Local ballots take shape with filing cutoff Friday

There’s a bit more than a day to go for candidates to file their bids for local office.
Statewide, the deadline’s 5 p.m. Friday to secure a spot on a ballot May 3, so it’s still too early to say for sure which seats in Gladewater and White Oak will be contested this Spring.
At least one position will change hands at White Oak ISD, and there are multiple contests for the City of Gladewater.
At Gladewater City Hall, the four incumbents have all filed for re-election – Teddy Sorrells (Place 4), Sonny Anderson (5), Rocky Hawkins (6) and Kevin Clark (7). Newcomer Milton Anderson previously filed a challenge for the Place 6 seat, and this week William Blackmon filed his challenge for Place 4.
Candidate packets remain available at City Hall as the filing deadline approaches, and City Clerk Judy Van Houten says she’ll keep the doors open until end of business on Feb. 14.
“I am required to be there until 5 p.m. Friday even though we close at noon,” she quipped. “The state doesn’t care that we close at noon. This is a common thing that a lot of city secretaries fuss about every year. It’s part of the job, and we’re used to it.”
At White Oak ISD, that duty falls to Administrative Assistant Amanda Frazier. On Monday, she confirmed Jessica Hughes has returned an application for re-election to her Place 2 seat while Board Vice President David Carr has decided not to run for re-election to Place 1.
“It’s been a tremendous privilege to work with these people for the past 17 years,” he said Feb. 10. “At this time, I’ve decided the school’s in great shape, has got a lot of great things trending in the right direction, has good leadership trending where we need – I feel it’s as good a time as any to let other folks grab the bull by the horns.”
As of Feb. 10, one other candidate packet had been picked up but not yet returned by Dr. David Ummel. A previous trustee, in 2024 Ummel opted not to run for re-election to Place 7, and the seat was ultimately filled by Ricky Bodovsky in an uncontested bid.
There hasn’t been much activity at either the City of White Oak or Gladewater ISD – to date, only incumbents have picked up candidate applications, most have been returned or were anticipated this week.