General Election is Tues. 5/31/13
Published 12:00 am Friday, May 31, 2013
In Batesville a three-way race for Mayor will highlight next Tuesday’s ballot when incumbent mayor and Democratic nominee Jerry Autrey faces challenges from Republican Sidney Burns and independent Wally Pang.
Tuesday’s election in Batesville Ward 1 also pits Republican incumbent alderman Bill Dugger against Democrat challenger Bobby Reed.
Como
The City of Como has no contested races on Tuesday’s municipal general election ballot and Crenshaw’s contested races were all settled in the Democratic primary election.
Two Como independent candidates, incumbent alderman-at-large Forster Ruhl who was running for the Ward Two alderman post vacated by Bill Mitchell who did not seek re-election and Mark Lipscomb who was seeking Ruhl’s at-large seat, both withdrew from the general election ballot.
Courtland
There are no contested races in Courtland according to Mayor Debbie Aven.
Seeking to hold on to their current alderman seats in Courtland are: Gerald Aven, Clifford “Topper” Olson, Mary Catherine Baglan, Carolyn Kilgore and Keith Payne.
Many small municipalities avoid the expense of party primaries with all candidates agreeing to run independent, such as Courtland, Crowder and Pope.
Crowder
Circuit Judge Johnny Walls ruled that three Crowder municipal candidates’ names previously excluded from next Tuesday’s ballot should in fact be there including incumbent mayor Stethen Stanton according to attorney Bill Sanders of Charleston who represented Stanton.
His name as well as aldermen candidates Darren Washington and incumbent Russell Cox will also be on the Crowder ballot following a hearing before Walls May 22 in Marks.
Those names were omitted after the town’s election committee disqualified their applications for lack of signatures from the required 15 qualified voters.
Sanders said Walls’ hearing found the use of married names and nicknames to be adequate signatures and reinstated those candidates with the Town of Crowder also responsible for court costs according to Sanders.
Stanton will face Lana Bridges in his effort to seek re-election to the Crowder mayor’s post while nine candidates vie for the five at-large aldermen post.
They are: Washington, Cox, Joe Cole, Peggy Griffin, Libby Moore, Ollie Walker, Turkessa Coleman, Alicia French, Walter Shegog and Wendy Snyder.
Pope
In Pope six candidates will vie for five aldermen positions with the top five getting the nod for aldermen. Those running are: incumbent aldermen Kenneth Powell and W.T. Rikard, and newcomers Tommy Copeland, Ann M. Mills, Jennifer O’Brien and John Robert Throgmorton.
Jamie W. Howell is the lone candidate for mayor as current mayor Ricky Briscoe is not seeking re-election.
Sardis
The City of Sardis has one office contested on Tuesday’s ballot in Ward II where Independent candidate Madison Smith, Jr. faces incumbent Democrat candidate Clarence “Boo Boo” Jones.
Jones won the Democrat primary outdistancing his opponent with almost 67% of 160 votes cast in that ward.