Democrat incumbent Jason Walker defeated local business owner Republican Pete Ledlow for the Ward 4 Aldermen seat in the General Election Tuesday.
Walker won by a total of 210 to 102 votes, or 67 percent of the vote.
There were 24 affidavit ballots total in the Ward 4 race, with Walker receiving 19 and Ledlow receiving 5.
Walker will serve his second term as Ward 4 Aldermen.
“I’d like to thank Mr. Pete Ledlow for running a good campaign on the issues and I appreciate his involvement in the process and excited to be around another four years,” Walker said.
Walker told the SDN he was appreciative for all the voters who came out to vote in the elections. He said he plans on continuing to provide Starkville with the same consideration and care he did in his first term.
“I just wanted to thank all the Ward 4 voters for re-electing me to serve for another term, to continue creating polices and making Starkville a better place for people to work, live and play,” Walker said.
Walker then said the first act he plans to tackle in his second term will be dealing with the development code rewrites. He then said as those codes go through the rewriting process, he plans on preparing the first budget so capital improvement funding can be increased.
“We're probably still a month or two out from having the first draft from the consultants on the development code rewrites,” Walker said. “While we're doing that, we are getting the first budget ready to go and short ordered to make sure that we try to increase funding for capital improvement projects and to continue to implement the Parks Master Plan.”
The Parks Master Plan is a plan designed to ensure the upkeep, community involvement, future developments and aspirations of Starkville's parks.
Ledlow told the SDN he is glad he ran even though the outcome wasn't what he was hoping for. He said he wishes there could have been a better voter turnout.
“I think (voters) really just need to know how important it is get out to vote especially in municipal races, things like that that actually run the city,” Ledlow said. “I think the citizens really need to be more involved in it.”
Ledlow said he hasn’t decided if he will run for public office again.
“I'm not going to throw (possible future political goals) out just for this because it's the first time I have ever done anything like this before.” Ledlow said. “I've kind of enjoyed getting out and meeting the people and so I'm not going to say that it is out of the question.”
Walker said he is excited about what the next four years will bring and what all he can do for Starkville.
“I think we have a lot of good things in store that's coming Starkville's way,” Walker said. “We are gonna try to make it a better place to live.”