Incumbents Dorough, Warbington, Howard win re-election

ALBANY — Bo Dorough is a man of many talents, but one of his greatest strengths lies in his capacity for astute political analysis.

So perhaps it was not surprising that Dorough was more relieved Tuesday evening after winning a second term as Albany’s mayor than he was surprised.

“Look, I’m ecstatic right now; I’m excited about what we’ve accomplished in Albany the last four years and what we have to look forward to moving forward,” Dorough said after claiming 52.81% of the vote in the four-man mayoral race. “But I’m tired, too. We’ve worked hard, and I’m elated that this is over with, that we can move forward.”

Dorough said that he’d expected to get re-elected, but his confidence in winning re-election without a runoff wavered over the last months of the campaign.

“It was frustrating, with all the misinformation that was out there,” the mayor said. “See, I started running for re-election the night I was sworn in. I did that by working to fulfill the promises I made during the last campaign. But about six to eight months ago you started to see an orchestrated plan to divide this community.”

Still, Dorough managed to capture enough votes to claim a second term without a runoff, joining Ward IV and Ward I incumbents Chard Warbington and Jon Howard, respectively, as clear winners in the municipal election.

Dorough claimed 4,569 votes to former Albany City Commissioner Henry Mathis’ 2,671 (30.88%), Antonio Screen Sr.’s 1,192 (13.78%), and Omar Salaam’s 219 (2.53%).

Warbington, meanwhile, said he enjoyed seeing the “cancel culture” in Albany being canceled by city voters in the municipal election.

Lamenting what he called “efforts by fellow commissioners who are part of the cancel culture” who spewed negative comments over the final few days before Tuesday’s election, Warbington enjoyed the last and best laugh when he collected 59.65% of the vote in the three-person Ward IV race to claim a second four-year term.

Howard, the city’s longest-serving board member, had a much easier time of it, winning re-election with 74.23% of the vote. And in a countywide vote, a referendum calling for a 1% transportation special-purpose local-option sales tax passed easily with 66.94% of the vote.

“I said all through the election that we were moving the needle in the city,” Warbington said after defeating challengers Larry Harris and Marion Gaines Jones, who collected 9.84 and 30.52% of the votes, respectively. “Are we moving it enough? No. But we are doing positive things in the city.

“Today was confirmation that we need to stay on the path we’re on. The negative narrative that our city needed saving; the citizens didn’t buy into that. Those were nothing but sound bites.”

Warbington collected 1,419 votes to Jones’ 726 and Harris’ 234.

Howard, meanwhile, said he was reinvigorated by the first challenge he’s had for his seat since 2007.

“With reapportionment, there was about an additional mile and a half of area that was new to my district,” Howard said. “So there was work to be done. But I went out and knocked on those doors, met the new voters, attended their neighborhood watch meetings.

“And now, I am here to say I plan to work with them on the issues that concern them. Even the folks who didn’t vote for me; I’m extending an olive branch to let them know that I’m going to work with them.”

Howard got 743 votes to political newcomer Lawrence McCray’s 258.

Only 17.55% of the county’s 57,649 voters turned out to vote on the T-SPLOST II referendum, but the 6,645 yes votes doubled the 3,282 no votes.

In Ward IV, 28.31 of the ward’s 8,488 registered voters (28.31%) cast ballots, while the numbers were 19.10% (8,716 of 45,628) in the mayoral race and 14.22% (1,016 of 7,146) in Ward I.

“Unfortunately, we would have liked to have seen more voters turn out, but I want to commend our hard-working poll workers,” Elections Supervisor Ginger Nickerson said. “We had no real problems; everything came off very well.”

Nickerson said the county Election Board will certify the election in the Government Center Tuesday at 4 p.m.

Special PhotoFile Photo

Photo Courtesy of Jon Howard