Who's Running?

Some eleventh hour jockeying left four candidates for mayor and 22 candidates for city council after the 5pm deadline on March 3rd.  Each will have an opportunity to introduce themselves and answer questions from citizens on Serve BSL, the first bi-partisan online forum in the state of Mississippi.  Things are just getting interesting!
​- story by Ellis Anderson

This sheet reflects some of the last minute changes that have occurred in the past two days before qualifying closed at 5pm on March 3rd. Gary Knoblock is now running for Councilman-at-large and Tad Black moved to the Democrat slate.

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The deadline to qualify for the upcoming Bay St. Louis city elections was Friday, March 3rd at 5pm. 

Here's who's running, alphabetically listed (D - Democrat, R - Republican, I - Independent), incumbents noted with (I):  

Mayor:
Michael J. Favre - D
Les Fillingame - D (I)
Jeff Harding - R
Rachel Ramsey - D

City Council:

At-large:
Dwayne "Double D" Bremer, D :  WITHDREW
T.J. Collier, D
Greg Farve, D
Gary Knoblock, R
Susan M. "Susie" Veglia, I
Michael "Mike" Weems, D

Ward 1:
Doug Seal - I (I)
George Williams - R

Ward 2: 
Eugene J. Hoffman IV - R
Wendy McDonald - D (I)
Carol A. Strohmetz - D

Ward 3:  
Jeffrey Reed - D (I)
Kevin Paul Avery - D

Ward 4: 
Tad Black - D
Gisele Marie Bradley -D
Kyle Lewis - R
Larry Smith - R

Ward 5:
Joey Boudin - D (I)
Buddy Zimmerman - R

Ward 6:
Hunter Adam - R
Josh DeSalvo - R
Lonnie Falgout - I (I)

Four candidates for mayor and 22 candidates for city council qualified to run for office before the 5pm deadline on March 3rd.

The primary elections take place on May 2nd (click here for a full election timeline).  Mississippi has a "closed primary" system.  All voters - regardless of which party they normally identify with - must choose to vote for either Democratic candidates or Republican ones in the May 2nd primary.   

​That's different from the general election, when it's possible for a voter to cast ballots for both Democrat and Republican candidates. 

So some Ward 3 voters will be faced with a hard choice on May 2nd, primary day for the Bay St. Louis elections.  The two candidates running for the Ward 3 council seat are both Democrats:  incumbent Jeffery Reed and Kevin Paul Avery.  The winner of the Ward 3 primary will win the general election by default.  So Ward 3 residents who vote as Republicans in the primary won't have a say in who their next council representative will be. 

Each candidate in the Bay St. Louis municipal election will have an opportunity to introduce themselves and answer questions from citizens on Serve Bay St. Louis, the first bi-partisan online forum in the state of Mississippi.  The Serve BSL website also contains maps, job descriptions and salaries, and other voting info.    You're invited to explore the site now! 

Have questions you'd like to ask candidates for mayor and city council?  Ask them anonymously here and they'll be considered for as an official forum question!  You have until March 7th to submit.