Bruce wins vacant WM council seat

Special election held to fill empty Ward 2 position

news@theeveningtimes.com The election to fill the vacated Ward 2, Position 1 seat left empty when longtime Councilman James Pulliaum stepped down to assume his new role as City Clerk went smoothly at the West Memphis Civic Center on Tuesday.

The City Council opted for the special election rather than appoint a replacement. The vote pitted fraternity brothers Justin Stokes and Dr. Gheric Bruce, Ph.D.

against one another. Bruce bested Stokes 133 vote to 98.

Bruce, an assistant principal at the Academies of West Memphis, had won elections before. He has previously served on the West Memphis School Board and had preceded Pulliaum in Ward 2, Position 1 seat.

Bruce expressed a twopoint platform in an election day interview. He saw the infill of new affordable housing on vacated properties in the city as a key to continued economic growth in the city.

'When your rent out affordable housing that is money coming back into the city,' said Bruce.

Bruce called for project collaboration between his school district employer and the city he represents again.

'When you say city, its citizens and students,' said Bruce. 'There are some things to look at when you talk about Internet and things of that nature.'

Mayor Marco McClendon expressed pleasure to have city council rounded out.

'We could have made an appointment, but I'm glad the council opted for the election,' said McClendon. 'The people got the chance to choose their own representative and that is most

important.' Bruce edged Stokes in early voting 60-44, on election day ballots by a 58-50 margin and 15-4 in absentee ballots, outpacing Stokes by 35 total votes.

With only one race on the ballot, poor turnout marked the special election, with just 5.8 percent of registered voters casting a ballot. Early voting and election day ballots were nearly even.