In Christiansburg, Carl Pauli is challenging incumbent Michael Barber for the town’s mayoral seat.
Early voting is taking place Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Montgomery County Office of Elections in Christiansburg through Oct. 31. The office will also be open for early voting on Saturday, Oct. 25 and Saturday, Nov. 1 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. It will be closed on Oct. 13.
Candidates in Christiansburg run as independents. Below are profiles on both candidates in Christiansburg’s mayoral race.
D. Michael Barber
Barber, 77, has been the mayor of Christiansburg since 2014. Before that, he served on the Christiansburg Town Council from 2000 to 2013. He has been retired for around 12 years, but worked as a banker for 42 years prior. He is also a veteran of the U.S. Army.
Barber decided to run again because as he finishes out his third term, he feels like he still has a lot of “gas left in the tank,” he said. He’s lived in Christiansburg for almost his entire life and wants to continue serving the citizens.
“I just want to continue to make the best life for the citizens of Christiansburg that they can have,” he said.
“Christiansburg is a great place to live and raise a family and to work. I want to continue to keep it that way,” he added.
One of the biggest issues facing Christiansburg currently, like many other localities, is affordable housing, Barber said. “Affordable housing” is hard to define, he said, but he’d like to find a way to provide more “workforce housing” for people in entry level jobs and employees that earn hourly wages.
Barber is a “proven leader,” making him a good candidate for mayor, he said. Throughout his nearly 26 years as an elected official in the town, he has developed good relationships with town officials and with other municipalities, he said.
“I have helped to lead the town and the town council, I think, very efficiently for the last 12 years,” he said. “We’re probably one of the most financially stable communities in the area. We have money set aside for projects. We have money set aside for emergencies that may come up.”
Throughout his stint in local government, Barber is particularly proud of the Christiansburg Aquatic Center, which opened around 15 years ago, and the Christiansburg Huckleberry Park, which has had more than 300,000 visitors in the last 18 months, he said. He has also worked to return passenger rail service to Christiansburg, which he said should happen in 2027.
“That’s coming. It’s taken about 10 or 12 longer than it should, but we persisted, and it is coming,” he said. “I’m very proud of the amount of time I’ve spent working on returning passenger rail.”
Carl R. Pauli
Pauli, 62, is a retired public school educator. He was a teacher at Christiansburg High School, assistant principal of Blacksburg Middle School and principal of Auburn High School. In 2023, he retired from his position of director of secondary education with Montgomery County Public Schools, but came back one month later to work part-time as the dean of students for Christiansburg Middle School.
Pauli has a bachelor’s degree in biology education from Virginia Tech and a master’s degree from Radford University in leadership.
If elected, one of his top priorities would be to address the town’s aging infrastructure, especially before encouraging any more growth. He’d like to find a balance between growth in Christiansburg and maintaining its “small town quality of life” and neighborhood character.
Pauli would like to make transparency another focus of his. He has heard from citizens that don’t feel the town government has been transparent enough, he said.
“We’re representing the town of Christiansburg people, and I want to be accessible to them, and I want to be honest and open and transparent about everything that’s going on, and make decisions that reflect their needs,” he said.
While affordable housing is an issue, Pauli said that he doesn’t think there’s anything the town council or mayor can do about it, as it is a national issue influenced by a number of factors.
Pauli would like to “put a temporary hold on developing the next shiny thing” and take some time to maintain and upgrade the town’s existing facilities. He gave the example of the $10 million project to replace the HVAC systems.
“I don’t think we can keep pursuing more and more and more until we sort of take care of what we have and put some money aside and then thoughtfully plan out the next really cool thing,” he said.
While he has no experience running a town, he does have leadership skills and the best way to learn is through experience, he said.
“I imagine there’ll be a steep learning curve when I get in there, but I’m a quick learner, and I’d be excited to serve my community in this way,” he said.
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