Runoff election in Sardis Tuesday will settle mayor’s race

By Rupert Howell
The only municipal race in Panola County to be determined in next Tuesday’s primary runoff will be the Sardis mayoral race pitting incumbent Billy Russell against former Ward Three alderman Lula Palmer.
Russell led the first with unofficial results showing he garnered 254 votes against 193 received by Palmer. Mancini Quintez received 107 votes, enough to put the race in a runoff with no candidate receiving a majority.
It was somewhat similar four years ago when Palmer decided not to run for the Ward Three Alderman position and challenged then Mayor Rusty Dye who was soundly defeated by Palmer, who led the ticket with 315 votes followed by Russell with 269.
Incumbent Mayor Dye received 63 votes.
Russell would go on to win in a tight runoff election, so close that Palmer considered a challenge.
Again this year both candidates will need to get their supporters back out on May 16 plus some of Quintez’s  supporters to be successful.
The difference in this election cycle may be the racial makeup of candidates. In 2013 two white candidates, Dye and Russell, faced African-American Palmer, who led the ticket in the first, with Russell taking the majority in the second.
In this year’s contest, Palmer and Quintez faced a white incumbent, Russell, who led the ticket.
Sardis will for the first time have a majority African-American alderman board following results of the primary election May 2 when challenger Michael Price unseated longtime incumbent Alderman-At-Large Roy Scallorn of the five-member board.
Clarence “Boo-Boo” Jones and Bonnie Smith, both African Americans, were successful in their re-election bids.
Jojo Still and Tommy Rayburn are the other aldermen, neither has a challenger this election cycle.