Vienna Mayor Linda Colbert will serve a third term, and Sandra Allen emerged as the odd person out in last night’s Vienna Town Council elections.
Pursuing her first reelection bid after narrowly winning in 2023, Allen was one of seven candidates vying for the council’s six seats. She received 3,146 votes, trailing the next lowest vote-getter, Dann Nash, who secured 3,917 votes, according to unofficial results from the Virginia Department of Elections.
Nash, an executive for WG Construction who currently serves on the Vienna Board of Zoning Appeals, will be joined as a newcomer to the town council by Doug Francis, vice president of the North East Vienna Citizens Association.
While Councilmember Ray Brill is retiring at the end of this year, incumbents Howard Springsteen, Chuck Anderson, Roy Baldwin and Jessica Ramakis — who led the field with 4,541 votes — will all return to the council.
Springsteen, who will be starting his ninth term when the new town council is sworn in on Jan. 2, 2026, says he’s “very pleased” with the results of the 2025 elections, anticipating that Nash and Francis will be “great assets” based on their active involvement in the community.
“We had a hard time getting things done, and I really want to stress that,” Springsteen said of the current council. “I hope the next two years, we can get more people to run for council. I think this new council is going to be much more cohesive.”
Ramakis, who is finishing her first two-year term on the council after previously serving on Vienna’s planning commission, expressed appreciation for “the great conversations” she had with voters outside Vienna’s polling sites yesterday (Tuesday).
“We are fortunate to have so many thoughtful and active members of the community who love Vienna and want to share ideas,” she told FFXnow. “Doing more to share information with the community and making decisions informed by feedback and ideas will continue to be a top priority for me in my new term.”
Colbert’s return as mayor will presumably help with Springsteen’s goal of “keep[ing] the trains running.” Running unopposed this year, Colbert served on the town council for three terms before she was first elected as mayor in May 2020.
Over her first two terms as mayor, Colbert has helped the town navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, update its zoning code, finalize plans for the new Vienna-Carter Library with Fairfax County and establish tree preservation standards for developers, among other accomplishments.
More controversially, she led the town council in approving a meals tax increase in August to fund future capital projects — a change in course after town leaders initially discussed a temporary increase to raise revenue for a swimming pool and fitness facility. Despite vocal criticism from some residents and restaurant owners, the measure passed 6-1 with Allen as the lone dissenter.
“I am honored to serve the Town of Vienna again for another two years, and look forward to working with the six qualified and smart newly electeds to make Vienna the best place to live,” Colbert said in a statement to FFXnow. “We have a lot of exciting opportunities like the pool and fitness center, a possible project on the W&OD Trail with Nova Parks, and many ways to support our businesses and residents.”
A total of 28,805 votes were cast in the 2025 town council race and 6,643 for mayor. According to the Fairfax County Office of Elections, the town had 12,530 registered voters, as of Nov. 1, suggesting a turnout rate of roughly 53% based on mayor race, where voters could only select one candidate as opposed to six.
The total number of votes for both council members and mayor exceed those reported in 2023, when those offices were last on the ballot with an assortment of other local races.
The 2023 election was the first held in Vienna since the town was required by state law to move its elections from May to November. Turnout for the May elections peaked at 36.5% with 4,195 total votes cast in 2020, driven in part by concerns about development.
After two election cycles, Springsteen expressed a mixed reaction to the shift to November. While he’s glad to see greater participation, he’s concerned that the participating voters are much less informed about what the town council does and the issues facing Vienna.
“I would say 60 or 70% of the people — I covered four different polling places — were clearly, completely unaware there was a town council election, completely uninvolved in who the candidates were and who all the incumbents were,” Springsteen said. “That’s a challenge going forward. The town has to figure out how to get more citizens aware of who’s on the council, what are the issues.”
