The town of Wendell got a new leader Tuesday, with J. Harold Broadwell winning the mayoral election on a platform that promised to bring more businesses to the town and look more carefully at the sudden surge of growth the small eastern Wake County town has seen in recent years.

Broadwell, a first-time political candidate, won the town's mayoral election with 68 percent of the vote, beating out his two opponents -- Charlie "Buddy" Scarboro Jr., a veteran board of commissioners member, and Carl Joseph Schwenk Jr. -- for the open seat.

"There's a lot to do and a lot to learn," said Broadwell, a lawyer with his practice in town. He promised to "try to get this town to pull together."

The race was decided by a quarter of the 3,004 registered voters in Wendell, with 761 votes cast. The town's population hovers at just under 5,000 but is expected to double in coming years with the arrival of several planned residential developments. The biggest project in the works is Wendell Falls, a residential and commercial project that will add 4,000 residential units to the town and account for a large percentage of new arrivals.

Wendell's getting a new mayor went against the grain of an election that returned several incumbent mayors and veteran officials to office in the other nine Wake County towns where voters cast ballots Tuesday.

One of the biggest issues in Wendell is how to deal with the expected population increase and whether the town will have enough retail establishments to cater to those new residents. Wendell has few restaurants, and residents often have to head out of town to run their basic errands. Broadwell said he hopes to bring more stores to downtown Wendell, where half of the storefronts are empty.

Tuesday also brought victory for Carol R. Hinnant and Sid Baynes, elected to the two at-large positions on the Board of Commissioners. Broadwell, Baynes and Hinnant, the only incumbent of the five commissioner candidates, had formed an unofficial ticket with supporters clustering the signs of the three candidates in shop windows and on front lawns around town.

Hinnant is the sister-in-law of outgoing Wendell Mayor Timothy Hinnant, who announced his decision not to seek re-election earlier this year.

Baynes and Carol Hinnant will be joined at commissioner meetings by Scarboro, who's in mid-term in another board seat. Scarboro is a retired Raleigh firefighter currently serving on the Board of Commissioners, a position he has had for more than a decade. During the election, Scarboro said he hoped to see more businesses come to the town to offset the taxes shouldered by residents.

Schwenk, the third mayoral candidate, remained a bit elusive with no signs of an active campaign. He filed papers to run for mayor after he was told he couldn't keep a horse in the yard of his suburban Wendell home. He got a little more than 1 percent of the vote Tuesday.