LITTLE ROCK — Mayor Virginia Hillman held off Alderman Sheila Sulcer to win re-election in Tuesday’s runoff after a campaign that included some harsh criticism of city spending and a negative website about the mayor.
With all 11 precincts reporting, unofficial results for mayor were: Hillman .........................2,374 Sulcer.............................1,686
In the Nov. 2 election, Hillman received almost 49 percent of the vote, ousting candidate Mike Presson, but failing to gain the majority needed to defeat Sulcer, who picked up 28 percent of that vote. A total of 4,060 votes came in Tuesday, with 1,107 of those gathered in early voting.
“We’re excited about the next four years, and we’re ready to go,” Hillman said.
Hillman, 47, was first elected as mayor through a special election in July 2007 and before that served as thecity clerk and treasurer for six years.
Her campaign focused on fixing drainage problems in the city, resurfacing streets and creating a Sherwood economic development department.
Hillman said her main agenda is the streets and would like to start advertising bids for some work by the first of the year.
“[The drainage problems] can’t all be fixed, but we’ll continue as we can to focus on it.”
Hillman had fallen under scrutiny from the two other mayoral candidates after a recent audit showed the city to be $3.3 million in debt.
The city actually had a $2.1million shortfall between expenditures and revenue, but was able to cover the deficit through reserves.
Presson, 57, used the audit’s debt estimate as political fodder, mailing fliers to residents before the Nov. 2 election that said, “Sherwood can do better, if elected Sherwood will do better.” The flier showed figures from the audit, making it appear that the city is more than $3.3 million in debt under Hillman. Presson lost the Nov. 2 election, garnering only 23 percent of the vote. After the loss, Presson endorsed Sulcer, she said.
Another hit to Hillman’s campaign came from the website stophillman.com, which was critical of Hillman and city spending. Hillman said she’s not sure how much the criticism hurt her campaign, but she did receive “a lot of comments that [residents] considered that negative campaigning.”
Sulcer, 61, has been a local real estate agent and broker for 34 years and has served as an alderman for 12 years in Ward 3.
Sulcer’s campaign focused on a closer watch of city spending as well as an open door policy for the mayor’s office.
Critical of Hillman’s spending habits as mayor, Sulcer said, “Well, the citizens made the decision, so that’s all I can say, and all I can say is that I’m grateful and humble to the people who’ve supported me.”
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 11/24/2010