Election 2020: Here are runoff results for Smiths Station Council Place 3
The new representative for Place 3 on the Smiths Station Council was decided Tuesday night.
Steve Lansdon won the runoff election against Kamarcus Adkins, city clerk Scott Johnston told the Ledger-Enquirer.
The unofficial vote totals are Lansdon 106 and Adkins 66, Adkins said. The council is scheduled to make the results official during next Tuesday’s meeting.
The incumbent, James Moody, didn’t seek re-election.
The runoff was needed because no candidate received a majority of the votes in the three-way Aug. 25 election, which also included William Spear. Adkins and Lansdon qualified for the runoff by finishing in the top two spots. Lansdon received 140 votes, Adkins 108 and Spear 103.
Adkins, 43, is unemployed and receiving medical disability payments. From 1994-2003, he was a store manager at Wright’s Market in Opelika. From 2004-13, he was an accounts manager at Coca-Cola Refreshments in West Point.
He is an assistant coach for the Elite Sunz AAU basketball team in Phenix City, a youth adviser for Creekstand Freewill Church in Opelika and a volunteer for the Phenix City Parks and Recreation Department.
Adkins graduated from Russell County High School. He earned an associate’s degree in industrial electricity from Southern Union State Community College.
Lansdon, 66, is retired after working 37 years at Southeastern Freight Lines, where he was a regional fleet service manager. His previous positions were mechanic and shop manager. He is the 2006 winner of the Technology and Maintenance Council’s national award for excellence in supervision.
He now works part time at Penske Trunk Rental.
Lansdon graduated from Columbus High School.
After learning he had won, Lansdon told the Ledger-Enquirer, “The work is fixing to start, I guess, instead of the politicking and the running and all.”
Lansdon tried to do more door-to-door campaigning, he said, but concerns about the coronavirus kept a lot of folks from agreeing to talk to him, so he relied on phone calls. He also credits “a lot of support from my family and friends” for his victory.
“A lot of people, they did not realize there was a runoff,” he said. “They saw that I had the most votes in the past, the last election, and they thought I already won.”
Lansdon and Adkins agreed that their age disparity might have contributed to the gap in the results.
“I’m much younger than him,” Adkins told the L-E. “The average age of the voters was probably about 45 up until 100. The younger people don’t own homes in the city. He was able to appeal to the much older people that feel like it might not be my time right now.”
Adkins said losing the runoff “won’t stop anything for what I got planned for the future.” That includes trying to expand his mentoring program, he said.
In a previous interview with the L-E, Lansdon said the most important issue in Smiths Station is trying to get state and federal funding for sewage to attract more businesses to the city.
Tuesday night, he reiterated the need for economic development when he said, “We need more companies out here to get more revenue. I know every time you here a politician talk, it’s all about the money, and I hate to be a parrot, but that’s what it’s about.”
This story was originally published October 7, 2020 at 10:30 AM.
