Mayor, May Not: Who’s running?

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Dean Lovins will retire at the end of the year as mayor of Burnside. He says he knows who will be a candidate for mayor but will not reveal the identity of the potential candidate. Up to now, nobody has said publicly they will be a candidate.

July 27, 2006

Next Burnside leader still a mystery as filing deadline nears for candidates

By BILL MARDIS Editor Emeritus The Commonwealth Journal Thu Jul 27, 2006, 08:31 AM EDT

Who will be the next mayor of Burnside?

So far, it’s a guessing game. Apparently somebody has indicated to the powers that be that he wants to succeed retiring Mayor Dean Lovins.

However, unlike most candidates for public office, the wannabe Burnside mayor is trying to keep it a secret until he (or she) files a petition of election. Filing deadline is 4 p.m August 8.

Lovins, who won’t seek re-election, apparently is aware of who will attempt to take his place but the mayor is not talking.

“There are a lot of qualified people who can do the job (of mayor),” said Lovins. “I know who is going to run for mayor, but I’m not giving any names. I’ll let them do that.”

Lovins was appointed as mayor of Burnside in mid-term when Jim Rasnick, now a member of Burnside City Council, resigned after serving two years as mayor.

Despite the secrecy, there is little doubt that a faction is ready to drape a mantle around the next mayor of Burnside.

“Somebody is going to run (for mayor) and I’ll assure you that it will be a strong candidate,” said a source connected to Burnside city government. The source requested anonymity.

“I know who is going to run, but he asked me not to reveal his name until he files,” said the source. A Burnside resident who reportedly has remarked that he will be a candidate for mayor did not return a telephone call from the Commonwealth Journal.

A candidate for Burnside mayor and a like-minded group of potential candidates for Burnside City Council apparently will try to occupy city hall.

“A group will be coming (to the county clerk’s office) together to file, either late this week or early next week,” said the Burnside source. “It’s just a matter of getting everybody together.”

As a matter of record, a group of candidates filing together is not a slate. The only filing as a slate permitted by state law is in gubernatorial contests where candidates for governor and lieutenant governor run as a team.

Getting a jump on the group are newcomers Jimmy Gibson, 104 Poplar Avenue, and Becky Huff, a former councilor who lives at 75 Highland Drive. They filed Tuesday for seats on Burnside City Council.

In Burnside, a fifth-class city, the top vote-getter in the mayoral contest is elected for a four-year term and the top six vote-getters in the race for city council are elected to two-year terms. Burnside city elections are non-partisan.

Current members of Burnside City Council are David Baugh, Chuck Foreman, Don Coggins, Bryan Watson, Conard Bryant and Jim Rasnick.

In area, if you count water, Burnside is probably the largest city in Pulaski County. When legal sales of alcoholic beverages were approved, Burnside annexed Lake Cumberland all the way to Lee’s Ford Marina Resort near Nancy.

As of early Wednesday, nobody had filed for elected governmental offices in Ferguson but there are potential candidates waiting in the wings.

Ferguson Mayor Jim Muse has announced his retirement, and Allen Dobbs, an employee of Toyotetsu America and former member of Ferguson City Council, said he will be a candidate for mayor. And, with the political factions that exist in Ferguson, it will be unusual if Dobbs is the only one who seeks the mayor’s office.

In Eubank, Frey Todd, the only mayor Eubank has ever had, and three of the four members of Eubank City Commission -- Curtis G. Todd, Lee Coffee and Ken Nothstein -- filed petitions of election on Tuesday.

Nothstein is serving on the commission by appointment to replace Michael Todd, who moved out of Eubank to Somerset. Incumbent Edward Hicks had not filed as of early Wednesday, but Mayor Todd indicated earlier that all the incumbents would seek re-election to the Eubank City Commission. Todd has been mayor or chairman of the town board, equivalent to mayor, since 1971.

Don Phelps is in his 13th year as mayor of Science Hill and has filed for another four-year term. He will be challenged by William “Bill” Dick, an employee of General Electric Somerset Glass Plant.

Junior E. Dick, David F. Phelps, Gene Wesley and Paul Cassada, all current members of Science Hill City Commission, have filed for re-election.

Candidates for Somerset offices had a January 31 filing deadline and are not involved in the August 8 deadline for small cities and school boards. Looming as the “hottest” race this fall is the mayoral contest between incumbent JP Wiles and Eddie Girdler, executive director of the Somerset Housing Authority.

