XENIA — Two Xenia City Council members retained their seats Tuesday, while a pair of newcomers were elected.
Incumbents Micheal Engle and Dale Louderback were joined by challengers Sarah Mays and Edgar Wallace as winners in the election. According to unofficial results, Mays received 3,813 votes (24.09 percent), Engle 3,499 (22.11 percent), Wallace 3,087 (19.50) and Louderback 2,908 (18.37 percent). Incumbent John Caupp, who ran as a team with Louderback, received 2,520 votes (15.92 percent) and did not retain his council seat.
This was a much-publicized race as Engle, Mays and Wallace ran as a package and faced scrutiny on social media, partly because of time Wallace spent in jail more than 30 years ago in Kentucky while serving as an elected official. Anonymous packages were sent to Engle, Wallace and the Gazette chronicling Wallace’s history but he embraced his past and said it led him to become a pastor and receive a pair of doctorates.
Caupp and Louderback ran on a platform of being watchdogs of taxpayer money, pointing out that they were the only two on council who wanted the voters to have input on whether the city should build a new administration building.
