By Ray Gronberg

gronberg@heraldsun.com; 419-6648

DURHAM -- Incumbents swept Durham's mayoral and City Council races Tuesday, in each rolling up 71 percent or more of the vote.

Mayor Bill Bell and Ward 3 Councilman Mike Woodard led the way, easily turning aside challengers Steven Williams and Allan Polak.

Unofficial returns show that Bell secured 8,233 votes to Williams' 2,345, for a winning margin of 77 percent to 22 percent.

Woodard bested Polak with 8,704 votes to the challenger's 1,307, for a top margin of 86 percent to 13 percent.

The Ward 1 and 2 races were slightly closer, but incumbents Cora Cole-McFadden and Howard Clement had no trouble fending off challengers Donald Hughes and Matt Drew.

"For me, it says that voters have confidence in the job we've been doing," Bell said as the last few precinct returns trickled in.

Cole-McFadden carried Ward 1 with 7,941 votes to Hughes' 2,449, a margin of 76 percent to 23 percent.

In Ward 2 Clement received 7,258 votes to Drew's 2,729, a margin of 71 percent to nearly 27 percent.

The top vote-getting challenger, Drew said his showing was "better than what we were shooting for," given his status as a registered Libertarian in a heavily Democratic town.

"As far as I'm concerned this is a positive result for me," he said, adding that he'd definitely look to run again. "I can only go up from here."

Drew also noted that there was a heavier-than-usual write-in vote in Ward 2. Unofficial returns showed that 180 people cast write-ins in that race. There were reports going in that supporters of Sylvester Williams, a candidate eliminated in last month's primary, were trying to muster write-ins.

Cole-McFadden and Clement both won Tuesday with bigger margins than they received in last month's primaries. Bell and Woodard faced single challengers in their races and didn't participate in the primary.

Williams' total was the best showing someone without experience in elected office has turned in against Bell in a mayoral race.

He ran ahead of the margins that airport security guard Jonathan Alston recorded in 2003 and 2005, but behind those of former Mayor Nick Tennyson in 2001 and former City Councilman Thomas Stith in 2007.

Like Drew, Williams thought he'd done well enough that a future run for office remains a possibility. "You will see me again," he said, adding that low voter turnout drove the incumbents' showing.

Woodard and Clement, though, said the incumbents' wins weren't an accident. They maintained that voters preferred experienced hands on the steering wheel given the economy and other problems.

"We just made a clearer case, and we showed why experience matters," Clement said. "The challengers didn't overcome that."

Hughes said the issues he and other challengers raised during the campaign -- neighborhood revitalization in his case and Williams', city finances in Drew's -- "will remain" topics for debate in the coming months.

"What I stood for during the campaign is what I'll stand for after," he added.

Polak, meanwhile, echoed Drew in saying he'll look for other ways to stay involved in community affairs. "It was an honor to be involved in the democratic process," he said.