In an election where roughly only 4 percent of the registered voters cast a ballot, both Kyle City Council races ended in a runoff with newcomer-to-city politics Damon Fogley, who only missed winning outright by four votes, will go up against former council member Jaime Sanchez in District 5 and Daphne Tenorio will square off against incumbent Tammy Swaton in District 6.
Fogley seemed a little bit disappointed in the final results, but looked forward to the three-week runoff campaign. Fogley finished with 49.68 percent of the vote, to 38.02 percent for Sanchez and 12.3 percent for Laurie Lutrell in the election’s only citywide race.
"I thought we might have won it without a runoff, based on the early voting results (in which he received almost 53% of the votes cast)," Fogley said "But some of those who wanted to go vote today were eliminated by the 30-day registration requirement and others left town because of Mother’s Day weekend."
Sanchez just barley outpolled Fogley on election day, collecting 122 votes to Fogley’s 121. More than half of all voters, 56.8 percent, voted early.
"I have a lot of respect for Jaime," Fogley said. "He will be a formidable opponent. But I think I am the better person for the job."
Fogley said his campaign was hampered by his poor name recognition, which he tried to overcome by peppering the city with campaign signs. He said although his campaign treasury is depleted, he believes he will be able to raise the money needed for the runoff campaign.
"I plan to keep on truckin’," he said.
Sanchez spent election night with his family at his home and said he was too tired to speak when I contacted him.
In the single-member District 6, Tenorio got more of her voters to the polls on Saturday than Swaton and finished with 42.19 percent of the total vote to Swaton’s 37.11 percent. The two were deadlocked with 58 votes apiece in the early voting, however the one absentee vote cast in this election went to Tenorio. Dex Ellison finished with 20.7 percent.
"I am thrilled to get the opportunity to engage the citizens of Kyle in the election process one more time," Tenorio said. "I plan to knock on a lot of doors between now and the runoff and communicate my ideas to the voters. Communication is what it’s all about."
Swaton also expressed pleasure with the result.
"I’m happy," she said. "I feel good about it. I’m looking forward to the runoff. I plan to show the people in my district just how close this race was (Tenorio finished with 13 more votes than Swaton) and convince them this is why their vote matters, why they need to get out and vote. I’m excited about the prospects."
My attempts to contact Luttrell and Ellison both failed, although I left voice messages asking them to call me if they wished to comment on the outcome of today's election.
The City Charter declares the runoff must take place "on the third Saturday following the election," which, by my calendar, means May 30. Of course, the charter also says "The general city election shall be held annually on the first Saturday in May," which means this election should have taken place last week. But there is a caveat. That clause in the charter continues with these words "or if such not be authorized the date nearest thereto as may be established by law."
So I’m figuring there was a "thereto" or three thrown into the scheduling along the way.
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