Bracke, Bartholomew, in Opp mayor runoff
Published 2:46 am Wednesday, August 24, 2016
Four out of six Opp races will be decided in an Oct. 4 runoff that has the potential to seat a whole new city administration.
In the mayor’s race, incumbent John Bartholomew and Becky Bracke will face each other in a runoff. Bracke led the field with 625 votes; Bartholomew received 548 votes; Deborah Dean received 475; T.D. Morgan received 122;Wayne Wood received 69; Haywood Nawlin received 16 and Mack Whatley got 7.
Bracke said she was excited.
“I was overwhelmed,” she said. “To have seven candidates and come in on top was just really overwhelming. I appreciate all of the seven who ran. We all ran for the same reason and that was for the betterment of Opp.
“There was no mudslinging, and I just appreciate the other candidates conducting themselves in that way,” she said. “I would like to thank everybody for coming out and supporting me. Tomorrow, we’re going to get right back out there again, meeting with the people. I would like to encourage voters for other candidates to join us. We need to reunite Opp, and this is just our first step toward it.”
Bartholomew echoed Bracke’s sentiments on the clean campaigns.
“It’s another six weeks of campaigning,” Bartholomew said. “We’re just going to do what we’ve been doing, and we are going to run a clean campaign. We want to keep it that way.”
Bartholomew gave props to Dean.
“I thought she was a strong contender,” he said. “And I respect her.”
In District 1, there will be a runoff between Chad Jackson and incumbent Bobby Ray Owens.
Owens received 122 votes; Jackson received 108 and Debbie King garnered 73.
In District 2, there will be a runoff between Jimmy Rogers and Charlotte Hunt.
Hunt received 144 votes; Rogers got 116 and Brundidge received 68.
In District 4, there will be a runoff between incumbent Mary Brundidge and LaVaughn Hines.
Brundidge had 90 votes; Hines received 103; Mack Hines received 58; Morris Smiley garnered 37 and Henry McCord got 19.
In District 3, Gary Strickland earned enough votes to gain the seat with 212.
Incumbent Mike Booth had 127 and Mickey DeNault earned 52.
In District 5, Skipper Spurlin unseated incumbent Arlin Davis, 296 to 227.