Four of five supervisors re-elected; Flanders out|[11/07/07]

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, November 7, 2007

There will be a reunion, of sorts, when members of the Warren County Board of Supervisors start new terms in January, when four of five board members are rejoined by Bill Lauderdale Jr., who narrowly reclaimed Tuesday the District 4 seat he lost to Carl Flanders in 2003.

Lauderdale eked past Flanders by 41 votes, maintaining a slim lead as absentee ballots were hand-counted by election officials into the small hours of the morning.

Re-elected handily were District 1 Supervisor David McDonald, District 2 Supervisor William Banks and District 5 Supervisor Richard George. District 3 Supervisor Charles Selmon turned back a challenger in the Democratic Primary and faced no opposition in the general elections.

Email newsletter signup

Sign up for The Vicksburg Post's free newsletters

Check which newsletters you would like to receive
  • Vicksburg News: Sent daily at 5 am
  • Vicksburg Sports: Sent daily at 10 am
  • Vicksburg Living: Sent on 15th of each month

The three District 4 candidates and their wives waited tensely in the Warren County Circuit Courtroom as 101 absentee ballots were tallied. Flanders was hoping to see a 38-vote margin close as absentee votes were totaled from four precincts within District 4, which covers southwest Warren County, from Fisher Ferry Road west to the Mississippi River, and includes much of south Vicksburg.

Instead, as absentee ballots were counted, numbers for Flanders and Lauderdale climbed in lockstep, with occasional votes for Republican candidate C.L. “Buddy” Hardy, who ended up with 18.9 percent of the total, according to unofficial results. Flanders, who picked up 41 absentee votes, received 972 votes overall, or 39.6 percent. Lauderdale, a four-term incumbent whom Flanders ousted by a close margin in 2003, left the courthouse early this morning with 41.36 percent of the vote, and the knowledge he will make a return to the county board.

“It’s over now,” he said. “I’m going home.”

Before leaving at around 1 p.m., after District 4 absentee ballots had been totaled, Flanders congratulated Lauderdale’s wife, Ada.

Flanders said nothing to indicate he would rule out another campaign. “When God closes a door, He also opens another,” Flanders said. He was an educator before making his first run for public office and upsetting Lauderdale four years ago.

As with Lauderdale, District 5 Supervisor Richard George also returns to office with less than half the votes cast in the election. George, who also had a one-term interruption of his board service, defeated four challengers Tuesday, with unofficial results showing he took 42.2 percent of the vote.

George, an independent, beat out two independents with close ties to the City of Vicksburg, Robert Hubbard, community services director, and Ken Sharp, a building inspector, as well as Republican nominee Joe Wooley and Democrat Frank Gardner. Wooley was the closest runnner-up, with 26.5 percent of the vote. George has served on the board of supervisors 12 years.

District 2 Supervisor William Banks fended off a challenge from independent Tommie F. Rawlings, by wide margin. Banks, the only supervisor not on the board during Lauderdale’s most recent term, said his re-election Tuesday will give him time to finish projects he has started in his first term, begun in 2005 after winning a special election to replace Michael Mayfield, who was elected Vicksburg’s North Ward alderman. Rawlings, also a candidate in the 2005 special election, said voters are stuck in a “party politics” mindset. “Everybody votes on party. I don’t think running as an independent helped me. If I was ever to run for something again, I’d probably run as a member of a party,” he said.

McDonald, who had a close primary victory over Republican challenger John Arnold, defeated independents Margaret Gilmer and Tony Ford with a simple majority, 52.7 percent. Gilmer, general manager of Vicksburg Factory Outlets, picked up 1,177 of 3,024 votes cast, or 38.9 percent.

Supervisors are responsible for setting tax rates sufficient to fund schools, courts, maintenance of roads and bridges, law enforcement and myriad other functions. The big item on the agenda for the immediate future, most have said, is the planning, design and construction of a new county jail. The board has also commissioned a study of land-use or zoning regulations.