April 14, 2003

Rivera Elected in Colorado Springs
By Brian Gould, USCM Intern

Colorado Springs voters elected the city's first Hispanic mayor on April 1 in a mail-ballot election that drew record numbers. Lionel Rivera won the mayoral race, which included seven candidates, receiving 27,090 votes, or 34 percent of the 78,894 ballots cast on Wednesday. According to the Associated Press, Rivera's campaign commercials featured him counting jellybeans, promising that the new council would be more conservative than the last.

City spokesman Darren Campbell reported that 46 percent of eligible voters mailed in their ballots by Tuesday's deadline. The previous best turnout for a municipal election was 30 percent in 1999.

Cieslewicz Elected in Madison
By Brian Gould, USCM Intern

Newly elected Madison (WI) Mayor Dave Cieslewicz narrowly defeated former two-time Mayor Paul Soglin on April 1. Soglin had served as mayor of Madison in the 1970's and again in the late 1990's. With all precincts reported, Cieslewicz had 29,717 votes, or 51 percent to Soglin's 28,528 votes, or 49 percent. The two candidates ran an extremely close race since the February primary where they eliminated incumbent Mayor Sue Bauman.

Cieslewicz, the co-founder of an anti-urban sprawl group, campaigned saying the city was in need of a new perspective. "I promise that I will leave the city in better condition than I found it," said Cieslewicz in his victory speech.

Neal Re-Elected in Corpus Christi into Fourth Term
By Erin Wenglekowski, USCM Intern

Mayor Lloyd Neal will be serving his fourth term as mayor of Corpus Christi, Texas after winning the election held Saturday, April 5th. The mayor was not the only incumbent reelected for another term; every council member elected Saturday, was the incumbent in their race. Mayor Neal commented that these results reflected positively on what the council has done. "I think this is a good indication that people are reasonably satisfied," he said. "I hope this is an endorsement of the way we ran the city for the past two years." The city endorsed the candidates with only an 11.88 percent voter turnout, the lowest in more than 30 years.

Mayor Neal is the Chairman of the Corpus Christi Office for Hilb, Rogal and Hamilton (HRH) Insurance Company, the ninth largest agency system company in the United States, and has been an Adjunct Professor of Insurance at Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi since 1973.

Mayans Elected in Wichita
By Erin Wenglekowski, USCM Intern

Wichita elected Carlos Mayans as their new mayor Tuesday, April 1st. Mayans defeated theater owner Bill Warren, his only opponent on the ballot, 53 percent to 15 percent. He also beat write-in candidates Joan Cole, a former city council member; and Jane Knight, the outgoing mayor's wife. They were among several write-in candidates, who received about 31 percent of the vote.

Economic issues stemming from more than 12,000 aircraft layoffs since the Sept 11 attacks dominated the mayor's race. Mayans said that his first goal is to forge relationships with other elected officials to help the city recover from these thousands of aviation manufacturing layoffs. "At times of economic uncertainty, people feel more secure if leadership is united," Mayans said.

Carlos Mayans is a Cuban native who fled Fidel Castro's communist government, at the age of 13 and earned a reputation as a champion of public meetings and public access to open records as a five-term state legislator from west Wichita.