Incumbent Democrats sweep back into office
The Columbus City Council will remain a single-party legislature.
Democratic incumbents swept all three council seats that were up for election on the seven-member body, cementing the party’s hold on City Hall for at least two more years.
Council members Mitchell J. Brown, Shannon G. Hardin and Priscilla R. Tyson all won re-election on Tuesday. They defeated two challengers from within their party and a Republican, all of whom had advanced with the incumbents in an open primary in May.
With just a few precincts left to report Tuesday, Tyson had 24 percent of the vote, Hardin 23 percent and Brown 21 percent.
"We ran this race as a team," Tyson said. "If you saw one yard sign, you saw two others."
After an election in which Democrats opposed Democrats, Hardin said the local party needs to unify.
“It is our responsibility as the winners to reach out and pull these folks back into the party,” Hardin said.
The current council will remain largely intact in 2018. It will have one vacancy because Council President Zach Klein won his election for Columbus city attorney.
His council term will expire at the end of 2019, and the remaining council members will interview candidates to appoint someone to fill the remainder of that term.
It also will leave open the job of council president, a post Klein has held for nearly two years. One council member needs four votes on the council to become council president.
City Hall sources have said for months that Hardin, the youngest member on the council, and Tyson, its longest-tenured member, both want to hold that post.
Brown, the city’s former safety director, said City Hall is changing with a new city attorney and auditor for the first time in years.
“There’s a changing of the guard,” Brown said. “I happen to be part of the old guard and the new guard.”
The council will tackle several issues next year. It tabled a discussion earlier this year about whether seats should be added to the council, and the
mayor’s office has considered raising the city’s debt limit, which would require council approval to go before voters.
It also could consider new policies for tax breaks, after a city-commissioned study said Columbus is too generous with some incentives.
Groups protesting police violence against black residents have twice interrupted council meetings. Several residents have asked the council to make changes to the police division while the city bargains with the city’s police union over a new contract.
Jasmine Ayres, a candidate from the Yes We Can wing of the Democratic party, said it’s meaningful that elected officials are now talking about “police brutality” and changes to tax abatements.
Republican candidate Kieran Cartharn, who came in last with just 9 percent of the vote, said he’s not done.
“This was a hell of a campaign,” he told supporters. “We’re going to continue to challenge this weak mayor.”