Payne ready to take on board seat
By Sean Nyhan
Special to the Culpeper Times
Dewayne Payne has been busy since he decided to run for the Culpeper County Board of Supervisors. His campaign responsibilities, his duties on the Planning Commission, and his full-time vocation as a local farmer all compete for his waking hours.
“It’s been keeping me very busy. I’ve been in the field by day and campaigning by night,” he said.
Payne recently began his second term on the Culpeper County Planning Commission, where he has served for five years. He also serves on the Culpeper County Architectural Review Board and various other local committees, including the town steering committee to help develop a comprehensive plan. If elected as a supervisor, Payne will have to relinquish his other posts to serve on the Board.
Among the candidates running this November, Payne is the youngest. The 28-year-old Culpeper native believes that his education, tenure on the Planning Commission, and his family’s farm have given him a foundation for his entrance into the Culpeper political arena.
“At this time I feel that I have a lot to offer the county,” Payne said.
The first of Payne’s family to move into Culpeper were his great-grandparents. “My heart is on my farm, I’ve always been a farmer. That’s always been my ambition,” he said. Payne added that his decision to run for public office came from a sense of “civic duty.”
Payne graduated from Culpeper County High School and later earned a bachelor’s degree in business management at James Madison University. “Our educational system has provided a foundation for myself and allowed me to pursue higher education, to run a business,” he said.
While education remains a priority for Payne and his opponents, William Chase and Gardiner Mulford, no candidate for the supervisor seat has been able to ignore the impact of an unstable economy. “I’m very familiar with the thoughts and concerns of the farmers in this area because I know them,” Payne said. “But it goes beyond the concerns of farmers. In my time while campaigning and also just living here I hear the concerns of the residents.”
On his campaign trail throughout the Stevensburg District, Payne has collected a host of anxieties and concerns from the local population. His informal survey of county residents and the issues they regard as important includes transportation affairs and the county’s fiscal operations. The budget, he said, has the attention of many of his potential constituents.
“There’s a number of people who are concerned with being taxed out of the area,” Payne said. “That’s why I think it’s very critical that we provide quality services to our residents, while at the same time providing a tax structure that operates at a minimum cost.”
As a farmer, Payne said he recognizes the critical debate over land preservation and the lucrative tax funds earned through commercial development. “The people in the area are really concerned with the relationship between town and country,” he said. “A number of people are looking for us to work to pursue more local business to provide jobs to the area.”
Dewayne Payne Info
Name: Dewayne Payne
Age: 28
Party Affiliation: Republican
Occupation: Farmer
Past government experience: Serving his second term on Culpeper County Planning Commission
Campaign Promise: “I’m running because the County is faced with a number of issues in these uncertain economic times and I’m giving the people of the Stevensburg District a choice in who will attend to these issues.”