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Besse defeats Shipley to keep seat on council
Journal photo by David Rolfe
Winston-Salem city councilman Dan Besse, left, greeting voter Dexter Sullivan.
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Published: November 3, 2009
The current members of the Winston-Salem City Council who were up for re-election today will keep their seats.
According to complete but unofficial results:
— Democrat incumbent Dan Besse beat Republican Ted Shipley in the Southwest Ward, 1,737 to 1,254. Shipley conceded the race to Besse about 10 p.m.
— Democrat incumbent Wanda Merschel beat Republican Peter Sorensen in the Northwest Ward. Merschel won 1,452 votes to Sorensen's 1,264.
— Democrat and Mayor Pro Tempore Vivian Burke, who has served on the council since 1977, beat Republican challenger Claudia Shivers. Burke won 884 votes to Shivers' 376.
— Democrat incumbent Molly Leight won the South Ward's seat for a second four-year term. Leight had been running unopposed, but two South Ward residents — Republican Nathan Jones and Democrat Carolyn Highsmith — started write-in campaigns this weekend. Write-in candidates in the South Ward won 697 votes — about 42 percent. Leight won 958 votes — about 58 percent.
The Board of Elections will not know how many votes individual write-in candidates won until Wednesday.
The North Ward's seat is going to community activist D.D. Adams, a Democrat. Adams won 926 votes; Republican John Hopkins has won 476.
Adams was supported by Nelson Malloy Jr., the council member who has held the seat for the last 20 years. Malloy announced this summer that he would not run for another term.
Democrat James Taylor, a juvenile court counselor, won the seat in the Southeast Ward. Taylor beat Republican Chuck Woolard 701 to 291, according to complete but unofficial results. Taylor won the Democratic nomination for the seat by beating incumbent Evelyn Terry in a runoff election after the Democratic primaries in September.
The East Ward's seat went to Derwin Montgomery, the Winston-Salem State University student who beat incumbent Joycelyn Johnson in the Democratic primary. Montgomery had been running unopposed, though some East Ward residents said they had heard rumblings of a write-in campaign to keep Johnson on the council.
Mayor Allen Joines, who ran unopposed, will keep his seat, as will Republican Robert Clark, who represents the West Ward and who also ran unopposed.
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