Skip Henderson headed to mayor’s office without a runoff

Returns in the election for Columbus mayor show longtime city Councilor Skip Henderson with the win over his closest opponent, Zeph Baker.

“We’re really, really encouraged so far, by the turnout and the numbers,” Henderson said around 9:30 Tuesday night. “Just based on the numbers I’ve heard, we’ll at least be in the runoff.”

He did better than that.

With all of the early vote and the city’s 25 voting precincts reporting about 1 a.m., Henderson had 13,481 votes, or 56.3 percent, to Baker’s 7,656, or 32 percent.

The rest of the field trailed far behind: Danny Arencibia had 1,140, or 5 percent; Beth Harris had 1,006, or 4.2 percent; Charles Roberts had 335, or 1.4 percent; and Winfred Shipman Jr. had 278, or 1.1 percent

These are unofficial tallies, as the local elections board must certify the final results.

Columbus voters went to the polls Tuesday with a range of candidates to choose from, from Henderson, a city councilor with 21 years in office; to Harris, a former school board member; Arencibia and Baker, both of whom had sought public office before; and then political newcomers Roberts and Shipman.

Henderson, 59, who resigned his citywide Columbus Council seat to run for mayor, was considered the one to beat, having five times won at-large elections. Baker, 41, a frequent candidate who forced Mayor Teresa Tomlinson into a runoff in her first run for office in 2010, was considered the contender most likely to gain enough votes to send the race into a July 24 runoff.

But Baker was dogged by accusations from rival Beth Harris, 59, who challenged his residency, alleging he actually lives in Newnan, Ga., where Baker owns a house with wife Sharon Cosby Baker. And critics bashed him for filing no campaign disclosure reports.

Baker fired back, accusing Harris of attacking his family by citing divorce filings that indicated he lives in Newnan, and successfully fighting her challenge to his residency before the Muscogee Board of Elections & Registrations and in an appeal to Superior Court.

In regard to campaign disclosures, Baker said he would not reveal his donors because his supporters had been stalked and harassed, and he would not subject them to such abuse. On Friday he pledged that he would file his disclosures on Monday. The elections office said the disclosure report he submitted at 10:30 p.m. Monday was neither signed nor notarized, so it was deemed unacceptable.

The drama involving Baker and Harris, a former District 8 school board representative who also was no stranger to controversy, overshadowed other issues such as crime and city finances, and shifted the focus away from other candidates.

Baker has long been a local candidate for office. Besides his run of mayor in 2010, he challenged longtime State Rep. Calvin Smyre in 2008, and lost to Columbus District 1 Councilor Jerry “Pops” Barnes in 2014.

Elected to the school board in 2010, Harris, a retired educator, served as District 8 representative for one term. In 2014, she lost to Frank Myers, a local attorney who became a fierce critic of the school district administration.

First elected to council in 1996, Henderson was known for his expertise in city finance and budgeting, and had the support of council colleagues Evelyn Turner Pugh, Judy Thomas, Mike Baker and Gary Allen, and from former councilor Jack Rodgers, a fiscal conservative.

The lesser-known candidates were Danny Arencibia, a 42-year-old finance manager at Rivertown Ford; Winfred Shipman Jr., 61, who spent 20 years in the military; and Charles Edwin Roberts, 40, an operations analyst.

Arencibia founded a local youth venue called the Gallery13 Event Center, and has done ministry work in the downtown area. He challenged state Rep. Calvin Smyre for the Georgia House District 135 seat in 2012.

Shipman is from a small town in North Carolina. In his 20 years with the military, he did three tours at Fort Benning and decided to make Columbus his home. He sells wares at a flea market and donates items to local charities, he said.

Roberts is an operations analyst at TSYS, and previously worked for the Columbus Consolidated Government for almost six years as a web developer.

This story was originally published May 22, 2018 at 8:40 PM with the headline "Skip Henderson headed to mayor’s office without a runoff."