Results from Wesson Elections

Special to Wesson News

Mayor Alton Shaw Alderman-At-Large Stanley Martin

Incumbent Mayor Alton Shaw and Alderman-at-Large candidate Stanley Martin won sweeping victories in Wesson municipal elections last week.

Shaw won 65 percent of the vote in defeating his challenger, Teri Bath, and Martin captured 56 percent of the vote in a three-person race against Cathy Stroud and Chad Sills.

In the election, voters also returned uncontested Aldermen Larry Hall from Ward 1, Jarrad Ashley from Ward 2, Billy Ellison from Ward 3 and Michael King from Ward 4.

In a political environment characterized nationally, and even in Mississippi, by increasingly thin margins and sometimes bitter partisanship, Shaw’s landslide was a rarity, particularly after 22 years of service as Wesson Mayor.

While Bath thematically framed her campaign against the incumbent Mayor around “fresh leadership for a better Wesson” as a slogan, voters apparently agreed, as they have in his previous re-election campaigns, with Shaw’s slogan that “experience matters.”

During his campaign for four more years, Shaw emphasized his capacity to help find public and private monies beyond tax revenues to fund community improvements, including water/sewage system upgrades, street paving, a new police department facility, continuing amenities at the municipal park and a veterans’ memorial. He also

pointed to new businesses that have opened, or are planning to open, in town.

“We may not always do right, but we’ll make it right,” he said.

“I enjoy helping people and making a difference.”

Shaw won all four wards with more than 60 percent of the vote, and by a whopping 74 percent in Ward 4, Wesson’s smallest.

Facing two opponents, Martins’ election victory was impressive as well, demonstrating the value of knocking on doors and talking to voters in a race in which the incumbent, Van Graham, is retiring.

Winning a decisive majority in a crowded field, he garnered 63 percent of the vote in Ward 2, 57 percent in Wards 3 and 4 and 51 percent in Ward 1. In a Wesson News ad, Martin thanked his supporters, expressed appreciation for the “clean and honest race” conducted by Stroud and Sills, saying “it would have been an honor if ether of you would have won,” and acknowledged Van Graham’s “dedicated years given unselfishly to the town.”

Among the ballots cast, the Mayor’s race attracted 322 votes; the Alderman-at-Large contest, 320 votes, and the uncontested Aldermen elections, 285 votes.

In Wesson’s largest ward (Ward 3), Billy Ellison captured the most votes for an Alderman – 99, while King received 40 votes in the town’s smallest ward (Ward 4), and Hall (Ward 1) and Ashley (Ward 2) had 81 and 66 votes respectively.

Here’s a breakdown in voting by ward:

	Ward 1	Ward 2	Ward 3	Ward 4	Total
Shaw	50	50	77	11	209
Bath	32	31	39	26	113
Martin	41	49	64	9	180
Stoud	30	15	39	11	93
Sills	10	14	12		47
Hall	81				81
Ashley		66			66
Ellison			99		99
King				40	40
TOTAL					928