DECATUR - With the deadline passed for filing to run in the 2009 city council and mayoral races, candidates for the two-year seat on the city council could be poised for a primary.

Filing half an hour before the 5 p.m. Monday deadline, 23-year-old farmer Adam Brown submitted his petitions to run for both the two-year and four-year council seats, bringing the number running for the two-year seat to five, which City Clerk Celeste Harris said would necessitate a primary race.

Councilman Larry Foster, Decatur Tribune reporter Pat McDaniel, local businesswoman Marcia Phillips and Derek Wheeler will compete for the two-year seat.

Prior to the city council meeting Monday, Brown said he soon would decide whether he will run for one of the three seats with four-year terms or for the two-year seat. Harris said Brown has until 5 p.m. Dec. 22 to decide or be taken out of the race altogether.

Other candidates stepped up as well.

Martha Montgomery Lattimore joined local businessman Stephen Daniels and city Councilman Mike McElroy as mayoral candidates.

Yvonne Shaw and Julie Moore Wolfe, formerly of the Greater Decatur Chamber of Commerce, joined schoolteacher Gloria Bates-Cole, Councilman Dan Caulkins, the Rev. Carey A. Grady, consultant Matthew Jackson, firefighter and union leader Adam Ruderman and Councilwoman Betsy Stockard as four-year seat candidates.

Two-term Councilman Shad Edwards confirmed he will not seek re-election in April.

A lottery to determine ballot order for those who showed up first thing in the morning will be at 9 a.m. Thursday in the Decatur Civic Center.

If necessary, a primary election would be Feb. 24. The general election is April 7.

City Council candidates

Gloria Bates-Cole, 56, seeking four-year term; Adam Brown, 23, four-year or two-year term; Dan Caulkins IV, 62, four year; Jerry Dawson, 53, four year; the Rev. Carey Grady, four year; Matthew Jackson, 42, four year; Adam Ruderman, four year; Betsy Stockard, 62, four year; Larry Foster, 62, two year; Patrick McDaniel, 60, two year; Marcia Phillips, 65, two year; Derek Wheeler, two year.

Mayoral candidates

Stephen Daniels, 53; Mike McElroy, 57

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