Falmouth District Supervisor Election in Play, Hotly Contested
Mike Catell and Keica Evans are in - might a third candidate emerge?
By Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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This week, Stafford’s long-serving Falmouth District supervisor Meg Bohmke announced that she would not see re-election in November. Her decision has brought still more energy to Stafford’s election season, which has already seen its share of up-and-down moments.
Two candidates have already announced their intention to run for the seat.
Mike Catell is a local Republican whom Bohmke endorsed for her seat. Given Bohmke’s long tenure on the board, her support most likely makes Catell the early front-runner.
He is relatively new to politics. In a conversation with the Advance this week, he said that he had never served as an elected official, but that in his early 20s he ran for local office in Pennsylvania and lost.
He has spent his professional career in the nonprofit world doing resource development, marketing, and communications. Currently, he is on the executive team of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education in Washington, D.C.
The organization focuses on “distressed zip codes,” Catell told the Advance. It’s mission, according to its website, is “to fight poverty and restore dignity through messages of faith, freedom, and personal responsibility.”
Also entering the race is Kecia Evans. She has a relatively long record of public service in Stafford County, where she currently serves on the Planning Commission and is also chair of the legal redress committee for the Stafford NAACP.
Evans has lived in the county since 2015. Before joining the Planning Commission, she previously served as secretary for the Stafford County Board of Zoning Appeals and was former chair of the Special Education Advisory Committee for the Stafford County School Board. She also has served as the chair of Stafford County's Parks and Recreation Committee.
Evans previously ran for the General Assembly in 2021. She lost that election to Phillip Scott by about 16 percentage points in what was then a Republican-leading House District 88.
The question that remains to be answered is, might Ben Litchfield make a return to politics and seek the seat Bohmke is vacating?
Litchfield ran a hotly contested primary race against Joel Griffin in 2023 for Virginia’s Senate District 27 seat. He lost that race and has since gone on to a career in the federal government.
If Litchfield decides to run, he would have to do so as an independent.
Should the race come down to Catell and Evans, expect a spirited campaign and a close race.
A three-person race could prove one of the more-interesting ones in the region.
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