LANDSLIDE
Wall wins easily with 64% of the vote

City Council candidate Emmett Bryan Wall, right, shakes hands with council member Allan Landavazo while Wall's partner, Rose Ferrari, left, hugs her daughter-in-law, Lorene Ferrari, upon hearing the election results Tuesday at City Hall. Wall defeated Pat Butler by 240 votes in Tuesday's runoff election to win the District 3 council seat. — © 2009 Gallup Independent / Cable Hoover

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Bill Donovan and Gaye Brown de Alvarez
Staff writers

GALLUP — It was not even close as voters in the southside council district easily swept Emmett Bryan Wall into office Tuesday.

Wall received 564 votes, or 64 percent, to Butler’s 324 votes, or 36 percent, in the runoff election that was called when no one received more than 40 percent of the vote in the regular election in March.

He won both precincts as well as early voting and absentee.

District 3 opened two polling places for voters to decide the runoff election between Emmett Bryan Wall and Pat Butler.

JFK Mid School and Red Rock Elementary poll workers watched voters come and go all day.

At Red Rock Elementary, they had 62 voters by 10:40 a.m., and poll worker Soila Chavira said there were “no complaints.” She said the turnout was “pretty steady.”

Gallup resident Sally Carter came in to vote around 10:45, and said she was voting for “the same person as last time.”

She didn’t mind having to cast her vote again. She said “ I hate to spend the money, but it is what it is. Voting is very important.”

Voter Carl Gransfors said he was also voting for the same person as the last election, but he didn’t mind that he had to make another trip to the polling place. “I’m never irritated to vote in America,” Gransfors said.

John and Judy Kozeliski came in to vote and neither were upset about having to make a trip to the voting place.

“It’s OK,” John Kozeliski said. “They would enter six or seven candidates to split the votes, so this makes it more fair.”

Kerry Fuhs said he voted for the same person as last time and he was glad they changed the percentage. “So if you win by one vote it’s as good as if you win by a thousand,” Fuhs said.

City Clerk Alfred Abeita called the turnout for the election mediocre, pointing out that only 888 people, or 26 percent of the registered voters in District 3, voted in this election as compared to more than 1,100 who voted in the runoff four years ago between Butler and Harry Mendoza.

At JFK Mid School, there were about 60 voters right before noon.

Voter Trinni Jensen said she didn’t mind the runoff election and having to come vote again. “It doesn’t bother me a bit,” she said.

Joe Wauford of Gallup said he did not vote for the same person he voted for during the first election and didn’t mind having to vote one more time but “I hope we don’t have to do this again,” he said.

Voter Kim Esparza also voted for a different person.

“Actually, I couldn’t vote at the first election because my name wasn’t there,” she said.

George Lloyd said he didn’t mind voting a second time. “I had time to revote,” he said, and admitted he voted for the same person as the first election.

Mary Ann Armijo brought in a bag of vitamin waters for the polling officials and said she voted for the same person as she did the first time, and did not mind coming back to vote.

“I wish more people would come out and vote,” Armijo said.

“I wish there was some way we could tell people how important it is — just one council vote.”

Louise Tanner came in and voted and said she wasn’t able to vote the first time. She went to the court house on Monday “and they told me where to vote.”

Wall said he went into Tuesday worried about the outcome.

“The runoff was harder than the regular election because it was a shorter period and the weather was lousy for much of that time,” he said.

The bad weather only allowed him to spend a day going door to door so he spent most of his time on the phone.

His secret to victory: Rose Ferrari, who gathered the Ferrari and Colaianni families together to rally support around Wall, the former owner of the Holiday Nursery in Gallup.

In talking about his opponent, Wall said Butler should be given credit for the work he did on behalf of Gallup for the time he was in office.

In looking over the numbers last night at City Hall, Butler said he expected that after 16 years on the council, that this one was an “uphill battle.”

“I think I served the city well, but the national election proved that people were going for change for change’s sake,” he said.

He said he didn’t see himself running for City Council again.

His loss will give him a chance to spend more time on his business, Butler’s Office Supply, and take over some of the responsibility that he had turned over to his brother, Barry, because of his city work.

“He needs a chance to relax as well,” he said.

Abeita said the election certification will be held on Thursday and plans will be made to swear Wall in. Under state law that has to occur by 6 p.m. Monday which means that Wall will be seated on the council in time for its next meeting on Tuesday.

Wall said his top priority for the first couple of years will be to get the problems at the sewer plant fixed and to make sure that the people who are running it are qualified under state law.

He said he doesn’t believe that the people now in charge of the plant are qualified under state law, which could give the city a lot of legal problems if anything happens.

He said he also wants the city to address the problems at the golf course.

Wall had applied for the job of greens superintendent, a position that went to Bob Weekes. Wall said he wanted to discuss the problems of the golf course over with people he knew at New Mexico State University and see if some course of action could be devised to solve the problems there.