PEORIA - Two new faces will join the City Council while the three incumbents return.
Ryan Spain, a 24-year-old public policy manager for the Heartland Partnership, and Jim Montelongo, a 39-year-old business owner, both secured the open at-large seats being vacated by retiring members Chuck Grayeb and John Morris.
In an unofficial, final tally, Spain, running for public office for the first time, placed third with 11,894 votes, or 16.3 percent. Montelongo, who ran unsuccessfully for a 4th District seat in 2001, placed fifth with 7,773 votes, or 10.6 percent.
But it was veteran at-large Councilman Gary Sandberg who was top vote-getter with 13,767 votes, or 18.8 percent.
Incumbent Eric Turner came in second with 11,912 votes, or 16.3 percent, and George Jacob came in fourth with 9,656 votes, or 13.2 percent.
Jacob was appointed to the council two years ago. This was his first run for public office.
Ten people were vying for the five at-large seats, culled from the initial 14 who ran in the primary election. The winners will serve four-year terms.
Overall voter turnout was better than the primary - which only saw 9.8 percent of the city’s registered voters come to the polls - but still low. Only 22.6 percent, or 15,149 voters of the city’s total 67,011 registered voters, cast a ballot Tuesday even with the good weather.
For more on this story, read Wednesday’s Journal Star.
Election Day '09 was a roller-coaster for election reformers. Instant runoff voting had a great night in Minnesota, where St. Paul voters chose to implement IRV for its city elections, and Minneapolis voters used IRV for the first time—with local media touting it as a big success. As the Star-Tribune noted in endorsing IRV for St. Paul, Tuesday’s elections give the Twin Cities a chance to show the whole state of Minnesota the benefits of adopting IRV. There were disappointments in Lowell and Pierce County too, but high-profile multi-candidate races in New Jersey and New York keep policymakers focused on ways to reform elections; the Baltimore Sun and Miami Herald were among many newspapers publishing commentary from FairVote board member and former presidential candidate John Anderson on how IRV can mitigate the problems of plurality elections.