Brown plots runoff strategy against Logsdon

With the defeat of incumbent CIty Councilman Steve Rapson in Tuesday’s election, Peachtree City voters will have at least two new representatives on council next year.

The number could swell to three depending on the outcome of the Dec. 6 runoff election between mayoral candidates Steve Brown and Harold Logsdon.

In Tuesday’s election, Rapson was upended by government consultant Steve Boone, who won by 216 votes, and Cyndi Plunkett won her three-way race by 1,475 votes over second-place finisher Dan Gibbs. Plunkett will replace Councilman Murray Weed, who declined to seek re-election.

The runoff for the mayor’s seat was sparked because none of the candidates got 50 percent or more of the votes cast in the race. Logsdon led with 42 percent of the vote, nearly double the take of incumbent Brown, who corralled 22 percent, good for second place by a wide margin.

Logsdon, a financial planner who worked in the audit department for BellSouth, said he was surprised with the number of votes he got. He added that his campaign will stay on its message of “leadership, quality of life and financial accountability.”

“Never once did I throw any mud at anybody,” Logsdon said.

Logsdon credited his campaign staff for his solid performance at the polls.

“I have the greatest staff you could put together for a local race,” Logsdon said.

Logsdon also said he never thought he would get twice as many votes as Brown got, but he was looking forward to the opportunity to look out for taxpayer dollars.

Wednesday morning, Brown said the race can now focus on the issues, as he claimed his “message” got lost on voters because there were so many candidates in the race. Brown also said he was been surprised at the low number of hits his Web site has received.

Brown said he will be trying to encourage the 65 percent of voters who didn’t participate Tuesday that they need to elect him to prevent the “special interest groups” from taking over city government.

Logsdon said Tuesday night that if there are any special interest groups who have donated financially to his campaign, he’d like Brown to point them out.

Former City Councilman Dan Tennant, who got 11 percent of the vote for mayor behind political newcomer Phil Boswell (12 percent), has already endorsed Logsdon for the runoff election. Also splitting the vote was World Gym owner Dar Thompson, who got 13 percent of the vote; rookie candidate Michael Arterburn got only 23 votes.

“Obviously I think we need to really reflect on the issues which really didn’t occur during the campaign,” Brown said, adding that Logsdon doesn’t put forth specific proposals on his Web site. Brown also credited Logsdon for addressing some critical issues such as the cart path system.

Brown also said it was hard to campaign when more than 200 of his signs went missing.

Brown said he hopes to gain support from parents who didn’t vote, particularly in light of those whose children enjoy the city library and the offerings of the recreation department.

“And we’ve run drugs out of our recreation areas, too,” Brown said, adding that he has run council meetings so people “get a fair shake. You know you’re going to get a chance to speak.”

Brown’s Web address is www.mayorsteve.com; Logsdon’s is www.haroldlogsdon.org.

Boone said Wednesday that his supporters met with a lot of voters and “rang a lot of doorbells and gave out a lot of flyers.” He added that he was appreciative of those who voted for him.

“I look forward to being able to serve them and I’m ready to go to work,” Boone added. He also credited Rapson for running a clean campaign.
“He’s a good guy,” Boone said.

Rapson said Wednesday that he attributed his defeat to voters who wanted Steve Brown out of office.

“i think people were just fed up with the negativity and they blamed me,” Rapson said. He also blamed an error in another newspaper’s voting guide which stated that he supports annexation when he in fact does not.

By Wednesday afternoon, Plunkett had already been in contact with city staff including deputy city clerk Betsy Tyler and City Attorney Ted Meeker. She doesn’t want to wait until January, when she officially takes office, to hit the ground running.

“I’m looking forward to it, truly,” Plunkett said, adding that Jan. 1 “is not that far away.”

She added that she was very pleased with how her opponents, Gibbs and Lukjan, ran their campaigns without negative attacks.

Plunkett also credited her supporters for their campaign assistance.

“It was a re-affirming of why I like living in Peachtree City to begin with,” Plunkett said.

login to post comments