Petal voters will return to the polls for an April 7 runoff election to decide between two candidates for the Alderman-at-Large position that was vacated with the recent retirement of former alderman William King.
As the two candidates who received the most votes in Tuesday’s special election, Mike Lott and Andrew “Drew” Brickson will head to the runoff, which is necessitated because none of the seven candidates in the race received the required 50 percent of the vote plus one vote. In final but unofficial results from the election, Lott led the race with 196 total votes (33.2 percent), followed by Brickson with 151 votes (25.5 percent).
Five other candidates trailed behind Lott and Brickson: Jeffrey Ginn with 120 votes, John Brady Amacker with 57 votes, Larry “L.C.” Carraway with 30 votes, Ann McWilliams with 30 votes and Jeffrey Sapp with five votes. A total of 590 votes – including 31 absentee ballots and one write-in vote – were cast in the election.
Because this is a special election, all candidates are required to run as independent.
Lott is a graduate of William Carey University who serves as principal at South New Summit School in Hattiesburg. He also has served as principal at Runnelstown School, in the Mississippi House of Representatives and as assistant principal in the Petal School District.
“I’m excited (for the runoff),” Lott said. “I feel very firmly that there were some good choices, some good people, running for the right reasons to represent our city and help our city grow in a lot of different ways.
“I’m honored that I get the opportunity to move forward, and I’ve got a lot of work to do in three weeks.”
Brickson is a retired lieutenant colonel with 21 years of active duty as an Airborne Ranger and Army engineer officer. Brickson graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1993 and is involved with the Petal Children’s Task Force, the YMCA board and the Asbury United Methodist Church board of trustees.
“I’m extremely proud and excited that the citizens of Petal have put their faith and confidence in me with their vote today,” Brickson said. “I look forward to the upcoming runoff, and I look forward to making sure that transparency, accountability and progress is what Petal has in their future.
“I met a lot of people while I was out campaigning, and a lot of them were my fellow candidates. I have some great new friends, and I learned a lot from them – from Jeffrey, from Ann, from Mike and from John Brady. I’m not a politician, but I learned that they all want to serve, and I think that’s very admirable and I respect that.”
City Clerk Melissa Martin said the turnout for the last special election for alderman in the city was approximately 1,100 – almost twice the number of voters who showed up Tuesday.
“We had a lot more absentees than we normally have,” Martin said. “Show choir was supposed to have a performance out of town this week, and then with the spring break week and probably the coronavirus (affected turnout).”
The winner will complete the remaining term of King, who officially retired Feb. 1. To run for a full term, that candidate would be required to run for re-election in the summer 2021 election.
