Ballotpedia's review of the results in November 2017's top mayoral races
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November 8, 2017
Every day, local government officials make significant budget and policy decisions that impact the lives of their residents. The laws and policies enacted by local officeholders not only change the course of the places they live; these ordinances can start trends that influence cities and townships across the United States. If states are the laboratories of democracy, cities are often the first to test hypotheses about what constitutes good government and policy.
Despite this influence, municipal elections are often overlooked by voters. From 1999 to 2011, turnout in odd-year mayoral elections in the nation's 144 largest cities ranged from 18.3 to 26.6 percent, according to a study by the Knight Foundation and Lake Research Partners.[1] However, this is not the case for all municipal elections. Ballotpedia found significant voter interest and engagement in the following four mayoral elections this Tuesday:
- In Charlotte, North Carolina, a contest was waged between the Democratic and Republican nominees for an open seat after the incumbent mayor was ousted in the Democratic primary.
- In St. Petersburg, Florida, the Democratic mayor competed with a Republican ex-mayor of the city who had trailed him by only 70 votes in the August primary.
- In Minneapolis, Minnesota, an embattled Democratic mayor attempted to win a second term despite facing 15 challengers and failing to win the endorsement of her party.
- In Seattle, Washington, two Democratic candidates from different wings of their party fought for an open seat after the former Democratic mayor left office due to sexual abuse allegations.
On November 7, 2017, 30 of the largest 100 cities in the U.S. by population held municipal elections. Mayoral offices were up for election in 20 of those cities, as were many city council seats and other local government offices. Stay tuned for our second report at the end of this week, which will highlight statistics on municipal government elections held across the country.
Charlotte, North Carolina
☑ 
Councilwoman Vi Lyles
☐ 
Councilman Kenny Smith
In Charlotte, the city's response to the shooting of Keith Lamont Scott by police, as well as its relationship with the state government after the city passed its non-discrimination ordinance in 2016, were significant issues during the campaign. The general election put Councilwoman Vi Lyles (D) against Councilman Kenny Smith (R) as each vied to become Charlotte’s seventh different mayor since 2009. A Smith win would have made Charlotte the third-largest city in the U.S. with a Republican mayor after San Diego (Kevin Faulconer) and Jacksonville (Lenny Curry). In winning, Lyles became the city's first black female mayor.
Polling in October had pointed to a close general election contest, with a survey by Spectrum News and SurveyUSA showing Lyles favored by 41 percent of residents, Smith by 40 percent, and 19 percent undecided. The 2015 mayoral election had also been tight; Jennifer Roberts (D) defeated Edwin Peacock (R) with 52.3 percent of the vote. However, the 2017 election did not turn out close. Lyles won by over 16 percentage points and received more than 58 percent of the vote. Lyles had previously defeated the incumbent, Roberts, in the Democratic primary election by nearly 10 percentage points.
St. Petersburg, Florida
- ☑ Rick Kriseman (i)
- ☐ Rick Baker
St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman (D) survived a close challenge from former Mayor Rick Baker (R), who had been elected to the city’s top job in 2001 and re-elected in 2005. Four years ago, Kriseman defeated Baker’s successor, Bill Foster, to win his first term. Mayoral elections in St. Petersburg have been close recently, with the winner receiving more than 56 percent only once dating back to 2001:[2]
| St. Petersburg mayoral election results, 2001-2017 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Winner | Percent | Opponent | Percent |
| 2001 | Rick Baker (R) | 56.0% | Kathleen Ford (D) | 43.1% |
| 2005 | Rick Baker (R) | 69.8% | Ed Helm (D) | 29.4% |
| 2009 | Bill Foster (R) | 52.7% | Kathleen Ford (D) | 47.3% |
| 2013 | Rick Kriseman (D) | 55.9% | Bill Foster (R) | 44.1% |
| 2017 | Rick Kriseman (D) | 51.6% | Rick Baker (R) | 48.4% |
Polling before the August primary election showed Baker with about a 6 percentage point lead over Kriseman. If either candidate had received a majority of the votes in the primary, he would have won the mayoral election outright. Four days before the primary, former President Barack Obama (D) endorsed Kriseman and said that he was the best choice to move the city forward. The primary was close, with Kriseman and Baker separated by 70 votes. The presence of four other candidates meant that both Kriseman and Baker received just over 48 percent of the vote, and neither obtained a majority.[3][4] Twelve days before the general election, former Vice President Joe Biden (D) also endorsed Kriseman. The most recent poll, conducted the weekend before the election, showed Kriseman with a lead over Baker of 47.5 percent to 45.6 percent with about 7 percent undecided.[5][6]
Minneapolis, Minnesota
☐ Betsy Hodges (i)
☐ Raymond Dehn
☐ Al Flowers
☑ Jacob Frey
☐ Tom Hoch
☐ Gregg Iverson
☐ Nekima Levy-Pounds
☐ Aswar Rahman
☐ Charlie Gers 
☐ L.A. Nik 
☐ Troy Benjegerdes (Farmer Labor)
☐ Ron Lischeid (People Over Politics)
☐ David Rosenfeld (Socialist Workers Party)
☐ Ian Simpson (The Idea Party)
☐ Captain Jack Sparrow (Basic Income Guarantee)
☐ David John Wilson (Rainbows Butterflies Unicorns)
Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges (DFL) lost her bid for a second term to Councilman Jacob Frey (DFL). The outcome of the election was not determined until the day after the election, since the city uses ranked choice voting (RCV) and no candidate received a majority of first-preference votes. In an RCV system, voters select their first, second, and third choice of candidates when they cast their ballot. If no candidate wins a majority of first-preference votes, the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated. Any ballots that had that candidate as their first choice are reviewed and the votes for the second-choice candidate on those ballots are then added to each total. This procedure is repeated until one candidate has won a majority of votes.
