Last night’s city council race in Wilmington proved suspenseful up until the end with two new candidates winning seats.
WHQR’s Sara Wood reports the race between newcomer Neil Anderson and incumbent Ronald Sparks was the evening’s most tightly contested.
Sparks and Andersen were neck and neck until the last precinct reported, inching Anderson ahead to victory with 14.95 percent of votes compared to Sparks with 14.23 percent.
Sparks says he spent all day on the campaign trail to gather support.
“I’m very tired. We’ve been through all of the polling places in town, you know, trying to get the word out. We’ve been trying to remind people of the things I’ve fight for on the council and the people have spoken.”
Incumbent Laura Padgett captured another term with the most votes and Margaret Haynes, who was appointed to city council in 2009 to finish another member’s term, also won a seat.
Candidates Napier Fuller and Josh Fulton trailed closely while Matt Hinson, Frank Meares and Ricky Meeks fell into the single digit percentage points.