Rachel McQuillenBy Bonnie Hobbs
Rachel McQuillen is moving from the Fairfax City School Board to a seat on the Fairfax City Council. In the Nov. 5 election, Mayor Catherine Read easily won re-election to her post. But in the race for Council – where 11 candidates battled for six seats – one of those seats wasn’t decided until the end of the week.
In the election, Stacy Hall, another former City School Board member, received the most votes, followed by Tom Peterson, incumbent Billy Bates, Stacey Hardy-Chandler and Anthony Amos. But at the end of the night, incumbent Kate Doyle Feingold and challenger McQuillen were still vying for the sixth seat, separated by just four votes and .01 percent of the total votes cast.
And even when all the votes – including absentee and provisional ballots – were finally counted, the four-vote gap remained. McQuillen led with 5,236 votes to Doyle Feingold’s 5,232. However, instead of asking for a recount, Doyle Feingold opted to concede the election to McQuillen. The new Council members will assume their positions on the dais in January 2025.