One Wichita council challenger appears to win, one race too close to call (Updated: 10:30 p.m.)
Update, 10:30 p.m.
In final unofficial results for Wichita City Council, District 6 incumbent Cindy Claycomb has apparently lost her seat to business woman Maggie Ballard.
Incumbent Brandon Johnson easily disposed of his challenger, Myron Ackerman, in District 1.
One race is too close to call. In District 3, challenger Mike Hoheisel is clinging to a 69-vote lead over incumbent Jared Cerullo.
Both candidates said they’re preparing for a nerve-wracking week or more of waiting on the final ballots, mostly late-arriving mail votes that have been postmarked in the past few days but will still be counted provided that they reach the election office by Friday.
At stake in that single race is whether the election will reverse a Republican majority that has been resistant to Mayor Brandon Whipple’s priority initiatives on progressive topics such as COVID-19 response, civil rights and ethics reform.
In District 6, Ballard holds an apparently insurmountable lead of 611 votes, with 54% to Claycomb’s 45%.
Johnson won over Ackerman with 78% of the vote. Ackerman got about 20%.
Update, 9 p.m.
Mike Hoheisel continues to hang on to a slim lead over incumbent Wichita City Council member Jared Cerullo in District 3.
With 20 of 25 precincts counted, it’s Hoheisel 50%, Cerullo 47%.
Because of the low turnout, the candidates are separated by only 92 votes.
Maggie Ballard continues to hold a 10%-plus lead on incumbent Cindy Claycomb in District 6. As of 9 p.m., it was Ballard 55%, Claycomb, 44%. They were separated by 465 votes with 13 of 24 precincts reporting.
In District 1, incumbent Brandon Johnson led challenger Myron Ackerman 80-20%
Update, 8:30 p.m.
With more than half of precincts counted, the District 3 race for Wichita City Council is tightening.
Mike Hoheisel, the early leader, continued to run ahead but the margin in the race has narrowed to 50% for Hoheisel to 48% for Jared Cerullo. Fifteen of 25 precincts have been counted there.
In District 6, the race tightened only slightly, with Maggie Ballard holding on to a 56% to 44% lead over incumbent Cindy Claycomb. In that race, only nine of 24 precincts are reporting.
Incumbent Brandon Johnson continued to lead with 82% of the votes to Myron Ackerman’s 17%, with 14 of 28 precincts reporting in District 1.
Update, 8:05 p.m.
As the first Election Day votes were counted, City Council challengers Mike Hoheisel and Maggie Ballard continued to maintain leads they built in advance ballots.
With seven of 24 precincts reporting, Ballard continued to lead the race with 57% to 42% for incumbent Cindy Claycomb in District 6.
Hoheisel was also holding onto his lead, at 53% to 45% for incumbent Jared Cerullo in District 3.
Incumbent Brandon Johnson was easily winning over challenger Myron Ackerman, 83% to 17%, with nine of 28 precincts counted in District 1.
Update, 7:55 p.m.
Challengers Mike Hoheisel and Maggie Ballard took an early lead in the first election returns.
In advance votes, Hoheisel led appointed incumbent Jared Cerullo about 54% to 44%.
Ballard led Incumbent Cindy Claycomb 57% to 42%.
Incumbent Brandon Johnson led challenger Myron Ackerman with 85% of the vote.
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The polls have closed and votes are being counted in three Wichita City Council races that could change the political makeup of the council for the next two years.
Although council races are technically nonpartisan, all three contests matched a Democrat against a current or former Republican.
In District 1, council member Brandon Johnson, a Democrat, squared off against Myron Ackerman, Republican.
In District 3, an appointed incumbent Republican, Jared Cerullo, faced a challenge from Mike Hoheisel, the Democratic brother of Republican state legislator Nick Hoheisel.
And in District 6, incumbent Cindy Claycomb, who changed her registration to independent from Republican to run for council, was challenged by Maggie Ballard, a Democrat.
Ackerman never really mounted a substantial campaign, and Johnson is expected to win re-election easily.
The other two seats have the potential to change the balance of power on the council in favor of Democratic priorities.
Assuming a Johnson win, victories by Ballard and Hoheisel would give Mayor Brandon Whipple, a Democrat, a potential working majority on the council, where he’s spent his first two years swimming uphill on issues such as ethics reform, COVID response and a controversial anti-discrimination ordinance.
Throughout the campaign season, the incumbents enjoyed a huge fundraising advantage over the challengers.
That was most apparent in District 6, where incumbent Claycomb had spent more than $115,000 as of the Oct. 21 reporting deadline, with $36,500 available for the stretch run. She raised huge sums from the city’s development and business communities.
Ballard spent $23,000, but the Kansas Democratic Party stepped in and funded several additional mailers in the district. She had $18,000 available for the final days of the campaign.
In District 3, Cerullo outspent Hoheisel $13,000 to $6,000, although the city firefighters union, which supported Hoheisel, weighed in with mailers on his behalf.
Cerullo has been criticized for a mailer he sent out last week claiming “Wichita firefighters support Jared” when in fact, the union endorsed Hoheisel and has been a vocal critic of the sitting District 3 council member.
Cerullo’s mailer used the trademarked logo and slogan of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation without permission, according to the local union. In a Facebook post, the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Local 135 said they contacted the national foundation, which requested that Cerullo stop using the trademarked materials immediately.
In one mid-October mailer, the local union claimed that “If Jared Cerullo will burn us, he’ll burn you” and “Some people will say anything to get elected.”
Mailings were also an issue in District 6, where Claycomb caught some backlash for touting her doctorate in a mailer that contrasted her academic qualifications against Ballard’s.
Ballard’s highest degree is a high school diploma. She attended the University of Kansas for two years before leaving school to buy her first business, a bar called Maggie’s Scotch and Soda, at age 22.
This story was originally published November 2, 2021 at 7:09 PM.
