Quordiniah Lockley had faith he would at least make it this far in McComb’s city elections.
“I was of the opinion I would be in the runoff,” he said. “I had no idea who the other person would be, or if I would be in first or second place. But I made it, and it feels good.”
Lockley, a former city administrator and selectman, faces former mayor Zach Patterson on Tuesday for the Democratic nomination for mayor
The winner will go up against at-large Selectman Tommy McKenzie, the Republican nominee, in the general election on June 19.
Lockley claims he has the qualifications, experience and knowledge to be a successful mayor, and said he has been knocking on doors all over the city to get voters to the ballot box.
“In the Democratic (first) primary, I focused on the Democratic base,” Lockley said.
For the runoff, “I’ve gone into the base and gone outside the base.
“I’m here to unite the city and move McComb forward. I can’t just stay in the base if I’m going to unite the city and move it forward ... to have a city that is inclusive, not exclusive.”
He hopes to defy the odds that say turnout for a runoff will be even lower than that for the first primary.
“I’m asking people to go vote, or to return to the polls,” he said. “The only difference in my game plan is to try to get out everybody I can and try to prove the statistics wrong.”
He said he could not explain why turnout for the first primary was so low, although the more than 1,200 that voted in the Democratic primary was higher than the 1,000 that voted in the 2014 primary.
Only about 600 voted in the Democratic primary in 2010, with no contests for mayor or selectman at-large on the ballot. That was a steep decline from 2006, when about 2,700 Democratic voters stepped into the voting booths.
Only 60 people voted Republican in the 2006 primary, but the GOP outpolled the Democrats in 2010, with 900 voters. There were no Republican primary contests in 2014.
“There’s a huge amount of apathy among the voters, and I don’t understand that,” Lockley said. “If African-Americans, knowing what it took to get the vote, don’t get out and vote, I just don’t understand.”
He said people encountered during his campaigning had told him why they had not voted, though he considered some of the most common reasons given “not legitimate.”
“When they tell me ‘I forgot,’ or ‘I was too busy’ — to me, that is not legitimate, when you can vote early, vote absentee,” Lockley said.
He said he pointed people who said their vote wouldn’t count to last year’s North Pike school board election, in which incumbent member Scott Campbell retained his seat by one vote over Betty Weber.
“I schooled them on the importance of voting,” he said.
He and his campaign committee have targeted neighborhoods all over the city for attention, canvassing homes from Higgins Drive and along Locust Street to Presley Boulevard, Baertown, Algiers, Whitestown and Edgewood, among others.
“Without my committee, I wouldn’t be where I am,” Lockley said. “All of us going around and knocking on doors and asking for their votes has been the key to my success.
“This is a small city, but’s large for a small committee to cover. We’re doing our best to expand my base to all Democrats, business people, property owners.”
He said he hoped his get-out-the-vote rally, held Saturday night at Big Daddy’s Blues Club and Cultural Exchange and featuring Will Gatlin, Artis Brown and Thomas “Superman” Richardson, among others, would help motivate citizens to vote Tuesday.
“I wanted this to be something enjoyable,” Lockley said. “This is not a bash rally, this is a get-out-the-vote rally.”
He said would be at City Hall for the vote count Tuesday, and would welcome any supporters who want to join him there. If a victory celebration is in the offing, it will not be held Tuesday, he said.
“Like in the prior election, absentee and affidavit ballots won’t be counted until the next day, so we’ll get official totals later,” he said. “I hope after the preliminary totals are given, (absentee and affidavit ballots) won’t make a difference and I can declare myself the winner.”
