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Gregory, Houpe primed for run-off

Jim McNally photo

By Jim McNally | Statesville R&L

Published: October 9, 2009

At about 8:15 p.m. Tuesday, Gene Houpe pulled into the Iredell Board of Elections parking lot, where Board Director Becky Galliher was waiting for him.

Houpe had discovered via telephone that he had finished in third place in the six-person race for two at-large seats on the Statesville City Council.

But Houpe was not upset when he entered the Board of Elections offices to file a petition for a run-off election.

Earlier in the day, he had discussed the possibility of his coming in third but felt certain that at least one of the top two candidates would fail to breach the 50-percent mark.

And that was the case when second-place finisher, incumbent Councilman John Gregory, garnered the support of only 44 percent of the voters in that race.

With about 66.4 percent of the possible votes, the other incumbent in the at-large race — Councilman Cecil Stallard — was the overwhelming winner.

But Gregory, who is in his second stint on the council and has served a total of 13 years over the last two and a half decades, said he was not surprised by the results of Tuesday's election.

"Oh, I'm not disappointed," he said. "I got in this to win, not just to have fun. And I'm still in it to win."
Gregory said he is not going to take a victory in the Nov. 3 run-off election for granted.

"I'm going to have to run hard," he said. "I intend to win but I know I'm going to have to take some steps to do that."

Houpe said he is up for the contest.

"There's nothing like some friendly competition," he said, and added that he intends to wear out some shoe leather of his own over the next three weeks.

"I may lose this election," Houpe said. "But like I said before, it's not going to be because anyone outworked me."

Galliher said turnout for the run-off election will depend almost entirely on how hard both candidates work.

"Generally, run-offs are very slow," she said. "But if they get out there and get voters interested, it could be pretty good."

In 2005, when Stallard beat incumbent Jim Lawton in a run-off, the voter turnout was 12.9 percent.

Early voting for the Nov. 3 elections — which also includes voting for seats on Iredell County's other municipal boards — begins at 8 a.m. Oct. 15.
The early voting period ends Oct. 31.