The Caledonia and New Hope precincts once again had a major impact on the Lowndes County elections.
When the boxes were reported, Lowndes County School Superintendent-elect Lynn Wright and Lowndes County Sheriff-elect Mike Arledge surged to a comfortable lead and held on for victories in two of Lowndes County’s most important races.
Just as in the primaries, Wright surged when the New Hope boxes came in.
The unofficial results show Wright, Republican, earned 52.89 percent of the votes, a total of 4,729 votes. Cliff Reynolds, Democrat, earned 24.28 percent, a total of 2,171 votes, and Rusty Greene, independent, earned 22.81 percent, a total of 2,040 votes.
When the results started rolling in, showing the total number of boxes reported for each race, Reynolds had a slight edge over Wright, but it quickly turned when certain precincts reported their numbers.
“It was New Hope and Caledonia,” Wright said at the courthouse.
In the August primary runoff, Wright used the New Hope and Caledonia precincts, among others, to come all the way back from last place and win the Republican nomination.
“In the primary, we had gone up to the courthouse after the polls closed. At about 9:30 p.m. we were in third place, but Ginger (his wife) said, ‘We’ll go and get something to eat.’ None of us were very hungry because things weren’t looking too good, so it dampened our appetite,” Wright said. “So when we got to the house, I was still planning to go back to the courthouse. (Campaign Captain) Spence Andrews called me and said ‘You need to get back up here.’ Some other boxes came in, and I was in second place. He asked where I was and I said, ‘I am heading back to the courthouse.’
“The Caledonia, Rural Hill, Steens and New Hope boxes really brought us up. After about 25 percent of the vote, we were in third place. By the time we got back, 90 percent of the vote was counted; we were in first place and by the time 100 percent of the vote was counted, we had a solid lead in first place.”
Wright received 1,706 out of 2,508 votes cast in New Hope, around 68 percent. This is around 36 percent of the votes he received. Add the Caledonia precinct’s 901 out of 1,578 votes and the Rural Hill precinct’s 608 of 1,022 votes, both majority victories, and Wright pulled away from Reynolds and Greene. Wright won eight of 13 precincts, and won the three with the most votes cast for superintendent: New Hope; Caledonia; and Rural Hill. Reynolds won the other five precincts but came in third in the three big precincts.
“We covered, and feel like we went to, over 10,000 households. We feel like we covered every area. In the last few weeks, we concentrated on across the river because that was the area we hadn’t gotten to before the primary election,” Wright said, but attributed strong showings in the above precincts to name recognition and previously working as the New Hope High School principal for three years.
“Oh yes, being principal there helped, and my wife teaches at New Hope Elementary School,” he said.
Mike Arledge also pulled away when the Caledonia and New Hope precincts reported, earning in the high 80s of percentage of the votes in those precincts.
In Caledonia, Arledge garnered around 87.6 percent, a total of 1,372 out of 1,567 votes. In New Hope, Arledge had 2,212 out of 2,509 votes cast, which equals 88.1 percent. The combination gave Arledge around 34 percent of the 10,584 votes he received.
Arledge won 13 of the 22 precincts and won the three with the most votes cast: New Hope; Lee Middle; and Caledonia.
“I feel that places like Lee Middle, New Hope and Caledonia have always been good to me when I have run in the past,” Arledge said. “I’ve lived in the New Hope and Rural Hill community. I live in the New Hope school district, and I just recently moved to the Rural Hill community.”
Arledge earned 61.2 percent, and Anthony Nelson earned 38.6 percent, with 6,666 votes. Arledge said he focused everywhere in his campaigning but he might be “known better” in certain areas.
Nelson’s best precincts were Hunt, where he garnered 609 of the 646 votes cast, and National Guard Armory, where he received 888 of 1,194 votes.
Arledge will replace Butch Howard, who is retiring after his third term as sheriff.
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