Jim Gibson Henderson's new mayor

      Jim Gibson, whose family has had a strong presence in Henderson politics, won the mayor's seat outright in Tuesday night's primary election.
      The attorney for American Pacific Corp. received more than 50 percent of the votes cast and was automatically elected.
      Councilman David Wood received 17 percent of the vote, Henderson building inspector Dennis Augspurger received 25 percent of the vote and Kenny Rogers, an equipment operator, received 6 percent.
      "Right now, the feeling of having won this thing is overwhelming," Gibson said from his home, where he was celebrating with about 100 friends and supporters Tuesday night.
      "But our objective was to try and get this over in the primary, and that's how we conducted our campaign."
      He attributed his victory to a grass-roots campaign that had "a couple hundred people" walking door to door, as well as his community activism.
      Augspurger said he anticipated coming in second, beating out Wood, an incumbent councilman with more name recognition.
      "We knew Gibson would be the challenge," Augspurger said. "They underestimated me. Second place would have been great if Gibson hadn't gotten (52) percent."
      Gibson will take office June 17 and replace Robert Groesbeck, who decided not to seek re-election.
      Wood, despite raising the most money in contributions, came in third. Wood's campaign contributions totaled $97,100. Gibson followed with $93,468; Augspurger received $26,642; and Rogers received $1,500.
      Wood said Tuesday night that he was disappointed in the turnout of Henderson residents to the polls.
      "There were just 12,000 people who turned out," Wood said. "But I'm ready to move forward from here."
      Wood still retains his seat on the council. His term ends in 1999.
      One focus of the race was the discussion over whether corruption exists at City Hall.
      Incumbent David Wood had alleged the corruption in his campaign literature. He also fought against it, he said.
      Gibson, however, refrained from addressing the topic of corruption at City Hall mainly because he has said he isn't sure it exists.
      However, Gibson said one of his priorities if elected would be to try to ease the infighting among council members.
      Gibson's father was the late state Sen. Jim Gibson, who served in the Legislature for almost 30 years and was honored with an elementary school named after him.
      Also, Gibson Road is named after his paternal grandfather, Fred Gibson, who was the first superintendent of the BMI complex.
      Gibson most recently served on the Clark County Bond Oversight Committee.
     Review-Journal Mary Hynes contributed to this report.