Only one on ballot for Eureka Springs mayor

ADG file photo from 2012 of Robert Butch Berry, the sole candidate for Eureka Springs Mayor.
ADG file photo from 2012 of Robert Butch Berry, the sole candidate for Eureka Springs Mayor.

For the first time in at least 30 years, a candidate is running unopposed for mayor of Eureka Springs.

Robert “Butch” Berry will be the city’s mayor beginning next year. He was the only person to file for the position by the Aug. 15 deadline.

Berry said he was surprised he didn’t have an opponent. Mayoral races seldom go unchallenged in the tourist town’s contentious political climate.

In 2010, six people ran for mayor of Eureka Springs. It was a diverse group. One candidate was transgender. Another was an actor who said he had been in more than 400 adult films.

The 2010 race was won by Morris Pate, a former assistant police chief who has decided not to run for re-election.

“I can’t think of a time when somebody just walked into the mayor’s office,” Pate said.

Ann Armstrong, the city clerk, agreed that it was unprecedented.

“No one recalls that happening before,” she said.

Alderman James DeVito said the news that Berry was unopposed “came as a shock to me.”

“That shows the respect the people in the community have for Butch Berry,” DeVito said.

Berry served for eight years on the Eureka Springs City Council before running for state representative in 2012. He lost that race to Bob Ballinger of Hindsville, a ministry director for a Bible-based addictions ministry in Fayetteville. Ballinger is a Republican.

Berry ran as a Democrat in that state House race, but candidates run for mayor without party affiliations.

Two years out of public life gave him another perspective, Berry said.

“I think it gave me a good break,” he said. “It allowed me to sit back and look at it from a different perspective. Running for state rep took a lot of time and energy. I needed to have some break time in there where I didn’t have to worry about anything.”

DeVito, who served with Berry on the council, said he urged Berry to announce his candidacy last spring, thinking it might discourage other candidates.

“If anybody was speculating, that might put an end to the speculation,” DeVito said.

Berry said he took the advice of DeVito and others.

“I had a lot of people encouraging me to run,” Berry said. “I thought it was probably a good idea to go ahead and let them know that I was taking their suggestions and was going to run.”

The mayor’s job pays $18,000 per year.

“It’s a full-time job on part-time salary,” said Berry, who also has an architecture business.

“An architect works a lot of hours at night,” he said. “So nothing’s really changing. I’ll be working a lot of weekends and nights.”

Berry said he hopes he can “bring some consensus to the community.” There are sometimes tensions in the tourist town between residents and the business community.

“I was hoping to bring some unification across the aisle,” said Berry.

Only one position on the Eureka Springs City Council is contested, said Joanna Schuster, the Carroll County elections coordinator. Ferguson Stewart, the owner of a vending business, is running against Alderman Joyce Zeller.

Also, Armstrong has an opponent in her bid for re-election. Mary Jean “MJ” Sells has filed to run for city clerk. It’s a position Sells has held before.

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