Ramage re-elected for 10th term in Brundidge
Published 12:16 am Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Jimmy Ramage said that in the course of his 35 years of politics, he had never experienced an election like 2012.
Sixteen different candidates filed paperwork to run for either mayor or city council seats. Ramage won the mayoral race for the tenth consecutive time, edging out Michael Foster and Jamie Lee Powell.
Ramage collected 536 votes, Foster 408 and Powell 83.
Ramage said that in his next term as mayor, he hopes to continue to grow the city and add more industry.
“We approved a strategic plan last year, and want to begin implementing some of the things the citizens wanted to see done in the city,” said Ramage. “We have been fortunate to add jobs all the way through the recession and I would like to add at least one more industry for sure.”
Powell came out on the short end of the mayoral race, but said he believes in his platform and has already made plans to run again in four years.
“I’m going to keep running until we get the change we need,” said Powell.
A crowd of about 40 people grouped together outside the polling station to watch the votes be counted, something that Powell enjoyed seeing. “I think it is great people took this much interest this time,” said Powell. “To me it shows that they are looking for change, and are taking action.”
In the city council races, no incumbent candidate was voted out, but one race was still undecided after all the votes had been counted. The race for the District 1 council seat between Betty Baxter and Lawrence Bowden ended the night deadlocked at 81 votes. City Manager Britt Thomas said that provisional votes that were not counted on election night could decide the winner.
“We have a total of 21 provisional ballots, eighteen at the polls and three absentee ballots,” said Thomas.
“Those ballots have not been counted and will not be counted unless the Board of Registrars tells us to count them. If they are counted and any of the ballots are District 1, the provisional ballots will decide the election.”
If the registrar does not give permission for the votes to be counted, then a run-off election will be held, Thomas said.
Arthur Lee Griffin was re-elected to the District 2 council seat 149-69 over Jaine Treadwell, Cynthia Pearson won District 4 with 176 votes. Pearson’s challenger, Byron Gaynor had 68 votes. Incumbent Steven Coleman was also re-elected in District 5, edging out Isabell Boyd 132-114.
Due to no incumbent running, District 3 had four brand new faces vying for the seat. Margaret Ross won the open seat with 71 votes, beating out, Anthony Foster’s 34, Andrea Bailey’s 29 and Terry Casey’s 19.
Ramage said that now that the election is over, Brundidge needs to come back together to move forward toward a common goal.
“We live in a small town, and we are kind of like a family,” said Ramage. “We aren’t always going to agree, but we all have the common goal of making our community better for the people that live here and work here.”
All numbers reported are final, but unofficial, Thomas said.