996-2003 and chose not to seek a third term. But this year he had the urge to run again. So he threw his hat into the ring.
Then in May he “had some serious health issues (that) changed my whole health outlook in life,” Monroe said. “Things happened that were more important than getting involved in politics again. So I chose not to go out and campaign. Let the chips fall.”
Even without campaigning, Monroe, a Democrat, came close to returning to the council. And that irony isn’t lost on his opponent and longtime friend, Republican Tom Sells.
The two men talked on Election Night. Again, this is Monroe’s recollection.
Tom: “I worked my a– off. I beat you by one vote.”
Bill: “You don’t know the rest of the story,
Tom: “My wife didn’t vote.”
And though Monroe told Sells it was a secret, the word is out among the men’s friends. And the heckling has begun.
For the record, if Kathie Monroe had voted — and had voted for her husband — it would have been up to the city council to break the tie, according to state law. And because there are no provisional ballots lingering in Winchester, the county clerk’s office said these results are official.
Sells said, “I walked our little precinct and probably handed out 300 pieces of paper, and I bought the little signs. I spent a couple hundred bucks of my own money. I was hoping to win just to recoup my expenses.”
For Monroe, it all spells the end of his political career. His heart just can’t take it, and his cardiologist has advised he’s not cut out for politics.
“My health will not let me do it anymore. I get overly excited,” he said. “I’m so passionate and I get so worked up about it, it’s just not good for me at this point in my life.”