Miller Wins Alderman Seat, Jacobs and Washer Re-elected

The Smithville city council will have a new member next month.
Josh Miller, who is employed in the construction and real estate business, led the ticket with 311 votes (20.94%) in his race for one of three alderman seats in the Smithville Municipal Election Tuesday. “I’m excited. I’ve been a little nervous all day. I definitely want to thank my family and all the ones who came out and voted for me. I thank you so much. I promise not to take this office lightly. I’ll do the best job I know how to do. Thank you so much,” said Miller.
Incumbent aldermen Shawn Jacobs and Danny Washer were re-elected. Jacobs, who won a third term, received 278 votes (18.72%). Washer had 261 votes (17.58%) to win a second term.
(CLICK THE PDF LINK BELOW TO VIEW RETURNS FOR EACH ALDERMAN CANDIDATE)SMITHVILLE FINAL-ANALYSIS.pdf (27.58 KB)
“I am both honored and humbled by the results of the election and the sentiment of the people of Smithville,” said Jacobs. “It has certainly been a great four years that I have served. We have made some progress and I certainly do hope that we can all work together and keep it up. I don’t see any reason why we can’t do that. We are going to miss Gayla. She has been quite an asset to the council but I also want to congratulate Josh who has run a good race and will be joining us on the council. All of the candidates conducted themselves very appropriately as ladies and gentlemen. Being a candidate, you always appreciate that. I want to thank, not only those who voted for me, but everybody who turned out to vote. I just wish more people had voted,” said Jacobs.
Washer also thanked his wife and supporters. “First, I’d like to thank my wife. I don’t know of anybody who worked any harder. I worked pretty hard but she worked a lot harder than I did. I want to thank everybody who voted for me and all my friends that supported me and worked hard for me. Congratulations to Josh. I’m going to miss Gayla. I hope we can move forward. I appreciate everybody who voted for me. Thank you very much,” said Washer.
Alderman Gayla Hendrix lost her bid for re-election to a second term. She came in fourth place with 237 votes (15.96%). Anthony Scott and Aaron Meeks were also unsuccessful in their bid for alderman. Scott received 222 votes (14.95%) and Meeks garnered 172 votes (11.58%).
“I would like to say thank you to everyone who supported me and to let the citizens of Smithville know that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed serving on the city council,” said Hendrix. “I think we’ve gotten a lot of good things started. I want to congratulate the ones who are in and I wish them well. We’ll be supporting them behind the scenes. Let’s just keep the city moving forward,” she said.
“I would like to thank the Good Lord for giving me the strength and courage to step out and run for office,” said Scott. “I’d like to also sincerely thank my family and my friends for the support and encouragement they have shown me through this process. Having them by my side has been a humbling experience and I cannot thank each of them enough from the bottom of my heart. I would like to thank each of you who came out and voted. Whether or not I received your vote, you came out to vote and make a difference and that is the most important thing. I would like to congratulate the three winners. I’d like to encourage them to always ask questions, listen to the people, and always do the right thing the first time, every time,” said Scott.
“I would like to say thank you to everybody who took the time out to either vote in early voting or election day,” said Meeks. “Our total voters were 615. That’s less than one third of the qualified voters in the city. I certainly would have liked to have seen twice that many or even more but I do appreciate everybody who came out and I want to thank everybody for their support,” said Meeks.
A total of 615 people voted in the election including 431 early votes/absentees combined and 184 on election day. There were 33 absentees (included in the early voting total).
There are 2,948 registered voters in the City of Smithville.
The new make-up of the aldermen are: Josh Miller, Shawn Jacobs, Danny Washer, Tim Stribling, and Jason Murphy. Jimmy Poss is the mayor.
Miller, Jacobs, and Washer will be sworn into office July 1st. They will each serve a three year term. The terms of Mayor Poss and Aldermen Stribling and Murphy will be up next year.
Starting in 2014, the Smithville Municipal Elections will be held on the first Thursday in August instead of the third Tuesday in June. The terms of office for the mayor and aldermen will be four years instead of two years, beginning with next year’s elections.
SMITHVILLE FINAL-ANALYSIS.pdf (27.58 KB)