HOUSTON: Incumbents go down in council races

HOUSTON — Not one Houston city council incumbent survived against challengers Tuesday, and most who won seats did so handily.

Unofficial results posted on the city’s Web site Tuesday night showed four new faces will come to the seven-member council, in which candidates all run for at-large seats.

In the race for Seat B, Paul Stout, a software engineer appointed to take over the seat vacated when mayor Steve Frost resigned earlier this year, lost to challenger Ruth Blanchard 107-73. Blanchard is a previous councilmember and an employee of Houston Lodge.

The incumbent in the race for Seat C, retiree and former Petersburg city councilman Ralph Buzard, lost 91-61 to challenger Natasha Rife. Rife is an employee at Spenard Builders Supply in Houston. A third candidate, Joseph Stanistreet, took 26 votes.

In the race for Seat A, held by departing councilwoman and mayor Sandy McDonald, fireworks impresario Griz Smith lost to special education assistant and Mat-Su Borough School District employee Virgie Thompson 127-51.

Seat D, which is to be vacated by councilman Glen Tilghman, went to retired Army officer Lance Wilson, who ran unopposed. That race also saw the highest number of write-in votes, with 12, as opposed to two in the other three races.

Once the results are certified, Thompson and Blanchard will serve until 2011. Rife and Wilson will see their terms expire in 2009.