New faces ready to join City Council

HUNTINGTON -- Five new faces will join Huntington City Council in January, but a few already are familiar with the workings of city government.

With all 40 city precincts reporting in Cabell and Wayne counties, Democrat Steve Williams (9,403 votes) was the leading vote-getter in the City Council at-large race. Another Democrat, Rebecca Thacker, held on to the second at-large seat with 6,871 votes. Republican Alex Vence finished a close third with 6,416 votes, followed by Mike Davis, another GOP candidate, with 4,865 votes.

The placement of the candidates in the at-large race means a City Charter provision requiring at-large council members to live in different districts is no longer an issue. Williams and Vence both lived in District 6 until Vence moved to District 3 over the weekend. Davis lives in District 9, while Thacker lives in District 1.

If Williams and Vence had finished as the top two vote-getters, both Davis and Thacker said they would have challenged the charter provision in court.

Williams said he thinks his experience in city and state government was key to his overwhelming victory as well as a range of support from the community. He was Huntington's last city manager from 1984-1985 before the city switched to a strong mayor form of government. He also served four terms in the West Virginia House of Delegates from 1987-1994.

"That's what it's going to take to move the city forward," Williams said. "We have to have a broad network of people working together to bring about a consensus on how we are going to start attacking the city's budgetary problems."

Williams and Thacker will replace current at-large council members Garry Black and Paul Farrell. Black chose not to run for re-election, while Farrell ran for Cabell Circuit Court judge in the May primary election.

In addition to the at-large contest, there were four contested district races Tuesday.

In District 2, Democrat Teresa Loudermilk, the only incumbent who was up for re-election Tuesday night, defeated Republican D. Everett Fullerton by 201 votes with all four district precincts reporting. Loudermilk received 691 votes to Fullerton's 490.

Republican Nate Randolph (1,153 votes) defeated Democrat Brenda Adams (959 votes) and independent candidate Curt McHaffie (105 votes) in District 4 with all five precincts reporting. Randolph, an architect with Edward Tucker Architects Inc., will take over the seat now occupied by Councilwoman Mary Neely. Neely could not run for re-election because of term limitations.

In District 6, Republican Mark Bates won with 1,839 votes to Democrat Ray Browning's 1,380 with all six precincts reporting. Bates will replace Cal Kent, the only Republican now on City Council. Like Neely, Kent could not run again because of term limitations.

Russell Houck, a retired Huntington police officer and former city personnel director, defeated Levi Lovett 786 votes to 359 votes in District 8 with all three precincts reporting. Houck will replace Councilman Kirk Gillenwater, who is filling the unexpired term of P.D. Adkins. Adkins moved out of the district in October and had to resign.

The six council candidates elected Tuesday night will join five Democratic incumbents who were unopposed. They include: Jim Ritter (District 1); Frances Jackson (District 3); Sandra Clements (District 5); Scott Caserta (District 7); and Jim Insco (District 9).

The new council officially takes office Jan. 1.

Randolph said he's thrilled about winning a seat on council, but stressed the new members have a lot of work to do before they take office.

"This is going to be like the early stages of a high school dance," he said. "We're just going to have to get to know each other and respect each other's capabilities so we can be fruitful."