Mayors Pay Off in Shave Off
DeSoto County mayors were back to their clean-shaven ways after going under the razor Friday at Wilson Perry salon in Southaven.
Mayors Sam Rikard of Olive Branch, Nat Baker of Horn Lake, Gene Alday of Walls, Chip Johnson of Hernando, and Alderman at-large Greg Guy of Southaven, who filled in for Southaven Mayor Greg Davis who's running for Congress, came together at the salon Friday morning for a mass "shave-off" of their several-week old beards.
The five town leaders grew the facial hair in keeping with a bet they made as part of the Wake Up DeSoto campaign to drive more voters to the polls for the May 13 First Congressional District special election runoff that included Davis.
Rikard explained, "This all came about as a pre-election get-out-the-vote challenge. The percentage of votes did increase dramatically. Whether it was because of the 'beard' challenge or not I do not know."
The mayors bet that the loser of the challenge - the official whose city had the lowest voter turnout - would have to grow a beard.
And while the campaign was easily proven a success, determining who lost the challenge was much harder with almost every precinct having city and county voters. That left the mayors with no other choice than to call it even and endure the itchy stages of growing a beard. Beat the High Cost of Health Insurance Computer Slowing Down? What to Do About It Men Are Taking Steps to Look Their Best "We just decided that instead of trying to determine who actually had the lowest percentage, we would all grow beards," said Rikard.
After their shave, officials were rewarded for their fuzzy commitment with a coupon for a complimentary massage at the salon, and they were all more than happy to have returned to their usual clean-cut appearances.
When asked about losing the beard, Rikard said, "It's much cooler."
The leaders were also commended for their participation by Wake Up DeSoto campaign organizers, who said there were approximately 8,000 additional voters who turned out for the May 13 run-off election than in the previous First Congressional District special election on April 22. The turnout for the runoff was 28.6 percent, and the turnout for the special election was 17.4 percent, according to county voting records. "It's amazing how they all worked together so enthusastically to do something like this for their community," said Sunny Stuckey, a campaign organizer. "They really helped us in getting the campaign up and running and accomplishing the main goal of the campaign which is to get people to go to the polls."
The non-partisan turn-out-the-vote campaign was spearheaded by Stuckey, and other county residents Donnie Chambliss, Carmen Kyle, and Ginger Adams of the Southaven Chamber of Commerce in early May, shortly after a disappointing number of county votes were tallied for the April 22 election. Only 12,499 votes were cast, a fraction of the county's then 71,840 eligible voters.
The campaign was organized in just nine days, kicking off with election day specials offered by more than 30 participating businesses to patrons wearing locally donated non-candidate, non-party affiliated "Vote Today" campaign stickers.
"It was awesome," Chambliss said. We gave out 8,000 stickers and there were ironically 8,000 more voters. And what's also amazing is that of all the businesses that were asked to participate in the campaign, not one of them said no. That kind of support is truly awesome, and I think it's a reminder that people do want to help."
The campaign is planned to be ongoing with a purpose to boost voter turnout in local elections and serve as a public resource for citizens seeking information about elections and the candidates who make up those elections. "We not only want to encourage people to vote on the local level, we want this to be a go to place for residents to ask questions about elections and candidates without being met with any bias," Stuckey said. "We want to put the facts out there and make candidates available so that citizens can make good, informed decisions when they visit the polls."
Organizers hope the campaign will set an example for other counties throughout the state to follow.
"We are the first in the state to get this going and there is no reason why every county in Mississippi and in America can't get involved in this," Chambliss said.
Campaign organizers have started recruiting funds for the campaign in preparation for the county's city elections next year.
For more information about the campaign or to make a donation to assist in its continued operation, call Ginger Adams at (662) 342-6114.
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