Filing for municipal candidates in Little Rock, North Little Rock, Maumelle and Cammack Village ended Friday with the Little Rock mayor remaining unopposed and 40 other people seeking municipal office in those four cities.
Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola, 65, didn't draw a challenger as he seeks a third term as the capital city's mayor. Maumelle and Cammack Village will have mayoral campaigns in the Nov. 4 general election. North Little Rock's mayor wasn't up for re-election this year.
The race for the Ward 1 seat on the Little Rock Board of Directors is the most contested, with four contenders. Running against incumbent Erma Hendrix, 84, are Herbert Broadway, 55, Robert Webb, 45, and Grayson Shelton, 30. Both Broadway and Webb ran against Hendrix in the 2010 election and lost.
The remaining filings for Little Rock board positions are:
• Ward 2: Incumbent Ken Richardson, 48, will face Pamela Adcock, 52, the leader of the Southwest United for Progress neighborhood group.
• Ward 3: Former state representative and Little Rock Airport Commissioner Kathy Webb, 64, will face Geoffrey Yamauchi, 43. Incumbent Stacy Hurst did not seek re-election but instead is running for state representative.
• Ward 5: Incumbent Lance Hines, 45, is running unopposed.
• Ward 6: Incumbent Doris Wright, 55, who also serves as vice mayor, will run against Sandy Becker, 53, the Little Rock School District's internal auditor.
• Ward 7: Incumbent B.J. Wyrick, 64, is running unopposed.
Three at-large directors and the Ward 4 seat in Little Rock are not up for election this year.
City directors are paid $18,000 annually and receive a monthly office allowance of $250. Stodola makes $160,000 annually. The terms for all positions are four years.
In North Little Rock, only Ward 1 Alderman Debi Ross, 60, is unopposed among City Council members. City Attorney Jason Carter, 45, is also unopposed.
Other filings are:
• Ward 2: Three-term Alderman Linda Robinson, 60, has a challenger in Ida Emerson, 53.
• Ward 3: Alderman Steve Baxter, 54, will try for a second term against opponent John Parker, 67, a former Ward 3 alderman who lost to Baxter in the 2010 election.
• Ward 4: Six-term Alderman Murry Witcher, 68, will face Jane Ginn, 64. Ginn lost in the 2012 election for the other Ward 4 seat to incumbent Charlie Hight.
Four alderman aren't up for election this year.
North Little Rock aldermen are paid $10,300 annually with a $250 monthly office and vehicle stipend. The city attorney's position is budgeted for $92,497. All terms are for four years.
In Maumelle, Mayor Mike Watson is being opposed by Ward 3 Alderman Preston Lewis. Watson, 57, who was unopposed in the last election, has been mayor for two terms. Lewis, 33, is in his first term as a city alderman, elected in 2012 to a four-year term. Maumelle's mayoral position pays $78,000 annually.
Another first-term alderman, Caleb Norris, 34, of Ward 4, will run for city attorney against Jess Sweere, 48. The position opened when City Attorney JaNan Davis announced she wouldn't seek re-election after 13 years on the job.
The City Council will lose two aldermen in Ward 3's Burch Johnson, 78, and Ward 4's Jan Hogue, 74, both of whom chose not to run for re-election. The eight-member City Council now has had five aldermen leave in the past two years with a sixth voted out of office.
Jessie Holt, 77, filed Friday morning for Hogue's Ward 4 position just 55 minutes before the noon cutoff, becoming the only candidate to be on the ballot for that council seat. Ward 1 Alderman Ken Saunders, 62, and City Clerk/Treasurer Joshua Clausen, 37, didn't draw opposition.
Contested races will be in Ward 3, where Marion Scott, 64, and G.K. Timmons, 63, will run to replace Johnson, and in Ward 2, with Alderman Rick Anderson, 43, being opposed by Michael O'Leary, 69.
The Maumelle city attorney's position pays $85,000. City aldermen are paid $250 per meeting. All serve four-year terms.
In Cammack Village, with Mayor Harry Light, 58, stepping aside, City Attorney David Graf, 55, will face Ward 1 Alderman Patricia Finch, 43, in the mayoral race. Light has been Cammack Village's mayor since 1995. The mayor's four-year term has a salary of $6,000 annually.
Other contested races in Cammack Village are: Ward 1, Position 1 alderman between Paul Zander, 68, and Mary McCullar, 57; and in Ward 2, Position 2 Alderman Troy Gray, 62, will face Rebecca Carr, 55.
Alderman Debbie Eldridge, 54, is unopposed for re-election for Ward 2, Position 1, and Cody Kees, 27, is the only candidate for Ward 1, Position 2 alderman. Samuel High, 39, was the only candidate to file for the city attorney's job.
The filing period for municipal offices in Sherwood and Jacksonville was completed in May.
Metro on 08/16/2014