Albany Mayor Hubbard re-elected; Commissioner Marietta apparent winner

ALBANY — With only one precinct left to report, it appeared Tuesday night that Albany’s mayor and City Commission Ward IV incumbent would maintain their seats.

Mayor Dorothy Hubbard and Ward IV Commissioner Roger Marietta were leading with only the Carver precinct and absentee ballots left to count. Hubbard had a more comfortable lead, 3,735-2,688 over leading challenger Lane Rosen with Tracy Taylor collecting 251 votes. Marietta’s edge over challenger Chad Warbington was only 89 votes, 944-855.

“Right now, I’m feeling rejuvenated,” Hubbard said from her campaign celebration in the Flint RiverQuarium complex on Pine Avenue. “It’s been a really long day, and I started to flag a little there before the polls closed. But I’ve got my second wind now.

“I’m so happy to be here tonight with my family and my good friends who believe in me. I think this vote shows that the people in Albany believe in me and what the board is doing. We’re going to do this one more time to bring about the positive change our community needs.”

Rosen said that he was proud of the race he ran against the incumbent mayor.

“I think what my campaign helped people in Albany realize is that there are four corners of this community, and we have work to do to bring those corners together,” the businessman said. “I think this election showed that I’m someone who can help bring this community together.

“I’m humbled by the tremendous response I got from the community. I think it started slowly and snowballed because of the community’s support, its expectations and the need for all of us to succeed. One of my favorite quotes is: ‘Success has a thousand fathers, failure has none.’ Losing an election is disappointing, but I’m proud of the race we won and the way we united this community.”

Marietta said it was his work ethic that allowed him to maintain an edge over Warbington.

“Man, we knocked on every door in the ward two times and some of them three,” he said. “We knew this was going to be a fight, and I believe the people of Ward IV benefitted from the competition. It’s time to go back to work now. We have a meeting at 8:30 in the morning and if I survive tonight, I’ll be there.”

Warbington said the up-and-down nature of the campaign had been nerve-racking as he awaited the outcome of the election.

“On the one hand, I felt like we had this, and then on the other I didn’t,” he said. “It was up and down all day, and the returns were like that. I was disappointed in the Westtown vote (Marietta carried that precinct 349-126). Those numbers didn’t reflect what we heard when we went door-to-door. Change was the buzzword.

“If we lose by one vote or however many votes, it is what it is. Using a sports analogy, I feel like we left everything on the field.”

Staff members Brad McEwen, Mary Braswell, Terry Lewis and Jim West and Managing Editor Danny Carter contributed to this report.