A race that started for the Selma City Council Ward 6 in mid-July made a brief pit stop on Aug. 28 and finally came to a finish on Tuesday night. This was not only a race, but a rematch between B.L. Tucker and Johnnie Leashore.

Four years ago Tucker and Leashore faced off for the same position – Ward 6 council representative — and Tucker won by six votes. In the August election there was an eight percent difference between the two candidates. Tucker received 40 percent of the vote and Leashore earned 32 percent.

Tuesday night Tucker defeated Leashore by 36 votes.

After the ballots had been tallied Leashore said, “As far as I’m concerned the people have spoken, and that’s all I have to say.”

With only 36 votes separating Leashore from Tucker, Leashore acknowledged his supporters.

“I want to thank my supporters and those who came out to vote,” he said.

And although it was a slim number of votes that lead Tucker to victory, he was ecstatic about his win.

“I feel good,” Tucker said. “Any time I feel the Spirit, I feel good. I want to thank all of the people who prayed and supported me. God bless them.”

As the re-elected representative, Tucker has many plans for Ward 6.

“Number one, we want to do some street paving. We want to do some drainage and build some playgrounds and walking trails, all of these things,” he said. “We have a lot of work to do in Ward 6. All these dilapidated houses — we want to remove them.”

Tucker said he plans to get to work right away.

“We are going to build this town,” he said. “I have a team, and we’re going to go to work now.”

The final vote on Tuesday was Tucker with 367 votes and Leashore with 332.