Published: August 26, 2008 11:10 pm         

North Jefferson voters flock to polls to choose new leaders

Victories, Upsets And Run-offs

By Adam Smith

The North Jefferson News



Candidates in five north Jefferson County municipal races learned their fate Tuesday night as polls closed at 7 p.m.

Despite the rainy remnants of Tropical Depression Fay, thousands of north Jefferson County voters turned out to cast their ballots.

On Tuesday afternoon in Gardendale, 20-plus candidates running for the offices of mayor and five council wards stood with supporters, family and friends underneath rain-soaked canopies outside of the Gardendale Civic Center.

Tuesday night, they waited in anxious anticipation inside a room at the Gardendale Civic Center to hear the election results from City Clerk Keith Mosley.

The Gardendale races turned out to be a real nail-biter with only Peggy Tumlin (Ward 1) and Faith Harper (Ward 4) winning their races without a run-off.

The mayoral race, in which 3,203 votes were cast, will feature a run-off between former Ward 3 councilman Oscar Mann and Othell Phillips.

The other council races will also feature run-offs with Gary Morris and Mike Burkett (Ward 2), Alvin Currington and Lynne Dodson (Ward 3) and Wendell Phillips and David Morris (Ward 5).

The run-off election will take place Oct. 7.

The Ward 5 race may be the most controversial with eight provisional ballots still out. Mosley, who also acts as the city’s elections official, said the ballots were likely not counted over issues of address, identification or questions over eligibility. He said despite those issues, the voter is able to cast a vote in the election, but the ballot is not counted in the election totals.

Wendell Phillips had 49.8 percent of the vote, as compared to David Morris who had 23.9. If any of those provisional ballots are counted in Phillips’ favor, he will be declared the winner. However, the county Board of Registrars has until next Tuesday to decide on the legitimacy of the ballots, though the race could be decided sooner.

Mann and Othell Phillips both said they were prepared to hit the campaign trail once again in the six weeks leading up the run-off election.

“I’m just going to have to get out and get back to the grass roots of campaigning,” Phillips said. “With five being in the race, I was being realistic and assuming there was going to be a run-off.”

Mann said he was also not surprised by the results, but he is prepared to get out and shake even more hands than before.

“As big as the geographic area is, I did not get to see all the people and there are some that I have not personally contacted,” he said. “I’m aware that it’s going to be an uphill battle, but I’ll keep doing the same thing for six more weeks.”

In the meantime, Mann said he plans on getting out of town for a few days before “coming back to face the task.”

Here are the Gardendale vote totals by race:

Mayor

• Jonathan Dunagan: 117

• Dennis Gamble: 610

• Oscar Mann: 1,256

• Othell Phillips: 1,028

• Matt Wright: 192



Ward 1

• Courtney Cooper: 38

• Tim Howell: 33

• Patt Smith: 149

• Peggy Tumlin (i): 255



Ward 2

• Mike Burkett: 251

• Timothy Clayton: 87

• Jody Jones: 12

• Gary Morris (i): 305



Ward 3

• Jerome Cantrell: 138

• Alvin Currington: 179

• Tony Davis: 127

• Lynne Dodson: 142



Ward 4

• William Flippo (i): 206

• Larry Gothard: 10

• Faith Harper: 354

• Tommy Jett: 17



Ward 5

• Chip Hallmark: 109

• David Morris: 208

• Wendell Phillips (i): 434

• Tim White: 121





Ellerbrock last man standing in Kimberly council

By Melanie Patterson

The North Jefferson News

The only familiar face on the Kimberly Town Council in November will be that of Bob Ellerbrock, who ran for re-election without opposition.

Besides Ellerbrock, Kimberly’s elections resulted in a sweep for new candidates.

Ralph Lindsey, a relative newcomer to Kimberly, won the race for mayor against Brian Pharris, who has served on the Kimberly Fire Department for 14 years.

Craig Harris won the contest against 20-year incumbent James Ric Chandler, while Brad Stark defeated eight-year incumbent Betty Jo Goodwin; Donna Smith Cude defeated incumbent Herschel Suddeth; and Lowell Holland beat almost 20-year incumbent Diane Dake.

Ellerbrock ran for re-election for Council Place No. 5, while Mayor Sammie Maze, who has served as Kimberly’s mayor since 1984, did not run for re-election.

Lindsey said that he, Stark, Cude and Holland ran for election as a team.

