The races for chairman of the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners —- and the District 3 commissioner —- were so close at press time that it wasn't clear how the Aug. 5 runoffs would shape up.

Although incumbent Charles Bannister got more votes, Lorraine Green —- who left her District 1 seat for the chance to defeat him —- may have won enough to challenge him a second time.

And political newcomer Glenn Pirkle got a surprising number of votes —- 10 percent of the totals —- for a man who never held political office before and ran on two issues: getting rid of the storm water fee and streamlining county government.

In District 1, name recognition was a bonus for former Duluth Mayor Shirley Lasseter —- but it wasn't enough to spare her from a runoff for the seat on the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners.

What wasn't clear was whether she'd be facing Duluth businessman Bruce LeVell, owner of the Diamond Warehouse in Lawrenceville, or former Suwanee City Council member Carol Hassell.

Lasseter said it didn't matter to her.

"With three people in there, I would have hoped not to have had a runoff," Lasseter said from her campaign celebration at the Loafin' Leprechaun in Duluth. "But I'm not surprised at all. We're just tickled to death to be in a runoff."

Lasseter said she believes it was her tough stance on illegal immigration that made the biggest impression on voters in District 1. She has proposed a federal detention center be built in the metro area to house and quickly deport those here illegally to "take the burden off Gwinnett taxpayers."

"I think of all the calls I got from my constituents in District 1, illegal immigration was the No. 1 concern that they had," Lasseter said. They wanted to know "exactly how was this going to work," she said.

Voting at Duluth City Hall early on Tuesday, Matthew North, who works as a pool boy at St. Ives Country Club, said he voted for Lasseter because she helped make the town what it is today.

"Shirley Lasseter was mayor here my whole life," he said. "It's more of a comfort thing." But "she's helped build all this and allowed it to grow."

Duluth real estate investor Paul Buck said he came out to the polls early so he could lend support to "Mayor Shirley."

Why?

"She was mayor of Duluth and I know who she is," he said.

LeVell, who was appointed to both the MARTA and Gwinnett Village Community Improvement District boards, had focused his campaign on revitalization and increasing transit alternatives in the county.

A bitter mailer war with Hassell, who charged Lasseter with creating sanctuary for illegal immigrants in Duluth during her term as mayor, when the town and law enforcement officials organized a church-run center for day laborers, apparently didn't stick with voters.

Lasseter will face either LeVell or Hassell in the Aug. 5 runoff.