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With challengers beginning to emerge for the incumbents on the Roanoke City Council, it appears we may have a more interesting municipal election season than we had first anticipated.

Still, city voters have made a recent trend out of electing Democrats. In 2010, the Democratic ticket of Bill Bestpitch, Ray Ferris and David Trinkle won an electoral sweep after a full ticket of Republicans and one independent. Two years before, current incumbents Sherman Lea, Anita Price and Court Rosen also won a Democratic sweep of the three council seats. Sure, that same year current Mayor David Bowers returned to power by running as an independent and defeating Democratic nominee and then-Mayor Nelson Harris — but it wasn’t long before Bowers returned to the Democratic fold, where he’s long been a mainstay (if at times a polarizing one).

With that in mind, the challengers facing this ticket of incumbents will need to do more than just get their names on the ballot: They’re going to have to find issues that resonate with Roanokers. And the thing about issues is they can cut both ways, helping or hurting both challengers and incumbents.

What do you see as the big issues this spring?

We’ve got some thoughts, which may help spur some of yours, after the jump:

* The 2-cent-per-dollar “Eat for Education” meals tax increase.

This was a big deal two years ago, too, as the council prepared to pass the two-year increase to raise money for city schools. At the time, the sole candidate with any real ability to influence the outcome of that decision was the only incumbent in the race, David Trinkle, who subsequently won election to vice mayor as the top vote-getter.

This year, all four incumbents are on record as having voted for the two-year increase, including Rosen, who masterminded it.

Here’s the odd thing, though: The only council challenger so far, independent Brandon Bushnell, supports retaining the increase indefinitely, while all four incumbents favor allowing it to sunset. Bowers’ likely Republican challenger, Mark Lucas, hasn’t yet weighed in on the question.

We got teases of this issue in the race for the Democratic nomination for mayor, when challenger Sam Rasoul called to retain at least some piece of the increase. Bowers defended the decision to let it sunset with two points: 1) The council promised the restaurant industry in 2010 they’d allow that increase to sunset after two years, so this is a matter of integrity; and 2) The council also requested the schools bank the revenue. That, he argued, has contributed to a more than $12 million cash fund the schools now maintain that will help buffer the system against another tough budget year.

How will this all play in a general election, with a larger subset of voters than those who participated in last week’s firehouse primary?

* Economic development.

It’s become the interview equivalent of a broken record: I think every single candidate I interviewed during last fall’s General Assembly races told me the number one issue they heard from voters was either “jobs” or “the economy.” I guess you can draw some distinctions between those two things but they’re essentially the same issue.

Expect to hear plenty about it this spring, too.

As long as you continue to see major companies choose to locate in locales outside the Roanoke Valley, and City Manager Chris Morrill continues to seek a new economic development director, this will continue to be a hotly discussed topic in Roanoke. Heck, it’ll still be a hot topic even after Morrill finds his new ED director.

As an entrepreneur with a history of past successes, Lucas in particular may find fertile ground here.

* Neighborhood issues.

It looks like the wounds left by the decades-long battle over the fate of Victory Stadium have finally started to heal. And there don’t seem to be any hugely divisive citywide issues on the horizon. I may be forgetting something; otherwise it seems like the closest thing to that might be Elmwood Park — but despite a few complaints, I don’t really sense that the taxpayers are marching on city hall with torches and pitchforks.

However, there are a series of projects and proposals that have residents in the city’s various neighborhoods worked up.

The Roanoke Rescue Mission’s plans to expand into another building have upset many people in southeast Roanoke, particularly in the Belmont and Nazarene neighborhoods.

I’m not covering the closing of Huff Lane School and subsequent plans to sell it to developers because I own a house that’s within view of that property — and to cover the story would present a potential conflict of interest for me — but I know that many of my neighbors are concerned about what might happen.

Although the battle over the former Countryside Golf Course — raging since the city bought the property to market it for upscale housing in 2005 — seems mostly to have simmered down with the adoption of a master plan, many people there are still angry over how the city handled things.

Plans to widen 10th Street — which involve the taking of a number of properties — and to expand the interchange of Interstate 581 and Valley View Boulevard — which involves a few takings as well — are coming not from the city, but from the Virginia Department of Transportation. However, the city is involved at some level with both projects, and many people don’t necessarily distinguish between various levels of the government.

All of these potential issues, however, present a problem for candidates: The city council elects its members at large instead of from magisterial districts. Play to one neighborhood on a particular issue, and you risk turning off residents elsewhere.

Can the candidates for mayor and city council appeal to voters in these neighborhoods without alienating residents of the city as a whole?

* The question of character.

Ultimately, this is the most important question for many voters. They may buy in on a particular stance or platform, but if they don’t trust the individual behind a campaign, it’s going to be a tough sell.

There’s also the question of conflicts of interest. In a city as small as Roanoke, it’s not a question of if a conflict will arise — it’s how a given candidate or council member handles it when it does.

We’ll be getting into all of these issues in greater depth as the campaign season carries on.

In the meantime, tell us what you think about these various issues and how the candidates have or will address them. What did we miss?

As always, please keep it civil and keep in mind our terms and conditions when posting comments.

– Mason Adams