Champagne wins BC council race as Burch wins again in Orange

Bryant Champagne won the open seat for the Bridge City City Council during the May 6 election beating Kenneth Prosperie 225 votes to 173 for the Place 3 spot.

Once again, strong early voting totals accounted for most of the votes across Orange County in the city and school board elections Saturday.

For the West Orange-Cove CISD school board, longtime incumbent Ruth Hancock lost her spot on the board as challenger Donny Teate led the voting with 419. The district has at-large positions and two seats were open with three challengers; so the two candidates with the most votes won the open seats. Incumbent Tommy Wayne Wilson won again with 380 votes. Hancock had 251 votes.

In Orange, incumbent Paul Burch handily beat challenger Henry "Junior" Leger to retain his At-Large Position 6 seat. Burch had 802 votes to Leger's 321 votes. Incumbent Terrie Salter was unopposed on the ballot to reclaim her Single-Member District 3 spot.

In Vidor, Kathryn Weldon won the Ward 6 position with 228 votes to lead Victoria Jones with 47 and Lisa Harris with 52.

The Vidor ISD school board election had Natalie Martinez Long winning Position 4 with 422 votes compared to challenger Billy Jordan with 372. For Position 5, Rodney White came out on top with 421 votes to beat Brooke Hoosier Gilthorpe with 418. The Position 7 seat was won by Michael Hels with 329 votes to squeak by Jeremiah Harrington with 315 votes. Bret Howard had 117 votes for the position.

Tony Wilcoxson won the Rose City mayor's race with 33 votes with Jeff Schulze getting 28 votes. Linda Durmon took the city council seat with 32 votes against Ami Dorn with 25 votes.

The cities of Pinehurst and West Orange were able to cancel elections because of no contested races. The Bridge City and Little Cypress-Mauriceville school districts also had no contested races for board positions and were able to cancel elections. The Orangefield ISD has board elections in November.