The mayor and three incumbent board members in Sumner have filed qualifying papers to seek reelection in this year’s municipal elections.
The qualifying period opened Jan. 2 and closes on Jan. 31.
Sumner qualifiers as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Town Clerk Toni Clark, include Mayor Jackson Webb IV, 47, of 605 Walnut St.; and at-large aldermen William Wright Boggan, 44, of 208 Cassidy St.; Pamela M. (Pam) Fortner, 69, of 141 Gray St.; and Frank Mitchener, 91, of 325 Cassidy.
All are qualified as Republicans.
Clerks in Charleston, Glendora, Tutwiler and Webb reported no qualifiers for publication this week.
Richard Gipson, chairman of the Tallahatchie County Democratic Executive Committee, has announced that the county committee will not act as a temporary municipal Democratic committee for the 2025 municipal elections.
Gipson said the action was taken because for the past two municipal elections, the municipalities have failed to organize their own individual Democratic committees to conduct their elections, relying instead on the county committee.
"There is a process that they are supposed to go through, but they have failed to do that," he noted. "We're just getting tired."
The lack of active, trained municipal Democratic committees to conduct a primary, and the decision by the county committee to take a hands-off approach, means that anyone qualifying for a municipal post in Charleston, Glendora, Tutwiler or Webb must do so as an independent candidate. They will bypass the April 1 primaries and advance to the general election on June 3.
Independent candidates — those who run without party affiliation — do not pay a filing fee, but they must file a “Qualifying Statement of Intent for an Independent Candidate” and submit a petition form bearing the signatures of a prescribed number of registered voters. That number varies based on the office sought and population of the municipality.
In Charleston, Tutwiler and any other municipalities in Mississippi having a population of 1,000 residents or more, independent candidates for the office of mayor must submit a petition with the signatures of at least 50 qualified electors of the city or town.
Independent candidates for mayor of Glendora, Sumner and Webb, or any other municipality with a population of less than 1,000, must present a petition with the signatures of at least 15 registered voters of the town.
Independent candidates for alderman of any municipal board in Tallahatchie County must submit a petition with the signatures of at least 15 registered voters living within their respective ward. In the case of Glendora and Sumner, those 15 registered voters may live anywhere in the village or town, since both municipalities elect aldermen on an at-large basis.
To seek municipal office as a party candidate — Democrat or Republican — a person must submit a “Qualifying Statement of Intent for a Candidate for Party Nomination” and pay a filing fee of $10 at the municipal clerk’s office.
Qualifying statements and properly formatted candidate petition forms are available at municipal clerk offices.
In addition, the documents are available to download from the website of the Mississippi secretary of state.
Winners of the general election will be sworn in to serve a four-year term that begins July 1.
