By David W. Burns
November 11, 2008

Along with this year’s historical presidential election, 404 cities with a population of 30,000 or more will have had a municipal election this year. While incumbents did well, a number of surprise upsets and close contests highlight the November elections.

After a tough re-election battle, Honolulu (HI) Mayor Mufi Hannemann, chair of the Conference’s Tourism, Arts, Parks, Entertainment, and Sports committee, was re-elected with 58 percent of the vote to serve a second term. Hannemann’s race became close after voters started to question the high cost of the city’s $4 billion Light Rail project. He defeated city councilwoman Ann Kobayashi.

Conference of Mayors’ Second Vice President Burnsville (MN) Mayor Elizabeth B. Kautz won her re-election after Burnsville’s downtown revitalization became a focus of critics, specifically, the construction of a $20 million Arts center. She defeated Jerry Willenburg by more than 2,000 votes despite narrowly coming in second to him during the primary.

Fresno (CA) will have a new mayor starting in 2009 with Ashley Swearengin, a director of a local job creation organization by a margin of ten percentage points. Current Mayor Alan Autry, famous for playing “Bubba” in the television series “In the Heat of the Night” was first elected in 2000 and could not run for re-election due to term limits.

Virginia Beach (VA) Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf, who has served as mayor for more than two decades, lost her re-election bid to W. D. “Will” Sessoms, Jr., 39.97 percent to 33.97 percent. As U.S.MAYOR goes to press, despite 26,778 absentee ballots still not counted, the race is separated by 10,000 votes.

Sacramento (CA) Mayor Heather Fargo lost her re-election bid to former NBA basketball player Kevin Johnson, 57-42. Johnson, who played for the Phoenix Suns, but originally grew up in the Sacramento-area, ran on the issues of dealing with Sacramento’s budget crisis along with community redevelopment.

Former Virginia Governor Richmond (VA) Mayor L. Douglas Wilder did not seek reelection and appears to be succeeded by Dwight Clinton Jones, a Delegate from Virginia’s state legislature. While results are not yet official, it appears he will have won a majority of Richmond’s districts, the requirement for election. Wilder, when elected Governor of Virginia in 1989, became the nation’s first African-American Governor. He was elected mayor of Richmond in 2004 and was recognized for his service at the 76th Annual Meting in Miami last June.

A list of election results is available on our web site at usmayors.org/elections.