2016 City Hall Election Results
Richmond, Virginia Shutterstock
While mayors win re-election in Miami and Honolulu, voters in Richmond, Va., and Cheyenne, Wyo., elect new leaders.
Here's a roundup of results from some of the mayoral races that took place on Election Day...
Lightning Rod Candidate Comes Up Short in Richmond
A sex scandal and other allegations involving candidate Joseph Morrissey drew a spotlight to the Richmond, Virginia, mayoral race in recent weeks.
But while Morrissey had been considered a frontrunner, he did not win Tuesday.
As of Wednesday around 5:30 p.m., unofficial voting returns posted by the Virginia Department of Elections showed Levar Stoney had captured about 35 percent of the electorate. Trailing him by 1,969 votes was Jack Berry.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Wednesday that Stoney looked to be the winner in the contest, but roughly 9,000 absentee ballots still needed to be counted.
Richmond chooses its mayor not according to the popular vote, The Times-Dispatch noted, but based on a mini-Electoral College system that requires a candidate to win five of nine voter districts. Stoney held leads in five districts early in the day Wednesday.
If absentee ballots change that, a runoff would be scheduled for Dec. 20.
Stoney, who is in his mid-30s, previously served as Secretary of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Morrissey mustered about 21 percent of the popular vote, according to the returns posted Wednesday, positioning him third among eight candidates listed in the results.
Incumbent Gimenez Prevails in Miami-Dade County
Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez won re-election Tuesday, defeating Raquel Regalado, an attorney and county school board member. Unofficial voting results showed Wednesday that Gimenez had 55 percent of the vote, compared to Regalado’s 44 percent. Gimenez was first elected as Miami-Dade mayor in 2011. During the campaign he touted that he had successfully backed “the largest tax cut in County history.”
Honolulu Mayor Wins Re-election
Incumbent Mayor Kirk Caldwell will keep his job as mayor of the City and County of Honolulu, which covers the island of Oahu and has about 1 million residents. Caldwell bested challenger Charles Djou, an Army combat veteran who has served on the Honolulu City Council. Caldwell took about 50 percent of the vote and Djou roughly 46 percent, according to state election results posted online on Wednesday. Caldwell was first elected to his post in 2012.
Baton Rouge Contest Headed for Runoff
Sharon Weston Broome, a Democrat and former Louisiana state senator, along with current state Sen. Mack "Bodi" White, Jr., a Republican, will advance to a Dec. 10 runoff to become the next mayor-president of East Baton Rouge Parish. Broome took home about 32 percent of the vote and White 29 percent, according to unofficial results from the state of Louisiana. The Times-Picayune pointed out that the race “is following a familiar script: an African-American Democrat from the city heading to a runoff against a white Republican from the suburbs.” Baton Rouge has been unsettled in recent months by catastrophic flooding, a controversial police shooting of a black man, and the killings of three law enforcement officers by a gunman.
First Woman Mayor Elected in Cheyenne
Marian Orr was elected Tuesday as mayor of Cheyenne, Wyoming. She is now slated to become the first woman to hold that office. Orr defeated another female candidate, Amy Surdam, with 55 percent of the vote, compared to Surdam’s 43 percent, according to unofficial election results posted Tuesday night by Laramie County. Cheyenne is Wyoming’s state capital and its most populous city, with about 63,000 residents. Orr has worked as a lobbyist and sits on the board of trustees for Cheyenne Regional Medical Center.
Bill Lucia is a Reporter for Government Executive's Route Fifty and is based in Washington, D.C.
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