Two Greenwood residents — one running for mayor, another running for a seat on the City Council — have been disqualified, meaning their names will not appear on the ballot for Tuesday’s municipal elections.
The Greenwood Election Commission disqualified the candidacy of Shawanda E. Chaney, an independent candidate running for mayor. According to Charles Powers, a member of the election commission, about half of the 50 needed people who had signed Chaney’s petition to run were not registered voters in Greenwood.
Chaney had participated in the 10,000 Fearless Movement, an anti-gun violence effort that developed in Greenwood last summer, and has said that she has experience in business and networking.
Carolyn McAdams, the incumbent mayor, and Nathan Wright, a coach at North New Summit School and a writer for the Mississippi News Network, both independent candidates, were certified to run.
They, along with Democratic candidate Kenderick Cox, a ninth grade STEM teacher at Greenwood High School, will face off in the June 8 general election.
The Leflore County Democratic Executive Committee disqualified the candidacy of Dewitt Kimble for Tuesday’s Democratic primary for the Ward 5 seat on the City Council because of a disenfranchising crime he committed in the past, according to Robert Sims, chairman of the Leflore County Democratic Executive Committee.
Leflore County Circuit Clerk Elmus Stockstill also said Kimble had confirmed to the office that he had committed the crime.
Kimble, a gospel disc jockey and owner of Dewitt Enterprise, ran for the council’s Ward 7 seat in 2005, but that candidacy also was revoked by the county Democratic Executive Committee.
Lavoris Leroy Weathers, an employee at Life Help and founder of the anti-gun violence group Operation Peace Treaty, and incumbent Councilman Andrew Powell, a retired member of the U.S. Army who had worked as a road manager for Leflore County and worked for East Leflore Water and Sewer District, will appear on the ballot Tuesday for the Ward 5 race.
The winner of that primary will win the seat, since there’s no other opposition.
Sims also said that the disqualification of the candidacy of Kiara Williams, a counselor at Leflore Legacy Academy who was running for the Ward 4 council seat, remains intact after Williams disputed the committee’s ruling.
The rest of the candidates running for Greenwood’s elections, all of whom have been certified to run, are as follows:
- Ward 1: Incumbent Johnny Jennings, a Republican who is a photographer and owns commercial and residential properties in town, and Anthony Gary, a Democrat who is a school attendance officer for the Mississippi Department of Education.
- Ward 2: Incumbent Lisa Cookston, a Republican and former English teacher at Mississippi Delta Community College, faces no opposition.
- Ward 3: Incumbent Democrat Ronnie Stevenson, the current council president and manager of Credit Plan, a finance company in Greenwood, and Nick Onyshko, an independent who teaches seventh grade math at Greenwood Middle School and owns several rental homes in Greenwood.
- Ward 4: Incumbent Charles McCoy, produce manager at Greenwood Market Place, and Sammy Foster, an insurance agent and a former chairman of the Greenwood Leflore Hospital Board, are both running as Democrats.
- Ward 6: Dorothy Glenn, a Democrat who represented Ward 5 for more than a year until being kicked off the council in 2014 over a residency dispute, faces no opposition in her bid to rejoin the council from a different ward. She will replace longtime incumbent David Jordan, who dropped out of the primary right before the qualifying deadline in February.
- Ward 7: Incumbent Carl Palmer, a former principal at Leflore County Elementary and Charles Brown, an assistant principal at Greenwood High School, are both running as Democrats.
- Contact Gerard Edic at 581-7239 or gedic@gwcommonwealth.com.
