One to go....
Scalf, Dutro, Brand win council seats
By Paul Minnis pminnis @ therepublic . com
Democrat Priscilla Scalf won Columbus City Council’s District 1 race Tuesday, guaranteeing Democrats will hold a seat on the otherwise Republican council.
George Dutro and Jesse Brand, at-large Republican council members, beat independent challenger Mike Lovelace to retain their seats.
Scalf, director of Eastside Community Center, earned 394 votes (54.8 percent) while her Republican oppo- nent, Sue Chapple, had 325 votes (45.2 percent).
Scalf, who first ran for council 20 years ago as an at-large candidate, said she was “excited and relieved” after a long campaign that left her feeling far from secure, even on election night as the results filtered into Democratic Party Headquarters.
She said she looks forward to representing East Columbus, a historically Democrat-voting area that has had August Tindell as its council representative 20 years. Only three councilmen have represented District 1 in the past 36 years with Ron Taylor and Carl Waggoner being the other two.
Tindell, who joined the City Council in 1987, has been the sole Democrat on the council since 1995. He will serve the rest of the year before Scalf takes over.
Chapple said she feels good about her campaign and knew the district would be a hard to win.
“I knew she’d be a strong opponent,” she said about Scalf, adding the challenge motivated her to knock on doors and work as hard on the campaign as she could.
Chapple said she was not discouraged and would run for the District 1 position again in four years.
Brand had 4,499 votes, Dutro had 3,656 votes and Lovelace had 1,829 votes. Only the top two vote getters in at-large races are elected.
Brand said he was humbled to be endorsed in an election after being appointed in 2004 to complete the unexpired term of John Brown.
Dutro said he is grateful for the opportunity to serve the city he loves for another four years.
The Republic photo by Andrew Laker
Priscilla Scalf, left, gets a hug from friend Margo Hughey during an election party Tuesday at Democratic Headquarters. Scalf defeated Sue Chapple for the District 1 City Council seat.
