Denton election headed to runoff

Following up on the controversial municipal election in Denton, Texas: it looks like it's not over yet.

Denton Mayor Perry McNeill and rival Mark Burroughs are headed for a runoff after neither secured a majority of the vote in Saturday’s mayoral race.

Two other candidates, businessman Justin Bell and college student Darac Favre, combined to receive about 12 percent of the 3,330 votes cast — preventing either McNeill or Burroughs from reaching 50 percent and extending a bruising campaign for an­other month.

Mark Burroughs, a former councilmember, received 1,620 votes, or 48.6 percent of the total, in yesterday's ballot. Perry McNeill received 1,305 votes, or 39.2. The fact that Burroughs came just 46 votes short of winning the election outright clearly gave McNeill cause for concern:

McNeill, 72, a retired professor and engineer who is seeking a second term, said Saturday’s results surprised him. He is trying not to become the first mayor since 1990 to lose a re-election bid.

“I thought we might win outright, but that’s fine,” McNeill said. “We’ll just go forward.”

I've always thought of both Perry and Mark as amicable people, so it comes as some surprise to me that this mayoral election has apparently been one of the uglier ones in Denton's recent political history. McNeill and Burroughs, as well as concilmember Pete Kamp, faced lawsuits related to the city's interpretation of its term limits. Burroughs came under conflict-of-interest scrutiny related to the work his law firm does for the city, and the amount of money he spent in the campaign ($45,000, compared to McNeill's $16,600) also became an issue. For Burroughs, that worked out to just under $28 per vote in another poorly-participated local election.

McNeill expressed disappointment with the turnout, which represented about 6 percent of Denton’s 55,289 registered voters. He said he would continue to campaign on his record. “I think I have a good record, and I’m surprised we didn’t have more folks recognize that,” McNeill said. “So I’m just going to push that harder.”

I'm not sure why Perry should be so surprised; turnout for municipal elections in Denton has historically been abysmal. It's not just due to the large numbers of transient students living in the city, either; when I lived and worked in Denton I noticed that so many longtime residents couldn't be bothered to participate in municipal processes, be they public hearings for zoning changes or local elections. I can't help but wonder if the city's practice of staggered term cycles, wherein the mayor and two at-large seats are up for election in even-numbered years and the four district council seats are up for election in odd-numbered years, is at least partly to blame. Very few other cities stagger terms like this, and I can see how local voters would find it confusing.

In other election news, councilmember Joe Mulroy narrowly won re-election, Pete Kamp successfully made the jump from district councilmember to at-large councilmember, and Rudy Moreno narrowly won the district seat being vacated by Kamp. Like Perry McNeill, Mulroy and Moreno served on the city's Planning and Zoning Commission while I was an employee there. I always thought the Rudy Moreno was an informed and sensible voice on the Commission, so I'm glad to see him on Council.

The runoff election for Mr. McNeill and Mr. Burroughs will be held on June 14th.