By Alabama Public Radio
Montgomery, AL – Selma mayor James Perkins has been re-elected to a second term. Unofficial results show Perkins with more than 42-hundred, or about 57 percent. That total does not include absentee ballots. Perkins had said a win in his bid for a second term would be as significant as his election four years ago, when he defeated former segregationist Joe Smitherman to become Selma's first black mayor. Perkins' closest challenger was state Representative Yusuf Salamm. Salamm had more than 17-hundred votes, or 24 percent. Gene Hisel received almost 13-hundred votes, or 17 percent, and Glenn King had 143 votes, or two percent. The challengers had questioned whether the mayor had done enough to pull races together. Huntsville Mayor Loretta Spencer will face Parker Griffith in a September 14th runoff after both failed to win a majority of votes in yesterday's municipal elections. Spencer is seeking her third term. She had almost 18-thousand votes, or 45 percent, while Griffith had almost 14-thousand, or 35 percent. State School Board member Mary Jane Caylor was third with 18 percent. Meanwhile... Hoover voters voted out incumbent Mayor Barbara McCollum and sent former state Representative Tony Petelos and Hoover City Councilman Jody Patterson into a runoff. Petelos had almost seven thousand votes...Patterson claimed about 33-hundred to finish in the top two spots in a field of six candidates. In Tuskegee, state Representative Johnny Ford is also in a runoff against incumbent Mayor Lucenia Dunn. Unofficial tallies show Dunn received 643 votes to Ford's two thousand. Ford is trying to regain the mayor's seat after losing the office eight years ago. In other elections...Ron Davis has unseated Prichard Mayor Charles Harden. And Bay Minette Mayor Sonny Dobbins has won a second term in office. Guntersville Mayor James Townson won a fourth four-year term...early results say by one vote. An official tally is scheduled for Wednesday morning to determine if his one-thousand-242 votes will stand against the one-thousand-241 for challenger Bob Hembree Junior. Meanwhile...in Decatur, incumbent Mayor Lynn Fowler will head to a runoff against Don Kyle, who had an unofficial 11-vote lead in the race. In other elections...James Johnston was elected Crossville's new mayor, solidly unseating incumbent Ronald West. West chose to run for re-election despite facing charges of first-degree rape and second-degree sexual abuse. He has pleaded not guilty to those charges, but he received only 11 votes and finished last among five candidates. There was also a big upset in Daphne as voters ousted incumbent Mayor Harry Brown. He was beaten by Fred Small. Unofficial tallies show Small with 56 percent to Brown's 44 percent.