Auburn will have a new City Council after five runoff elections scheduled for Oct. 9.
Only two incumbents, Ward 3 Councilwoman Beth Witten and Ward 8 Councilman Tommy Dawson, ran for their seats again and were re-elected.
Witten ran unopposed and was confirmed on July 24 while Dawson faced one opponent Tuesday.
With the departure of several longtime councilmembers, so goes their experience and institutional knowledge on the Council. Witten and Dawson will be only two members with prior experience on the Council.
“My hope is that we can all work together as a Council and set some goals as a Council for what we think is the right direction for this community,” Witten said. “Goal setting and working out a strategic plan will be important. I have some ideas, and I’m sure Tommy has some ideas that we can share with the new council.”
Only four elections had decisive victories: Ward 1 for Connie Fitch Taylor, Ward 3 for Beth Witten, Ward 7 for Jay Hovey and Ward 8 for Tommy Dawson.
The current City Council will recognize Taylor, Hovey and Dawson as the election winners Sept. 4, at noon.
They, along with the winners of the runoffs, will take office Nov. 5.
Their first meeting as the new City Council will be Nov. 6.
The Ward 1 race featured only two candidates, one of which was incumbent Verlinda White, who was appointed to the City Council in June 2017.
Taylor, an administrative assistant at Tuskegee University, won the Ward 1 seat with 69.05 percent of the vote.
“I desire to be able to serve the people, serve my community,” Taylor said. “I’m looking forward to being on the Council. I just feel real good.”
Hovey, a mortgage loan originator at Charter Bank, faced a race with a total of five candidates for Ward 7. He received 54.01 percent of the vote to capture the victory.
He said he was excited and a little surprised by the result. He expected with so many candidates in the race for it to go to a runoff.
“To have the confidence and faith of Ward 7 means a lot,” Hovey said.
With five runoffs, the exact make up of the Council is still unknown. But one thing is for sure, it will be much different from the Council of the last four years.
Dawson, former Auburn police chief, was the only incumbent that faced an opponent in the race and won. He received 52.34 percent of the vote.
“We’ve just got to continue to work hard for Auburn and do what the citizens want,” Dawson said. “I think we’re in a good place; we just need to continue to build on what we’ve got already.”
Five races, including the mayoral race, will go to a runoff, which will be held Oct. 9.
In these races, no one candidate received over 50 percent of the vote. The candidates heading to the runoff received the two highest percentages of the vote among all the candidates for that race.
Most of the candidates in the runoff races would be new arrivals to the Council. Only Anders, in the mayoral race, has served on the Council previously as the councilmember for Ward 2.
“Experience is a big deal, and there’s a lot to learn,” said 20-year Mayor Bill Ham. “I still learn something new every day. That’s one of the reasons that I favor Ron’s experience. He’s been there for six years, four of those as pro tem, and he’s able to lead a council and particularly a vast majority of new members. Maybe I apply too much logic.”
In a race that featured three candidates Tuesday, one was eliminated, and Brett Smith and Jim Ryan narrowly head into a runoff.
Smith, a lawyer, was close to obtaining victory with 49.16 percent of the vote.
“This is the real test now,” Smith said. “It’s going to be me and Mr. Ryan, and this is where it really is the gut check. I think our message of doing good for Auburn is going to be successful.”
A large part of Smith’s campaign was “every door in four.” In the last week alone, he and his campaign staff visited over 1,000 homes in Ward 4, Smith said.
“For all the people that I was able to go to their doors, most of the time we’re out at the doors,” Smith said. “I just want to thank them for taking the time to talk with me. We’re just going to continue pushing it and earning the trust and support of the voters in Ward 4 and let them know that we all want to do good for Auburn.”
Both Smith and Ryan said they were outside most of election day campaigning as voters trickled into the polls.
Ryan, an English professor at Auburn University who received 33.52 percent of the vote, did his campaigning without a campaign staff as he traveled door to door to meet the voters, he said.
“Many students were just not in town during the time I was campaigning because classes just started,” Ryan said. “I would encourage students to be involved in the election if they are suitably registered. I hope that with a later runoff more of them can do that.”
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Elizabeth, senior in journalism and political science, is the community editor for The Plainsman
