Hoheisel wins late mail ballots, cements Democratic majority on Wichita City Council
Democratic challenger Mike Hoheisel claimed victory in the Wichita City Council District 3 race Friday evening after expanding his election-night lead over appointed incumbent Jared Cerullo.
“I’m looking forward to rolling up my sleeves and going to work, because there’s a lot of issues we’re facing down here on the southside,” Hoheisel said. “We need everybody to pull together. This is going to take a community effort to get us back on our feet.”
Hoheisel said the southeast Wichita district continues to suffer from the last 15 years of neglect as city resources have flowed to other areas.
“All the longtime southsiders have seen our community just steadily go downhill as meth has crept into our community, as mental health issues have gone unaddressed, as wages have failed to keep up with inflation,” he said. “People have lost their jobs, people have lost their livelihoods, property values have sunk and we’re just not getting quite the city services that we used to.”
Cerullo conceded the race and congratulated Hoheisel on “a hard-fought victory.”
“I’m fully confident he will begin tackling some of south Wichita’s problems on day one,” Cerullo said. “I hope that he is able to fulfill some of the promises he made on the campaign trail about some issues in south Wichita, such as mental health, substance abuse, homelessness.”
Hoheisel’s win in District 3 gives Mayor Brandon Whipple a younger and more progressive Democratic majority on the council for the next two years.
On Tuesday, voters ousted independent incumbent Cindy Claycomb, a former Republican, in favor of Democratic newcomer Maggie Ballard.
Council member Brandon Johnson, also a Democrat, easily held his seat against Republican Myron Ackerman, who didn’t mount a substantial campaign.
The Hoheisel-Cerullo race ended on election night with Hoheisel holding a narrow 69-vote lead.
State law requires that ballots mailed by Tuesday and received by Friday be counted, giving Cerullo some hope that late-arriving ballots could swing the election — as it did in a 2020 Sedgwick County Commission race, where Sarah Lopez trailed Michael O’Donnell on election night but wound up winning.
But the late ballots also swung Hoheisel’s direction, increasing his lead to 93 votes, prompting both candidates to declare the race over.
The election won’t be finalized until a Nov. 12 canvass by the County Commission, which will also have to consider any provisional ballots cast Tuesday and disputed mail ballots. But it is near certain the outstanding votes won’t be enough to sway the election.
As of the Friday update, Hoheisel’s vote total stands at 1,626, or 50.23%, to Cerullo’s 1,533, 47.36%.
Cerullo has served since March when he was appointed by the council to replace James Clendenin, who resigned rather than face official ouster proceedings after The Eagle revealed his role in a false smear campaign targeting Whipple’s mayoral run in 2019.
Cerullo said he will go back to running his business that provides content to radio stations around the country. Asked if he has any plans to seek office again, he said “not at the moment.”
Cerullo was part of a four-member Republican majority made up of himself, Bryan Frye, Jeff Blubaugh and Becky Tuttle.
When the offices turn over in January, the new council majority will be 4-3 for Democrats, counting Whipple, Johnson, Hoheisel and Ballard.
Frye, Blubaugh and Tuttle were not up for election this cycle.
This story was originally published November 5, 2021 at 7:29 PM.
