Dauphin Island, Bayou La Batre - It was a good day for incumbents Tuesday, as four runoffs that were delayed last month by Hurricane Ivan were held in Bayou La Batre and Dauphin Island.

Bayou residents re-elected Mayor Stan Wright and, in the only south Mobile County race in which an incumbent was not returned to his seat, placed their first-ever Asian-American on the City Council, Phuong Tan Huynh.

More than 200 people, many in bright campaign shirts, milled around the parking lot of the Charles Haynes Masonic Lodge as the votes were being counted inside after the polls closed Tuesday evening. Dozens of people crushed in as a tiny ribbon of paper bearing the first box's numbers was taped to the door.

After several more minutes of anxious chattering and waiting, poll watcher Sylvia Raley suddenly burst through the door.

"The absentees won't make any difference! Stanley won!" she shouted, and dozens of people in the crowd erupted with cheers.

Wright and Huynh, who had been standing next to one another, smiled broadly and hugged one another with big pats on the back. Wright won by 93 votes. In the 2000 election, also against Seaman, he won by 80.

"This council has its work cut out for it," Wright said later. "Our sewer system is required to be in compliance with the state inside five years; Ivan forced us to condemn our community center, our Police Department building and our jail."

Huynh said he was glad the race was over and vowed to "do my best."

Huynh's sister, Linh Huynh Tran, said: "I think that we all know now that, if we work together as a community, everything will work."

The council race between Huynh and J.F. "Jackie" Ladnier had drawn the scrutiny of the U.S. Department of Justice.

A number of Asian-American voters said it was the presence of federal officials and a representative of the Mobile County district attorney's office that kept things relatively quiet Tuesday.

The August election had been marked by accusations of racism after Ladnier and his supporters challenged the votes of more than two dozen people at the polls, most of them Asian-Americans.

Only one vote was challenged Tuesday and that for technical reasons, said poll worker Anthony Goodrum. The man's registration showed a different address from where he actually lives, so "I challenged his vote. That was the only way he could be allowed to vote," Goodrum said.

In the August election, Ladnier and his supporters claimed that the Asian voters weren't U.S. citizens, weren't city residents or had felony convictions that stripped them of their voting rights.

Ladnier said there is no system to stop aliens and convicted felons from voting. Huynh said all the challenged ballots had been cast by those legally qualified to do so.

A third of Bayou La Batre's 2,313 residents are of Asian descent. Attracted to the area over the last 30 years by the longstanding shrimping industry, the Asian-Americans in Bayou La Batre have, until now, remained largely silent in local politics.

Place 4 Councilman Bernard Gazzier beat out challenger and former Fire Chief Jimmy Bosarge.

Dauphin Island's sole runoff was a relatively low-key race, pitting the victorious incumbent Mike Tafra, an island hotel owner, against island restaurant owner David Connolly for Town Council Place 4.

"It was a good race. I was surprised there was such a good turnout with the hurricane," Tafra said after the votes were counted. "I'm planning to work with the council to keep the island as a good, wholesome place to live."

Connolly said he intends to remain active in the Dauphin Island Chamber of Commerce despite his loss.

"I think the delays of the election sort of interfered with us getting out," he said of his campaign. Connolly and his family are now living with his brother because of damage to his own home after Hurricane Ivan.

Copyright 2004, Mobile Register. All Rights Reserved.
[Posted 10/13/04]