- JB
- Kemba Ford
The list of candidates who met Thursday’s filing deadline for a special election in state House District 91 indicates that name identification may play a major role in determining the winner. The seat was held for some four decades by the late, revered former House speaker Pro Tem Lois DeBerry, and the surname DeBerry is represented twice in the field of 11 candidates.
Dwight DeBerry, a political newcomer, is a cousin of Lois DeBerry, while Doris A. DeBerry-Bradshaw is the sister of District 90 Rep. John DeBerry (no relation to Lois). The extended Ford family figures with the filing of Kemba Ford, daughter of former state Senator John Ford, who is making her second electoral effort after running unsuccessfully for the City Council in 2011.
Other candidates in a fairly non-descript field are Raumesh Akbari, Joshua R. Forbes, Terica Lamb, Clifford Lewis, Kermit Moore, Gregory Stokes, Mary Taylor Wright, and Jim Tomasik. All except Tomasik, an independent, are running in the October 8th Democratic primary. No Republicans filed in District 91. The general election date is November 21.
