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Virginia Beach — Like other mayors across the nation, Virginia Beach’s Bobby Dyer has spent much of 2020 responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and racial injustice protests first spurred by the death of George Floyd.
And his re-election campaign has centered on these topics.
Dyer is facing two challengers: Jody Wagner, a popcorn company owner who has held some key state finance positions, and Richard “RK” Kowalewitch, a self-employed home builder.
Wagner and Kowalewitch have said Dyer has lacked strong leadership through the summer of protests and has not done enough to help businesses survive during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dyer disagrees, and said his advocacy for Virginia Beach got businesses reopened.
“He should have been fighting harder to get these businesses back open in May and he didn’t do it,” Kowalewitch said. “I don’t give him any credit for reopening anything. I think he is a do-nothing mayor."
Wagner said she decided to join the race after people marched for Black Lives Matter in Virginia Beach and she didn’t see Dyer in attendance or addressing the unrest.
Dyer said he has met privately with advocates for racial equality and has monitored marches from the police command center. He said he was advised not to go to any rallies because it would take away resources from police to protect him.
(The Virginian-Pilot earlier published election guides laying out each candidate’s biographical information and their answers to the same three questions. You can read those at pilotonline.com/voterguide2020.)
All three mayoral candidates said they opposed defunding the police, but Dyer and Kowalewitch are promoting law-and-order rhetoric mirroring President Donald Trump.
“I am 100% in agreement with peaceful protests,” Dyer said. “When you have protesters that are anti-police and want to defund the police, I will not order any police officer to stand down. I will not defund police. … One of the focal points of my campaign is protecting the people who protect us.”
Dyer described himself as a Reagan Republican, but plans to vote for Trump because he is most concerned about the direction the Democrats are heading.
“It is not so much about Trump at this point, it is about the soul of our nation,” he said. “We are looking at a party that is drifting toward socialism and defunding the police and military. … I will not vote for socialism.”
Dyer’s stance on policing and handling of the pandemic won him the endorsement of former Mayor Will Sessoms. The beaches in the resort city were the first in the state to welcome visitors after the COVID-19 shutdown.
Dyer, a Marine veteran, replaced Sessoms after he stepped down in 2018. But Sessoms did not think Dyer was the right leader for the city two years ago.
“Through the tragedy of last spring, the COVID pandemic and civil unrest that has shaken other cities, Mayor Dyer’s leadership and steady hand has shown his unique ability to put politics aside and do what’s right for Virginia Beach,” Sessoms said, adding that "I give him my full support and will energetically work for his re-election.”
Dyer’s campaigns have historically been grassroots and did not have significant financial contributions from the developers and the power brokers who backed Sessoms. But now, Dyer said it’s humbling to have Sessoms fundraising for him. As of Aug. 30, Wagner had fundraised more than $266,000 so far, compared to Dyer’s $114,550, according to VPAP.org.
“I think I proved myself to the business community,” he said. “I still think I have the grassroots support, too.”
For the first time this year, the local Republican party joined the Democrats in endorsing candidates in Virginia Beach council and school board races. The party has long opposed doing so since the races are officially nonpartisan. Dyer won the Republican Party’s support, and Wagner won the Democrats’. Not everyone is happy about this change, including Kowalewitch.
“Local elections should always be nonpartisan and parties should never be involved,” Kowalewitch said. “Why are we allowing partisanship in a nonpartisan race?”
Dyer’s past two years
Even before 2020 arrived, Dyer has dealt with much change as the council’s leader.
Immediately following his election, three other council races were recounted simultaneously, a first in the state’s history. Then a court ruling determined one of those winning council members, David Nygaard, was ineligible to even run for office because he didn’t plan to live at a duplex near the Oceanfront, which he had used to establish residency in the Beach District.
About a month later, a council member resigned to move out of her district. The council replaced both of them.
After the city successfully welcomed the first Something In The Water music festival in April 2019, the worst imaginable tragedy struck Virginia Beach. On May 31, 2019, a city engineer carried out a mass shooting at an office building at the Municipal Center, killing 12 and severely injuring four more.
On the evening of the first anniversary marking the mass shooting, activists marched at the Oceanfront to protest the May 25 death of George Floyd, a Black man killed by police in Minneapolis. The gathering turned violent after a man drove his truck through a crowd.
Dyer, 70, said it has been difficult to juggle everything but he is proud of how the council has worked together through such a difficult period. He took a leave of absence from his job as a physical therapist early this summer to focus on his role as mayor during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mayoral positions only pay $30,000 in Virginia, so Dyer said he is relying on Social Security and he cashed out some of his retirement money.
“The only thing part-time about being mayor is the pay,” Dyer said.
Jody Wagner
If elected mayor, Wagner, 65, said initially her top priority would be helping businesses and people survive the pandemic.
She said the council did not act swiftly enough to support businesses through COVID-19 and make it easy to expand outside seating. She said businesses she has spoken to on the campaign trail have complained that the city’s permitting process is slow and COVID-19 grant recipients have waited far too long for the aid.
Wagner is focused on an issue Dyer championed as the Centerville council representative — cutting bureaucratic red tape to make it easier to do business in the city. Wagner’s passion for helping local businesses stems from her own experience as president of Jody’s Popcorn based in Norfolk.
She has never held elected office but unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2000 and lieutenant governor in 2009. She served as the state treasurer between 2002 and 2006, and secretary of finance from 2006 to 2008.
Wagner said she would prioritize creating jobs, mitigating flooding, diversifying the city’s revenue and providing funding to modernize schools in need of upgrades. She supports regionalism and she would like to see Virginia Beach be a leader for the region.
“We win even if a business goes to another city because half of the workers will live in Virginia Beach,” she said. “It is in our best interest to recruit businesses to the region.”
Wagner said she would leverage her connections with lawmakers in Richmond and Washington D.C. to help Virginia Beach reel in more federal funding.
“Virginia Beach has way more opportunities than we have challenges,” she said.
Richard “R.K.” Kowalewitch
Kowalewitch, 60, has unsuccessfully run for the City Council several times.
Like Dyer, he is a Republican and has run campaigns opposing the extension of the light rail from Norfolk into Virginia Beach. Kowalewitch said he supported Dyer’s first campaigns for the council. But the former surf shop owner stopped backing Dyer because he “didn’t follow through with what he said it would do.”
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This year, Kowalewitch is focused on policing. He said enforcing laws and maintaining order would be his top priority, if elected. He supports police and thinks the city needs to raise pay for officers.
Over the years, Kowalewitch has raised questions about council members that have led to court trials.
In 2012, he pointed out conflicts Sessoms had with working for TowneBank during his time as mayor. After a Virginian-Pilot investigation into Sessoms' council votes, Sessoms pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of violating the state’s Conflict of Interest Act in 2015.
In 2019, Kowalewitch raised questions about the residency of Nygaard, a candidate for city council. Kowalewitch did not believe Nygaard lived in a rental home in the district he was running to represent. Another candidate challenged his residency in court and Nygaard was ordered to vacate the seat.
Kowalewitch said he thinks Dyer or Wagner would both give into special interests because their campaigns are funded by them.
“Bobby Dyer....Jody Wagner…..Bobby Wagner…..Jody Dyer…. It’s all the same result in the end,” he wrote on Facebook. “My promise to you is: I’ll work for you — not special interest — and I’ll lead from the front, not the rear.”
Alissa Skelton, 757-995-9043, alissa.skelton@pilotonline.com.