Posted on June 20, 2018
The next mayor of El Dorado will either be Veronica Smith Creer or Bill Luther, who won the Republican bid in a runoff election Tuesday.
With the win against Republican challenger Chris Lutman, Luther will advance to the general election on Nov. 6 to square off with Democratic candidate Smith Creer.
Luther, a recently retired engineer and customer service manager for Entergy’s El Dorado office, scored 555 votes to Lutman’s 442.
With a pledge of “people over politics,” Luther said he was now preparing for the general election.
Luther previously served on the now-defunct El Dorado Water and Sewer Commission, and a host of other boards and committees that serve the community.
In Tuesday’s runoff, only voters who participated in the Republican primary in May or who did not vote at all in the May primary could cast a ballot.
Bill Murphy, voting at the Union County Fairgrounds, said he wanted to vote since there was no conclusive victory in the May primary for any of the mayoral candidates.
“I wanted to make sure my vote counted,” Murphy said.
Jerri Beth Smith and her husband also voted at the fairgrounds. She said
she planned to vote for Luther.
Carol Stephenson voted for Luther at the Ward 4 polling site Tuesday.
“I’m hoping he will do some work on the infrastructure of the city,” Stephenson said. “I think he’s the most qualified.”
Also at the Ward 4 polling site, Mary Ann Goodwin said she voted for Lutman, noting that she likes how involved he is in the community.
“I like the work that he does with people and how he gets to know them. It’s not like he’s a stranger and afraid to talk to you,” Goodwin said. “I guess another one of my reasons is that he’s in my neighborhood and it’s not like you just see his car … you see him coming through checking on people and I like that.”
Read more from Tuesday's election at eldoradonews. com .
Reporters Caitlan Butler and Kaitlyn Rigdon contributed information used in this article.