Helgeson to retire from Lynchburg City Council (2024)

After 20 years on Lynchburg City Council, Jeff Helgeson announced Monday he is retiring and will not be running for re-election in November as the city’s Ward III representative.

Speaking from the front porch of his home, Helgeson told reporters that he started thinking a year ago about whether to run again but wanted to make sure he found the right candidate to run in his place before making that decision.

On Tuesday, the Lynchburg Republican City Committee is planning to consider whether Curt Diemer, a long-time civic and political activist in Lynchburg, will run as the Republican nominee for Ward III.

Diemer, if chosen as the nominee, will run against James Coleman, the Democratic candidate for Ward III, in the November general election.

“As I consider new opportunities to serve, I’m announcing my retirement from city council at the end of the term and withdrawing from the upcoming election,” Helgeson said on Labor Day, surrounded by several local Republican officials, including At-large Councilman Martin Misjuns and Veronica Bratton, chairwoman of the Lynchburg Republican City Committee.

“This past year, I’ve been searching for my replacement and I’m excited to endorse Curt Diemer as the GOP nominee for Ward III,” he said. “He’s been very active in the community for 40 years, and I trust that Curt will continue to fight for our citizens as hard as I fought for them.”

Bratton said Lynchburg Republicans are grateful to Helgeson for his 20 years of service to the city. “I could always count on you,” she said. “I never had to question what you were going to do and how you were going to vote and what you were going to fight for because you were always there in the fight for our taxpayers.”

Bratton said she has called a meeting of Lynchburg Republicans for Tuesday night to discuss who will run as Helgeson’s replacement. Names on the ballot for the general election in November must be finalized by Friday, according to the Virginia Department of Elections.

Diemer was unable to attend the news conference on Monday because he was on vacation but is expected to be at the LRCC meeting Tuesday night.

Helgeson said Republicans wanted to be careful about choosing the right person to run for his seat to avoid the drama on council that the city has witnessed for nearly two years.

“Lots of times when people say, ‘I want to run, let me run,’ what do we get with that? We get people that use the Republican brand for the name and that’s where the term, ‘in name only,’ comes from, where they don’t fight for those policies,” Helgeson said.

Diemer was recruited to run, according to Helgeson, because local Republicans believed he will fight for conservative policies such as alleviating the burden on taxpayers.

Based on his understanding, Misjuns said Diemer already has many of the pieces in place to run a campaign for Ward III. “He’s gone through all the technical steps. There’s a campaign there. That’s the hard part, getting all of that ready,” he said.

On Monday, the Executive Committee of the Hill City Young Republicans expressed strong reservations with how quickly the local GOP rallied around Diemer.

Ward III, home to Liberty University, has the largest concentration of young Republicanvoters in Lynchburg. "In choosing this path,Young Republicans in Ward III will have no voice in this nomination contest, and the Republican Nominee to Ward III will be decided by an exclusive group of political insiders (members of the local Republican Unit)," the Hill City Young Republicans said in a statement.

The Young Republicans said they "look forward to seeing the LRCC continuing its history and stated mission of ensuring fair, transparent, and open elections with this Republican nomination contest."

Despite the divisions among Republicans on city council, Helgeson, a financial planner who also teaches finance at Liberty University, said the council has been able to appoint "some really good folks to the school board" where they can "hold the bureaucrats accountable" and "actually improve education.”

In August, Lynchburg City Council voted to approve a resolution “censuring and punishing” Helgeson and Misjuns over an email and a recorded phone call related to a lawsuit contesting the Ward IV Republican primary. Fellow Republicans, Lynchburg Mayor Stephanie Reed and Vice Mayor and Ward IV Councilor Chris Faraldi, were among the four members on council who voted to censure Helgeson and Misjuns.

Coleman, the Democratic nominee for Ward III in November’s general election, expressed gratitude to Helgeson for his work on city council over the past 20 years.

“I personally want to thank Jeff Helgeson for his service to the community,” Coleman told The News & Advance.

“And, as I reflect on that, when I made the decision to run for city council, I made the decision to run because I care about this community,” said Coleman, who served on the Lynchburg City School Board for nine years, including three as chair. “I’ve served faithfully for 30 years and have been committed to getting to know persons in our city and particularly in Ward III — in every one of the five precincts in Ward III.”

Whether his opponent is Helgeson or Diemer in the November election, Coleman said his commitment to the people of Ward III will not change. “I am committed to representing Ward III and the entire city with dignity, respect and collaboration and look forward to a robust campaign to engage the voters of Ward III in helping to move our city forward,” he said.

At Monday’s news conference, Helgeson emphasized he has no regrets about not serving as mayor during his 20-year tenure on council.

“It’s never been about the fame. It’s never been about the notoriety,” Helgeson said. “With that, I think that leadership is important because you need to make sure you’re on a good direction, that you rein in the growth of government as best as we can.”

Misjuns told reporters that he tried to convince Helgeson to change his mind about retiring from council. “I think that finding Curt is what really made the difference,” he said. “I hate to see Jeff go. I’m excited to see Curt come. It’s one of those things.”

Despite losing the mayor vote in early 2023 to Reed, Bratton said Helgeson has still been a leader on council.

“He still led that tax cut that we received,” she said, referring to the council’s vote in 2023 to reduce the real estate tax rate to 89 cents per $100 of assessed value from a proposed $1.05 per $100 of assessed value. “It doesn’t matter who got the title. He has still acted as a leader, as though he had the title.”