GREENWOOD, Miss. (AP) - A longtime Mississippi state senator is not seeking reelection to the other office he holds.
David Jordan, a Democrat, has been on the Greenwood City Council 36 years. He originally filed to seek another term this year, but he withdrew from the race shortly before the Feb. 5 qualifying deadline.
“I’ve enjoyed the ride for 36 years,” Jordan said. “It’s been challenging, but I’ve enjoyed every moment of it.″
The Greenwood Commonwealth reported that Jordan’s action left only one candidate in the Ward 6 council race - Democrat Dorothy Glenn.
Glenn, 63, represented Ward 5 on the council from 2013 until November 2014, when the Mississippi Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s ruling that she was not a resident of Ward 5 and forced her off.
Jordan, 87, remains in the state Senate, where he has served since 1993. Mississippi law allows people to serve in two offices at the same time, as long as they are in the same branch of government. The city council and the state Senate are both in the legislative branch.
Jordan was one of the first Black council members in Greenwood when he was elected in 1985.
He and the Greenwood Voters League, an organization he founded in 1966, paved the way for Black representation in the majority-Black city by fighting to change Greenwood’s form of government.
Before 1985, Greenwood had a mayor and two commissioners elected at-large. The Voters League argued a mayor-council government would be more representative.
The League collected signatures to force a referendum on the issue, but a majority of residents voted in 1977 to stick with the mayor-commissioner format.
The Voters League sued the city that year, seeking a change to a mayor-council system, in order to have Black representation. By 1985, Greenwood’s form of government had changed.
Party primaries for the municipal election are April 6, and the general election is June 8.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.