Incumbent Randy Wells won re-election in the City Commission District 4 race Tuesday night, but incumbent Mayor Craig Lowe and contender Ed Braddy will compete next month in a runoff election for Gainesville mayor.
This year’s city elections saw 12,215 voters or 14.92 percent of the city’s registered voters, cast ballots, according to the Supervisor of Elections’ Office site.
In the mayoral election, Braddy garnered 4,636 votes — 38.43 percent — while Lowe collected 4,406 votes, or 36.52 percent. Because neither candidate received a majority of the vote, a runoff election between the two will be April 16.
Braddy said he was proud of his campaign leading up to Tuesday’s election.
“If we keep things together,” he said, “we’ll be in a good spot for April 16.”
Lowe said he is looking forward to the runoff race as well. It was inevitable, he said, and the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s race were helpful in defining key issues.
“This is what I expected with this many candidates in the race,” he said. “The people of Gainesville have … two distinct viewpoints as to how Gainesville should move forward.”
Scherwin L. Henry received 2,058 votes, or 17.06 percent; Pete Johnson gathered 783 votes, or 6.49 percent; Donald Shepherd Sr. collected 53 votes; and Mark Venzke received 128 votes.
Mayoral candidate Mark Venzke said he was dissatisfied with the number of votes he received. Venzke said some voters who believed in him as a candidate voted for Braddy instead, adding that he believed Braddy was considered a more viable contender against Lowe.
“I’m guessing that was what was on the minds of a lot of voters,” Venzke said.
Voters also struck down a proposed city charter amendment that would place municipal elections every other year during odd-numbered years and extend commissioner and mayoral terms to four years instead of three. Out of the 11,424 votes cast on the charter, 56.36 percent voted “No.”
Meanwhile, in the District 4 City Commission race, Wells received a majority of the votes with 1,115 votes, or 53.63 percent. Alfredo Espinosa gathered 545 votes. W.E. “Mac” McEachern collected 419.
Wells said he plans to take “a little bit of a break” until he starts his term again as commissioner.
“I look forward to continuing to serve this community,” he said.
Espinosa said he was grateful for the turnout and support from his UF classmates.
“I’m so happy, because for the first time, the student body got together and backed a student candidate like never before,” he said.
Commissioner-elect Randy Wells, 45, celebrates his victory at the Supervisor of Elections office Tuesday evening. Wells won with 53.6 percent of the vote.
