IOPNA Endorses Candidates for Isle of Palms Municipal Election 2009

The Isle of Palms Municipal election will take place on Tuesday November 3, 2009. Island voters will select a mayor and four city council members in this important election. In order to identify candidates’ positions on issues of concern to our residents, the IOPNA submitted nine questions to all candidates and invited their participation.  Five of the eight candidates chose to respond.  Three did not respond.

Both mayoral candidates, Jimmy Ward and Dick Cronin, responded. 

Three City Council candidates responded:

Doug Thomas, Barb Gobien and Barbara Bergwerf.

Three City Council candidates chose not to respond to our questions:

Sandy Stone, Ron Denton and Marty Bettelli

The candidates’ responses are posted on the IOPNA website. Please check them out at www.iopna.org

The IOPNA Board of Directors met on Monday, September 28, 2009 to discuss the candidates’ responses and lack thereof and to decide whether to endorse candidates. Why does the IOPNA endorse candidates? Well, endorsement means that the candidates see the island as a community not a commodity.  They value the quality of life and the preservation of neighborhoods. Their only financial interest in the Isle of Palms is the home that they own.

We are pleased to announce that the Board endorses the following candidates for IOP City Council:

Barbara Bergwerf, Barb Gobien and Douglas Thomas

The Board also endorses Dick Cronin for mayor.

The candidates we are endorsing are running independent campaigns.  We encourage you to get to know them and their issues and get out and vote on November 3, 2009.

The next step is the November 3 election. Vote for our endorsed candidates: Barbara, Barb and Doug.

The candidates can use your support to help pay for signs and cards. If you would like to support them, please contribute directly to their campaigns. You can contact them at 

Bergwerf1@comcast.net; 611 Ocean Blvd

bsgobien@aol.com; 5 51^st Ave

datmrt@aol.com: 5813 Back Bay Drive