NATCHEZ — Since 1988, Natchez has had only one mayor re-elected to office, yet incumbent aldermen are typically successful at keeping their positions for multiple terms — but why?

Most of the current aldermen say they believe the personal connection they have with the residents of their wards is the reason for their re-election success.

Ward 1 Alderwoman Joyce Arceneaux-Mathis, who was elected this week to serve a fifth consecutive term, said the aldermen deal with the problems that affect residents’ daily lives. Mathis said when aldermen help fix residents’ problems with potholes or overgrown lots, residents can see tangible results.

“People remember that stuff, those are the kinds of things that affect their day-to-day lives,” she said.

The mayor, however, has less interaction with the public than the aldermen, Mathis said, and deals with larger, long-term and sometimes ideological issues that cannot always be solved in one term.

“Jobs, a safer community, infrastructure, those are all long-term goals that the board and the mayor have to work on together and things people may not see immediate results on,” she said.

Mathis was among three incumbent aldermen to win in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, while Mayor Jake Middleton lost.

Ward 6 Alderman Dan Dillard said he does not believe residents’ real concerns are as grandiose as sometimes perceived.

“Often the calls you receive as an alderman are people wanting to know what you can do if there is a junk yard beside their house, potholes or drainage stopped up,” he said. “Those issues are what directly connects us to the people we represent.”

Mayoral candidate Larry L. “Butch” Brown, who was the last mayor to be elected for a second term, said the mayor is held to a higher accountability, even though Natchez government is designed as a weak mayor, strong board government.

“But I’ve always disagreed with that mindset that the mayor’s power is weak,” he said. “It’s only weak in the sense that you only vote in case of a tie.”

Brown said a most effective mayor should be capable of building consensus and facilitating discussion among the aldermen.

Republican mayoral candidate Bob Buie said he believes no mayor has been re-elected in the past 12 years because of the past three mayors’ lack of effective leadership.

Buie said he believes the success of incumbent aldermen is not reflective of a job well done but because of a lack of involvement and concern from residents for change in the city.

“It’s not the job they’re doing that gets them re-elected, I can assure you of that,” Buie said.

Buie said he supports term limits for all elected offices.

Mayoral candidate and former mayor Phillip West and Dillard said they believe the slow economy has also given mayors limited resources to work with in the past.

West said he believes the misconception that the mayor has more power than the aldermen hurts a mayor’s chances for re-election. West said he believes Natchez should rethink and change the weak mayor-strong board system of government.

“If you’re going to get blamed for everything, you should at least have some power to do something,” he said.

Independent mayoral candidate Bill Furlow said a mayor should be held more accountable than the aldermen. Furlow said he is not convinced Natchez’s system of government is the problem.

“I think sometimes what has been lacking is the central thought and ability that the mayor has to be able to get things done through convincing others that those are the right things to do,” Furlow said.

Brown, West and Furlow all agree that sometimes it takes more than eight years for a mayor to accomplish his or her goals.

West said he believes Natchez’s cycle of one-term mayors has hindered progress in the city.

“Four years is a very short time to really get a lot accomplished,” West said. “To accomplish anything of real significance, you have to develop relationships and networks and projects; it’s a slow process. I think it has hurt our community to some extent.”