Fear and Loathing on the Treasurer Campaign Trail

Treasurer’s Race Turns Ugly as Rayfield Faces Wave of Attacks. Supporters ask why a banker with a finance degree was passed over for the interim appointment

EASTVILLE — The Cape Charles Mirror has covered its share of hard-fought local elections and pulled enough knives out of our back to understand the types of people that inhabit the Eastern Shore. But few races in recent memory have drawn as much hate and personal hostility as the contest for Northampton County Treasurer. Almost all of it has been aimed at one candidate: Nolan Rayfield.

Supporters say Rayfield has been attacked on social media, at public meetings, by the editorial staffs of local advertising/news platforms, and in conversations around the county. The attacks have targeted his character, his qualifications, and his education. Some of his yard signs have also gone missing or been destroyed. A suspect has been arraigned over the theft and unlawful removal of those signs.

Look, if you don’t think he’s qualified, or too young, or whatever, don’t vote for him. Why the need to engage in hate?

The race is a special election, set for Nov. 3. It follows the retirement earlier this year of longtime Treasurer Cynthia “Cindy” Bradford, whose chief deputy also left. Much of the office’s experienced staff departed around the same time.

To fill the seat until voters could decide, Circuit Court Judge Lynwood Lewis, a former left-leaning Democratic state senator, appointed Kristin Willis as interim treasurer. Rayfield also interviewed for the appointment.

Rayfield holds a degree in finance from Radford University and works at Atlantic Bank. Willis’s background is as a small business owner selling coffee.

The treasurer’s job is mostly financial work. The treasurer collects local and state taxes and fees, from real estate and personal property taxes to dog licenses and utility bills. The office holds and reconciles all county money, including the school division’s and social services’ accounts. The treasurer invests idle public funds in qualified depositories under the Virginia Security for Public Deposits Act. The office pays the county’s authorized bills and goes after delinquent taxes.

Rayfield’s supporters say that list reads like his résumé. They want to know why he wasn’t chosen. Judges often don’t explain appointments.

Opinion: Another High-Tech lynching?

The whole thing smells bad. The appointing judge is a Democrat, and although he would argue the point, he has ties to the Eastern Shore Democratic apparatus, including former disgraced Governor Ralph Northam. It is well-known that the Rayfield family are conservative Christians (they were instrumental in founding the Cape Charles Christian School), a demographic labeled by the far left (including former President Biden) as terrorists. In October 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memorandum that effectively targeted conservative parents and traditional families. In January 2023, an internal memo from the FBI’s Richmond field office suggested investigating conservative “radical-traditionalist Catholics” for potential links to far-right extremist or white nationalist movements. While we do not believe this overtly led to Willis’ appointment over Rayfield, one has to wonder whether it indirectly colored the decision. It’s not unusual to see a Willis yard sign, right next to a Luria and Warner one. Birds of a feather, as they say.

Over the last 10 years, we have watched the American Progressive Democratic Left turn high-tech lynchings into an art form. It also helps explain the hate and vitriol directed at Mr. Rayfield, and the plethora of housewives that apparently felt the need to jump on their broomsticks and paint the sky with “Surrender Nolan” verbiage while gangs of beta males breathlessly applauded their actions.

Whoever wins on Nov. 3 will serve the rest of the term, which runs through Dec. 31, 2027.

So it goes.

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Wayne Creed

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