Former City of Alexander Mayor Paul Mitchell will be returning to city
hall January 1, 2015. In the run-off election held Tuesday, November 25
Mitchell defeated current Mayor Michelle Hobbs by receiving 62.80-percent of
the votes. With 207 votes cast Mitchell received 130 and Hobbs pulled in 77
votes.
The City of Alexander sits on either side of the Pulaski and Saline
county line. Mitchell won receiving zero votes from the Pulaski County area of
Alexander. According to the unofficial results Hobbs received 31 votes from
Pulaski County residents and 46 from the Saline County side. Mitchell's 130
votes all came from residents in the Saline County area.
In the November 4 General Election Hobbs
received the most votes at 161, which equaled 35.29-percent. But, in
that election she didn't do any better in her home area of Pulaski County
receiving 30 votes. The remaining 131 votes came from Saline County.
On November 4 Mitchell came in second with
127 votes at 27.79-percent. Three of those
votes came from Pulaski County while 124 came from Saline, six less than he
received in the run-off election.
There were two other candidates on the November 4 ballot. Corliss "Jerry" Ball received 110 votes at 24.07-percent, and Farren Wadley pulled in 59 votes at 12.91-percent. Ball received three votes from Pulaski County and 107
from Saline County. Wadley had one vote in Pulaski and 58 in Saline.
In the November 4 General Election 457
ballots were cast for mayor. In the run-off election only 207 people voted, or
0.45-percent compared to
November 4.
November 4.
Under Arkansas law a run-off election can be
avoided if the leading candidate gets at least 40-percent of the votes and there is a 20-percent gap between that candidate and whoever comes in
second. The law went into effect in 2011 replacing the requirement that a
candidate receive 50-percent plus one vote.
Mitchell was first elected mayor in the 2010 General Election. During that
election he also faced three other candidates, which included incumbent Mayor
Shirley Johnson, Michelle T. Doss-Kidd
(Hobbs) and Gordon O. Hall.
Unlike this year's election a run-off wasn't
needed in 2010. Of the 493 total votes cast Mitchell received 298 votes
(60.45-percent), Johnson received 116 votes (23.53-percent), Doss-Kidd received
45 votes (9.13-percent), and Hall received 34 votes (6.90-percent).
In November, 2012 Mitchell lost a recall election. Out of 640 votes
cast 456 were "For" removal and 184 were "Against" removal.
The petition drive to get the recall on the ballot was spearheaded by former
Mayor Shirley Johnson, who was defeated by Mitchell two years earlier, and Andy
Mullins who was Alderman of Ward-2 at the time. In December, 2012 the council
appointed Hobbs as mayor.
In that same 2012 election Juanita Wilson defeated Mullins. Mullins
regained his seat on the council during the recent November 4 election.
Aldermen serve two-year terms while mayors serve four-year terms.
I’M THANKFUL
ReplyDeleteI am so thankful this season to be an American, and to be an Arkansan; to have a successful representative form of government, nationally as well as locally.
I wonder who of you know what ward you reside in, and know how to get a hold of your representative, I am hoping to see the list in the upper right updated with phone numbers and encourage you to call and find out, if you don’t know – who represents you and what his/her opinions are on various issues, and make sure they know YOUR opinion as well as YOUR concerns.
I understand your feelings: you voted for a representative, and expect them to represent you on city issues; you are busy and can’t run for office, and have no time left over for the leg work involved. But they need to hear from you from time to time to properly represent you.
Andrea Bearden, Ward 3, Position 1 is always available and loves discussing city issues with you, she is always up to the minute on information and well versed on issues.
You all know Dan Church; he has a heart for the city, and is active in all issues and also well versed on them. Melissa Ratliff, coming into the Council (Ward 4, Position 1) again is passionate for Alexander, educated in civic affairs and is anxious and available to get things moving in the right direction.
Many of our officials are volunteering their time, and that does not speak ill of those who are not volunteering. City government is complicated and time consuming. They should be paid for doing their job properly. However some feel they will get further in action without that stipend.
Even though Juanita Wilson isn’t seated at Council as of January 1; understand she is always available to answer questions, she is involved in many facets, and she too has a passion for the success of the community of Alexander. If she doesn’t have an answer at her fingertip, she will find out and she will tell you.
That said, if you can’t come to the meetings, we understand, but keep abreast of the truth in the issues, know what the facts are. Any future decision must be based on facts and truth. Gossip and character assassination such as we have witnessed in the past few years have cost the city dearly. Don’t participate, go to the source of the gossip subject and get the facts.
I truly recommend the Alexandrian. The webmaster is a professional, and while not necessarily impartial, Alex’ reports are unbiased. The Webmaster, known as ‘Alex N. Der’ is otherwise unidentified and can report on issues, pro or con candidly. Both the Blog Spot and Face book are strongly recommended.
I am looking forward to a new year.
I have a public Facebook page where I can be reached, and my number is 501 860 1252. I'm no different from anyone here, hope that all would feel comfortable coming to me for any questions. If I don't know, I can surely find out! Thanks to all for your support.
DeleteHere, here, well said, Louella!
ReplyDeleteWhile the comments on this post can run from the simply opinionated to the obviously petty and vitriolic; the posts themselves have been informative and unbiased.
I must also suggest that every person reading this should sit down and make an honest list of exactly what they want to see changed in the city. Decide what you could do for yourself, what can you work with your neighbors on, and what requires city involvement. When talking to your alderman, please understand that not everything can be done at the same time, and that some seemingly simple things require insanely complicated procedures in order to comply with regulations and laws. As long as your alderman is keeping an open dialogue with you, be patient, this city has a lot of healing to do. If your alderman is not listening to you, and will not give you any answers, instead of sitting around whining about it you could always take the radical step of VOTING next time so that they won't have to be bothered by you and your problems any longer.
There seems to be some argument regarding Alex’s term “landslide” so I looked it up (googled). It seems there is no statistical description that pins down what a landslide is, Experts consider a “sizeable difference” can constitute a landslide and settle for that description. One expert political poll taker claims a 20% difference makes a landslide.
ReplyDeleteI am no expert, political or otherwise, but 63% (rounded) to 37% sure looks like a landslide to me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!