City of Commerce Mayor Teddy Reel will be back for another term. Reel won re-election by a 257 to 42 margin in Saturday’s municipal elections. Reel defeated challenger Coy Smith. The Commerce Independent School District had one contested seat on the Commerce ISD Board of Trustees. Abbie Harper defeated Henry Ross 213 to 163 to win the Place 3 seat on the board. Harper won a little more than 56 percent of the vote. Two Commerce ISD board incumbents ran unopposed. Place 1’s Kathleen Hooten and Place 2’s Tamara Beadles will return to the Commerce ISD Board of Trustees.
In other Hunt County races, Hunt Memorial Hospital District voters approved a measure that would allocate funds for hospital expansion. The proposition passed with about 59 percent of the vote, with 2,208 favoring the measure to 1,501 voting against. Greenville voters elected a new city councilman. Ramon Rodriguez defeated Richard Hutchins by a 225 to 159 margin.
Elsewhere around the region, in Bonham, there was one contested race on the city council. Clark Smith won the place for Ward 3. Smith defeated Jade Custer with 197 votes to Custer’s 49. In uncontested races for the Bonham city council, Sam Fox will be the new councilman for Ward 2 in Bonham. He’ll join Ward 4 incumbent Allen Sanderson.
All totals are unofficial until canvassed. Saturday’s local elections might be the last spring elections in Texas. Turnout in May elections are notoriously low, and place a financial burden on local government. A bill currently before the Texas Senate would require most elections to be held in November and on Tuesdays. Senate Bill 1209 is authored by Sen. Bryan Hughes, a Mineola Republican. The bill has passed the Texas Senate and is now before the Texas House.
