Grennell wins District 4 by landslide

By Katie Stallcup (Contact) | The Natchez Democrat

Published Wednesday, August 8, 2007

NATCHEZ — In the race for District 4 supervisor, incumbent Darryl Grennell had one of the most solid leads of all the supervisors races.

He won 1,440, or 84.46 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s Democratic primary elections.

Since Grennell has no Republican opponent, the race pretty much solidified his standing as supervisor for another four years.

“I’m appreciative to the voters for their confidence and trust in me to serve them and do the best job for them and for all the people of Adams County,” Grennell said.

Grennell said he was pleased to be reelected to continue working on projects such as economic development and bringing industries.

“We’ve got a lot of projects and a lot of work ahead of us, and I will be diligent and work hard for the people to make Adams county a better place and help improve the quality of life we have.”

Grennell said he thought the number of votes in his favor was a broad vote of confidence.

“I guess it says they trust me and believe in me in terms of doing good things for them,” Grennell said. “I guess my work I’ve done the past 10 years kind of speaks and is reflective of it.”

In the District 1 race, results are a little less clear, and, barring affidavit and absentee ballots making much of a splash, two candidates will face a runoff.

Mike Lazarus led with 876 votes, or 46.13 percent of the vote, while Mike Smith won 568, or 29.91 percent of the vote.

Lazarus said he was very confident that those paper ballots would push him into a clear lead.

“There’s not going to be a runoff,” Lazarus said. “I’ve got that many absentees. It looks like me and Sammy (Cauthen, the Republican incumbent) in November, and I’ll be ready.”

Smith said he was encouraged by the numbers.

“I feel good — I’ve had some great supporters,” Smith said. “I enjoyed getting out with the public and met some really nice people.”

Smith said he’s planning on campaigning hard if there is a runoff.

“I’m still not sure about a runoff,” he said. “I think every race has got those votes, and things could change.”

District 2

District 2 Supervisor candidate Henry Watts leads 67 percent to 33 percent over George Souderes.

Watts said he would wait to see final absentee and affidavit vote counts before looking to the November race.

“It ain’t over until it’s over,” Watts said late Tuesday night. “Tonight, I’m extremely grateful that in a primary race, 67 percent think I’ve done a good job and they want me back in there.”

Souderes said he thought the vote difference was too great to overcome with absentee votes.

“I just talked to Henry and congratulated him,” Souderes said.

“This is something I’ve always wanted to do for many, many years, and I’ve done it.”

Souderes said he appreciated the clean race and would look forward to his duties as director of emergency management.

“The people out there have spoken,” he said. “Now we just move forward. This brief period I spent in politics, I learned a lot and talked to a lot of people I haven’t seen in years.”

If Watts’ numbers hold through certification, he said he’d turn his focus to the November race and Republican challenger Joe Eidt.

“I’m going to sleep tonight good and wake up tomorrow and start thinking about the November race,” he said. “I don’t take any (races) lightly, and this November race is very serious.”

District 3

Down from an initial field of five after Tuesday’s election, two men are vying for the District 3 seat on the Adams County Board of Supervisors.

Thomas “Boo” Campbell and Britt Gibson, both Democrats, each took less than a majority of the vote but were the two greatest vote getters for the district.

Campbell took 689 votes, approximately 47 percent of the 1,469 total votes.

Gibson took 371 votes, approximately 25 percent of the vote.

The incumbent Campbell, who has been a supervisor since 1989, said he has no plans to change his campaign.

Campbell said being in a run-off has changed how he sees the election.

“Now I don’t need as many votes to win,” he said. “I can win with only one.”

Gibson said though he is not worried about the outcome of the run-off, he will approach it with the same tenacity as he did the five-man campaign.

“I’m just going to hit it again,” he said. “I’m going to get on the streets, probably tomorrow.

“I feel confident now that I’m in the run-off.”

The other three candidates only took a combined approximate 28 percent of the vote Tuesday.

They included:

4Luther “Brad” Bradford, who with 168 votes took approximately 11 percent of the vote.

4Leroy “Roy” Sessions III, who with 137 votes took approximately 9 percent of the vote.

4Raythell Smith, who with 104 votes took approximately 7 percent of the vote.

District 5

After a race with three other men for the District 5 seat on the Adams County Board of Supervisors, S.E. “Spanky” Felter took the position Tuesday.

With 1,142 of the 2,052 total votes, the incumbent Felter, a Democrat, took approximately 56 percent of the vote Tuesday.

“I’m going to continue to work hard for the people of district five,” Felter said. “I’m wanting to finish a lot of things we already have going.”

Winning by the margin he did against his competition is a good feeling, he said.

“They were good men, and I feel good I did as well as I did in a race against these good men,” he said.

Felter said he was thankful to the people of district five and to all of the candidates for running a clean campaign.

The results for the other three district five candidates included:

4A total of 59 votes for Ronald Eugene Albritton, approximately 3 percent of the vote.

4A total of 287 for James Berry Jr., approximately 14 percent of the vote.

4A total of 564 votes for Jessie R. Turner, approximately 27 percent of the vote.