Yesterday marked election day in many of our Kansas City communities, and we had a pretty great day. My hats off to all of the winners.
We had a few big wins yesterday, that I wanted to leave a quick note about:
In Merriam, KS, mayor Carl Wilkes, who pushed for breed specific language in their dog ordinance in 2006 finished 3rd place in their 3 person race. Ken Sissom will be replacing him as mayor.
In Olathe, KS, Marge Vogt, who pushed hard against BSL in her city, retained her seat with 65% of the vote. Newcomer Ron Ryckman is also a welcome addition to the Olathe council.
Gladstone, MO elected 2 new city council members last night. Dog friendly candidate Barry McCullough has now joined the ranks on the council, replacing Wayne Beers who voted in favor of the city's breed ban in 2006. Mark Revenaugh, who voted against the ban in 2005, retained his position.
In Grandview, MO, we got a great candidate in office in Michael Ferguson. Mike was running unopposed, but it is great to see him finally in office. I met Mike several years ago when he interviewed me for his online interview program "Missouri Viewpoints" and I'm personally very excited for him to be in office.
One of the bigger wins of the night was in Raytown, MO, where Shane Par-Due upset Greg Walters in the election. Walters had held that council seat for 25 years, but 3 years ago he proposed an ordinance that would have banned 7 - 10 breeds of dogs from the city -- which brought out nearly 100 Raytown voters to a city council meeting in protest. Walters has since admitted that that one act may have cost him more votes than anything he has ever done in his political career. That very thing became a point of the political debate late in the campaign. Par-Due received 57% of the votes. Of other note, City Councilman Jim Hamilton also maintained his seat receiving 59% of the votes. Hamilton voted against Walters' ordinance and also attended a KCDA sponsored community forum prior to the ordinance. Welcome aboard Shane and welcome back Jim.
Meanwhile, in one non-local election that I am excited about, Jim Suttle advanced to the general election for the open Mayoral seat in Omaha. He will contest Hal Daub in the general election on May 12. Both candidates are running for the office vacated by Mike Fahey -- who was one of the leading proponents of Omaha's new breed specific law. Daub, who was mayor of Omaha from 1994-2001 was a favorite to advance. Suttle, who from the get-go was against the breed specific ordinance, was running against Jim Vokal, who was another proponent of the ordinance. In the end, Daub received 35.6% of the votes, while Suttle received 34.3% of the votes. Vokal, who gave up his city council seat to run for mayor, received only 28% of the vote. I know a large number of dog owners in Omaha who campaigned and voted yesterday and are going to be thrilled to have Vokal out of the mix.
All in all, it was a pretty great day. Not perfect...but very good. Hats off to all of the winners in elections yesterday. I wish you much success in your new (or renewed) ventures into public service. And I hope that you make decisions with knowledge, wisdom, and empathy.
Now THATS what I'm talking about!
Congrats to the winners, and to the dog owners who helped elect them.
Posted by: EmilyS | April 08, 2009 at 08:07 PM