The Somerset Board of Education will elect or re-elect three members in November. Terms of Paul Henderson, Elaine A. Wilson and Hobert T. Withers Jr. expire at the end of this year. As of early Wednesday, only Wilson and Withers had filed along with newcomer Claude Barlow, 110 N. Maplewood Drive.

Gretchen Cole and T. Jeffrey Adams have time remaining in their current terms on the Somerset Board of Education.

In the Science Hill Independent School District, terms of board members Bruce Phelps, Mike Elliott and Jerome Whitaker expire at the end of 2006. Elliott and Whitaker had filed for re-election by early Wednesday morning.

Three seats on the Pulaski County Board of Education will be filled in November. However, as of Wednesday morning, nobody had filed.

Seats now held by vice-chair Helen Hansford in Division 3, and members Allen Larkin, Division 1, and Bill White, Division 4, are up for election or re-election. Chairman Phillip Wilson and member Betty Richards have time remaining in their current terms.

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Pulaski carries Girdler to win

In the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s primary election, it was impossible to miss the colorful signs dotting nearly every Pulaski roadway. The names in the race for the 15th State Senatorial District seat popped out: A.C. Donahue. Chris Girdler. Mark Polston.

Once citizens hit the ballots, however, the results mirrored the dimensions of the signs themselves: Chris Girdler stood the tallest.

Girdler, deputy district director for Congressman Harold “Hal” Rogers, ran away with the votes inside Pulaski County’s borders, earning 3,926 votes for 62.05 percent of the total number cast.

That number more than doubled the next highest vote-getter, businessman Mark Polston, who raked in 1,624 votes for 25.67 percent.

However, Polston — who owns Classic Carpet, a home-flooring business located just off the southern 914 bypass — can claim a moral victory ... three of them, in fact. In all three counties in the district other than Pulaski — those being Adair, Casey, and Russell Counties — Polston actually edged out Girdler.

In Adair, Polston beat Girdler 629 to 394. In Casey County, it was 538 to 417, and in Russell, it was 1,862 to 1,038.

Polston said he just “couldn’t pull it out with the numbers” and that “the machine worked for” Girdler in Pulaski County.

“I think that was their strategy — I think they had a Pulaski County strategy all along,” said Polston. “They played the political game well.”

Polston said the difference between his and Girdler’s campaigns was that “mine was a very, very grass roots campaign,” he said. “I did not have a political machine behind me. I understand how this process works, and in this instance, he prevailed.”

As for why Girdler didn’t take three of four counties, the winning candidate — since there are no Democrats in the race, winning the Republican primary was effectively a final victory for Girdler — said he didn’t have an answer for that.

However, “I believe things happen for a reason and I hope the long and strenuous campaign will only heighten my desire to move beyond the bitterness and partisanship of the recent past,” said Girdler.

“Regionalism is a goal of mine, and I look forward to helping all four counties,” he added, noting that he campaigned heavily in each of them.

Sen. Vernie McGaha, the long-time state senator whose seat the candidates were vying for, actually supported Polston after Liberty’s Todd Hoskins dropped out of the race earlier this month.

Donahue, a local attorney, got 556 votes in Pulaski County, 8.79 percent of the vote. He only received 145 votes in Russell County, 74 in Adair County, and 75 in Casey County, where hometown candidate Hoskins almost matched him with 71 votes despite no longer being officially in the race.

Polston said he’s “still digesting” what happened, and though “the process has been a very good experience for me,” he wouldn’t commit to running again in the future. “I wouldn’t shut the door to anything, but I’m not opening any doors either.”

Still, “I think I got a lot of people involved in the process that had not been involved before and would not have been otherwise,” he said. “A lot of people got out and worked really hard, got motivated to talk to friends and neighbors. I think a lot of people became involved through this campaign that are going to be involved for a long time.”

Girdler stressed his “positive message” and said that Rogers is a “mentor and good friend” that he would turn to for advice in dealing with a frequently combative legislative body in Frankfort, one for which Girdler hopes to help change the culture.

Girdler said that he was “confident and optimistic” during the day Tuesday because he’d “worked extremely hard.” Nevertheless, the realization that he’d won gave him “chill bumps,” he said.

“I’m absolutely honored,” said Girdler. “The position of state senator is more than an honor, more than an office. It’s a charge to keep, and I will give it my all.

“I pledge to be the people’s state senator,” he added. “I look forward to working with everyone to move this region forward.”

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