Mayoral Elections Show Strength for Most Incumbents (U.S. Conference of Mayors)
New Leaders Coming to Miami, Charlotte, Dayton, Houston, Atlanta, Seattle, other Cities
By David W. Burns
Despite much of the national attention on gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey, over a hundred cities across the country held elections for mayor on November 3, many of which were high profile races.
In Miami, where Immediate Conference of Mayors Past President Mayor Manny Diaz is term limited, Tomás P. Regalado was elected with 71.67 percent of the vote defeating opponent Joe Sanchez.
Charlotte (NC) will have a new mayor with city councilmember Anthony Foxx beating fellow city councilmember John
Lassiter with 51.5 percent of the vote. Foxx is the first Democrat to be elected mayor of Charlotte since 1985.
In other cities where the incumbent was not on the ballot, Stamford (CT) will have a new mayor in Michael Pavia and Santa Barbara elected Helene Schneider. Stamford Mayor Daniel P. Malloy did not seek reelection, as he worked on a bid for Governor of Connecticut. In the case of Santa Barbara Mayor Marty Bloom, she was termed out. In Dayton (OH), a surprise upset came as incumbent Mayor Rhine McLin lost to Gary Leitzel by the margin of 48.5 to 51.5 percent. Only 878 votes separated Leitzel and McLin in the narrow victory.
As U.S.MAYOR heads to press, the Seattle race was too close to call despite Mike McGinn holding a slim lead over Joe Mallahan. Conference of Mayors President Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels placed third in the election back in August when
he was eliminated from the November 3 general election. At press time, McGinn’s lead was only .44 percent.
Big Win for Many Incumbents
Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino won an unprecedented fifth term as mayor. His victory over the challenger, Michael Flaherty, resulted in a 57-to-42 percent win for Menino.
In perhaps the highest profile race of all, New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who one year ago approved the New York City council’s measure to overturn term limits and paved the way for a third term, was reelected over city comptroller Bill Thompson.
Also reelected were Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman, Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory, Newark (CA) Mayor David W. Smith, Southfield (MI) Mayor Brenda L. Lawrence, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, Rochester (NY) Mayor Robert Duffy and Detroit Mayor Dave Bing.
Runoffs Ahead
There are still a number of high profile races where a run off is required. In Atlanta, Mary Norwood and Kasim Reed will face off December 1 to see who will be the next mayor. Norwood currently leads with 44.64 percent of the vote.
Houston will have to wait until December 12 to see who will succeed Mayor Bill White, who was termed out. The runoff will include City Controller Annise Parker and former city attorney Gene Locke. Parker beat Locke 31 percent to 26 percent in the November 3 election.
For complete election results, visit usmayors.org/elections.
Elections results research for this article was contributed by Art Slater, Jesse Davis, Anthony Zei and Jim Welfley.
