With all the attention on the very crowded and often very heated, 2015 Mayoral Race, very little attention has been paid to the 2015 City Council Race in which two seats were up for grabs. If it wasn’t for the Fleetwood Citizen’s Society who hosted a debate, Wednesday, August 12, 2015 at The Riverside Memorial Chapel, located at 21 Broad Street, there would not one debate dedicated to the MV City Council Race at all.
With seven candidates vying for the two seats left open by Thomas and Reynolds opted to not re-run for their seats, deciding to run for Mayor instead, some Mt. Vernon residents don’t even now the names of the all the city council candidates, which included Lisa A. Copeland and John Boykin who were running on the ticket with incumbent Mayor Davis who lost to Richard Thomas in the primary. Other candidates heading into the primary included Andre Wallace, Delia Farquharson, Diane Munro and Janice Duarte (who is a Democrat running on the Independence Party line.) The seventh and least known candidate is Cheryl Dennis who is running for City Council is running as an Independent (no party).
On Thursday night, Ms. Lisa A. Copeland came out strong and was the number one vote-getter in the entire Mount Vernon Democratic Primary. Copeland received 3,483 votes obtaining 31% of the vote, over 600 more votes than Richard Thomas who defeated Davis in the 2015 Mayoral Race. Copeland having the most experienced in City Hall as a former City Clerk, made her a formidable opponent and as BW stated before that would make her hard to beat,
In Second place in the 2015 City Council Race (where two seats are up for grabs) was Council Candidate, Andre Wallace who received 20% of the vote with 2,226 votes.
“I look forward to working with my fellow council-members to bring forth much-needed change in our community, City Council Nominee Andre Wallace tells BW. “I’m sure, working together, along with our new mayor, we can bring forth positive change and move our city in a new direction.”
Delia Farquharson can in a not too-distance third place receiving 18% of the vote with 2,008 votes and John Boykin who run on the ticket with Copeland and Davis came in fourth, receiving 17% of the vote with 1,901 followed by Diane R. Munro who received 13& of the vote with 1,463 votes.
Janice Duarte, will be running on the Independence Party line and Cheryl Dennis will be running as an Independent (no party) in the General Election in November.
In a city where the Democrats largely outnumber Republicans, in most cases those who win the primary in Mount Vernon go on to win the General Election in November.
