Photo
Photo
Photo
Photo
Photo
Entry
Unofficial Totals: Sykes Beats Begley, McGowan Over Stringfellow, McQuirter Shakes Archie; Coleman Wins
By R.L. NaveOnly 8 percent of registered voters participated in yesterday's local Democratic runoff elections.
With such low participation, it undoubtedly helped community activist Kathy Sykes, who had wide support among progressive grassroots groups and fellow activists. It's also a majority black district. Sykes is African American; her opponent, attorney, Sam Begley is white. In unofficial county results, Sykes defeated Begley with 54 percent of votes to Begley's 46 percent. Begley wrote on Facebook last night saaying while he appeated to "come up short," he has a responsibility to his supporters to canvass the boxes to "confirm the correct result." The winner of that contest will face Republican Pete Perry in November.
Meanwhile, another community activist, David Archie had less success in his bid for Hinds County Board of Supervisors against incumbent Darrel McQuirter. Before the runoff, McQuirter seemed vulnerable considering that on Aug. 4, he won 44 percent of the votes against Archie and former Supervisor Al Hunter, both of whom have battled McQuirter in past elections. It seemed conceivable that Hunter's supporters would prefer Archie, but in the end McQuirter received 57 percent of votes.
The other Hinds County supervisors' runoff ended with Bobcat McGowan, a county employee, defeating Eric Stringfellow, a public-relations professional and former Clarion-Ledger columnist. McGowan seemed to have solid backing among some local black talk-radio talking heads, but didn't do media interviews, including with the JFP.
Finally, Hinds County race of interest, veteran legislator Rep. Mary Coleman defeated Robert Amos for central-district rep to the Mississippi Transportation Commission.
Here are the totals for Hinds County from the county's website:
TRANSPORTATION COMMISSIONER (VOTE FOR) 1 (WITH 110 OF 113 PRECINCTS COUNTED 97.35%) Robert Amos. . . . . . . . . . 2,274 20.80 Mary H. Coleman . . . . . . . . 8,614 78.80 WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 44 .40 HOUSE DISTRICT 70 (VOTE FOR) 1 (WITH 17 OF 18 PRECINCTS COUNTED 94.44%) Samuel Lee Begley. . . . . . . . 953 46.02 Kathy Sykes. . . . . . . . . . 1,114 53.79 WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 4 .19 SUPERVISOR DISTRICT 2 (VOTE FOR) 1 (WITH 29 OF 29 PRECINCTS COUNTED) David L. Archie . . . . . . . . 2,001 42.64 Darrel McQuirter . . . . . . . . 2,688 57.28 WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 4 .09 SUPERVISOR DISTRICT 5 (VOTE FOR) 1 (WITH 26 OF 27 PRECINCTS COUNTED 96.30%) Bobby "Bobcat" McGowan . . . . . . 1,221 53.93 Eric Stringfellow. . . . . . . . 1,035 45.72 WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 8 .35 Story
Jacksonian
Merchell Pittman
Merchell Pittman, a program support assistant at the G. V. (Sonny) Montgomery VA Medical Center, says some of the greatest lessons in her life have come from her nearly two …
Story
Politics
Mississippi's Marijuana Initiative in Trouble?
Organizers of a statewide ballot initiative to legalize cannabis in Mississippi and commute the sentences of people incarcerated for marijuana-related crimes fear their dreams are going up in smoke due …
Story
City & County
Yarber, Council Gripped in Budget Battle of Wills
Jerry Taylor, like many of the people at Wingfield High School, was hopping mad about the City of Jackson's finances and a tax increase proposed to fill a budget deficit.
Story
Education
How School Districts Try to Make the Grade
The new system for grading Mississippi public schools is under fire in a recent PEER study that has called for changes.
Story
Music
Kwame Braxton: The Art in Hip-Hop
Jackson hip-hop artist Kwame Braxton's song "Carbon Copy Man" plays on a person's egotistical nature—that line between who you already are and who you are trying to be.
Story
Food
The King of Mississippi Seafood
Before arriving at GASCO, Ty Thames first had to compete against the likes of Parlor Market's Matthew Kajdan and Hal & Mal's Ryan Bell, among others, for the title of …
Story
State
Hurricane Katrina: Young Mississippians Remember the Storm
Ten years after Hurricane Katrina, graduate student Ashley Norwood asked Gulf Coast natives at the University of Mississippi, "What's the first thing that comes to mind when you hear Hurricane …
Document
PEER Report on MDE Accountability Aug. 2015
PEER Report of Mississippi Department of Education's Accountability Standards, published August 2015
Entry
LIVEBLOG: Run-Off Results - Jackson and Hinds County
By Todd Stauffer9:38 PM With 100% in, McQuirter lost ground but appears to win with 687 vote lead.
With 94% in, Sykes leads Begley 54/46.
With 96% in, McGowan leads Stringfellow by 186 votes (54/46).
9:13 PM With 96.5% reporting, McQuirter leads Archie by just under 1700 votes.
At 83% in, Sykes leads Begley by 210 votes (55/44).
At 81.5% counted, McGowan leads Stringfellow by 294 votes (57/43).
8:59 PM With 67% reporting, Begley trails Sykes by 105 votes.
McQuirter leads Archie 57/43 with 83% reporting.
McGowan leads Stringfellow 58/41 with 70% counted.
8:53 PM McQuirter over Archie 65%/34% in Hind Sup 2 run-off (58% in).
McGowan leads Stringfellow by 96 votes (52% in).
8:50 PM With 44% reporting, Sam Begley leads Kathy Sykes by 48 votes in District 70.
8:40 PM: AP is reporting that Rep. Mary Coleman will win the Democratic Nomination for transportation commissioner in the central district.
Story
Mississippi Judge Blocks Executions Temporarily
A federal judge has temporarily blocked the state of Mississippi from carrying out executions.