Members of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL), the state's affiliate of the national Democratic Party, have held the mayor's seat since 1978. However, neither the DFL nor the Republican Party made an endorsement in the 2017 election. The Republican Party didn't field a candidate for mayor, and none of the seven DFL candidates who vied for the party's endorsement at its convention won the 60 percent of the vote required to secure it. Dehn placed first with 32 percent of the vote, Frey took second with 28 percent, and Hodges came in third with 24 percent.[7][8][9][10]
A high-profile shooting of an Australian citizen by a Minneapolis police officer in July 2017, as well as other police-involved shootings, caused the issues of police culture and administration of the city's police department to become central topics in this campaign. This debate extended to broader racial equity and race relations problems in the city, including daily police-community relations, housing accessibility, and employment and income gaps.
Seattle, Washington
On September 13, former Seattle Mayor Ed Murray (D) resigned after receiving multiple allegations of past sexual abuse. This left the Seattle mayorship open for a newcomer to take office, and the race attracted 21 candidates. Although Seattle conducts its elections entirely by mail and final vote totals have not been tabulated yet, former U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan had a large enough lead from ballots received by election day to be declared the winner. Durkan is Seattle's first lesbian mayor and its first female mayor since Bertha Knight Landes served from 1926 to 1928.[11][12]
Durkan and community activist Cary Moon had advanced out of the primary election with 28 percent and 18 percent of the vote, respectively. Although the office is officially nonpartisan, both Durkan and Moon identify as Democrats. Durkan received notable endorsements from Murray, The Seattle Times, and the Washington State Council of County and City Employees, while Moon's notable endorsements included Democracy for America, King County Democrats, and the Seattle Education Association. The main issues during the campaign were housing costs, homelessness, the city budget, and a recently-passed income tax ordinance on high-wage earners.
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ Knight Foundation, “Why millennials don’t vote for mayor, Barriers and motivators for Local Voting,” accessed November 7, 2017
- ↑ Pinellas County, “Election Results,” accessed November 7, 2017
- ↑ Tampa Bay Times, “Kriseman takes lead in latest poll,” November 6, 2017
- ↑ Politico, "Obama makes rare endorsement in crucial St. Petersburg race," August 25, 2017
- ↑ Tampa Bay Times, "How big of a deal is St. Pete mayor’s race? Joe Biden just weighed in.," October 26, 2017
- ↑ Tampa Bay Times, "Rick vs. Rick: St. Pete Mayor Rick Kriseman completes comeback," November 8, 2017
- ↑ Minneapolis Star Tribune, "Minneapolis DFLers Fail to Endorse Mayoral Candidate," July 8, 2017
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs nameddfl - ↑ Minneapolis Star Tribune, "Minneapolis Republicans Endorse Six Candidates for City Elections," July 19, 2017
- ↑ Minneapolis Mayor's Office, "Past and Present Mayors of Minneapolis," accessed August 18, 2017
- ↑ KOMO, "Mayor Ed Murray resigns after Seattle Times reports new accusations," September 12, 2017
- ↑ Seattle Times, "Jenny Durkan defeats Cary Moon to become Seattle’s first woman mayor since the 1920s," November 8, 2017
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