“We sort of included Craig Harris in there too,” he said.

“We’re humbled by the folks to give us a clean sweep,” said Lindsey. “Quite frankly, it does humble us.”

However, he takes the sweep as a warning.

“What it really comes down to, is that five incumbents were told that the voters weren’t satisfied with what they were doing,” Lindsey said. “It weighs heavily on us that we’d better do what the voters want us to do.”

Here are the Kimberly totals by race:

Mayor

• Ralph Lindsey, 271

• Brian Pharris, 189



Council Place No. 1

• Craig Harris, 329

• James Ric Chandler (i), 106



Council Place No. 2

• Brad Stark, 339

• Betty Jo Goodwin (i), 111



Council Place No. 3

• Donna Smith Cude, 323

• Herschel Suddeth (i), 127



Council Place No. 4

• Lowell Holland, 316

• Diane Dake (i), 132





Drummonds hangs on to mayor’s seat

By Melanie Patterson

The North Jefferson News

Voters in Morris have chosen to keep their mayor.

There was plenty of cheering on Tuesday night at Morris City Hall as the election results revealed that incumbent Craig Drummonds defeated his opponent Jay Strickland.

“I’m blessed to be able to work with a group of people like we have here,” said Drummonds after the election. “We’ve gotten a lot of things accomplished, we’re working on things right now and there is plenty to do in the future.”

Drummonds said that he and the city council will “just go back to work and do what we’ve always done. We’re going to follow up on things we’ve already got in motion.”

Although the mayor race was the only one on the ballot, the city council will see some restructuring in November.

Two councilmen, Doyle Beasley and David Riley, chose not to run for re-election.

Instead, Lynn Posey Aguirre ran unopposed for Council Place No. 4 and Phillip W. Dillard ran unopposed for Council Place No. 5.

Three incumbent council members also ran for re-election without opposition: Clovis Laney, Joe Pylant and Charles Ray Densmore.

Here are the Morris totals by race:

Mayor

• Craig Drummonds (i), 206

• Jay Strickland, 155



Trafford to have mayoral run-off

By Adam Smith

The North Jefferson News

Mayoral candidate Kenneth Sanders previously served 24 year as his town’s leader from 1968 to 1992 and he wants to do so again.

However, he’ll face opponent Robert Niblett in the Oct. 7 run-off election.

Sanders said he’ll continue to campaign leading up to the race. He said he wants to restore the town to what it was when he was in office.

“We built the town and the administration we’ve had for the last 16 years has disposed of everything we built,” he said.

Niblett could not be reached prior to deadline.

In the three contested council races, William Motes, Tim Waddell and and Debra Little Miller defeated their opponents.

Here are the Trafford vote totals by race:

Mayor

• Clint Daniels: 36

• Robert Niblett: 82

• Brenda Reno: 40

• Kenneth Sanders: 64



Place No. 1

• William Motes: 143

• JoAnn Niblett (i): 80



Place No. 2

• Dora “Micki” Aaron: 97

• Tim Waddell: 124



Place No. 5

• Corace Cole: 104

• Debra Little Miller: 116

Danielle Pelkey contributed to this story.



Incumbents stay in place in Warrior

By Melanie Patterson

The North Jefferson News

The team that is the Warrior City Council will remain exactly as is for the next four years.

There were only three contests in Warrior, with the incumbents taking all races.

Mayor Rena Hudson defeated her opponent Oscar Turner.

On the council, Brad Fuller beat Joel Washington in District 1, Place 2, while James Jett defeated Cecil W. Bailey in District 2, Place 1.

Three Warrior councilmen ran for re-election unopposed: Jerry Bailey, Theodore Hines and Johnny Ragland.

Hudson has served as mayor of Warrior for 20 years: 1984-2000 and 2004-2008. In 2000, Hudson was defeated by Jerry Cochran.

“I want to thank all the people who supported me and all those who worked hard in my campaign. It was a team effort,” said Hudson. “I’m looking forward to doing some of the things we started in this administration. I feel like we’re really going to get a lot of things accomplished.”

Jett has served for 40 consecutive years as a Warrior councilman.

Fuller has served one term of four years.

Here are the Warrior vote totals by race:

Mayor

• Rena Hudson (i), 354

• Oscar Turner, 184



District 1, Place 2

• Brad Fuller (i), 203

• Joel Washington, 112



District 2, Place 1

• James Jett (i), 193

• Cecil W. Bailey, 32