Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. was reelected Tuesday, overcoming criticism related to crime and transparency to defeat retired car dealer Steve Landers Sr. and two other challengers.
Addressing supporters around 10:30 p.m. at a Little Rock venue, Scott said "victory is imminent." He thanked the voters as well as his campaign team and endorsers.
"This race was a people-powered campaign," Scott said.
Scott's share of the vote was set to exceed the 40% threshold needed to win the mayoral election outright and avoid a December runoff. Returns Tuesday night showed Scott ahead of Landers by roughly 7,000 votes, followed by Greg Henderson in third place and Glen Schwarz in fourth.
Landers conceded in remarks to supporters on election night. He acknowledged that his campaign came up short and congratulated Scott.
Around 11:30 p.m., incomplete and unofficial vote totals from the Pulaski County Election Commission were:
Scott 31,530
Landers25,744
Henderson5,036
Schwarz998
The first popularly elected Black mayor in Little Rock's history, Scott, 38, led the capital city during the covid-19 pandemic, which struck after he had been in office for a little over a year.
Amid other challenges, including rising homicides and the upheaval of the 2020 George Floyd protests, Scott has tried to target neglected areas of the city for economic development and promoted a community school initiative with the Little Rock School District.
On the campaign trail, he frequently referred to the number of new jobs added under his administration. Scott cast his reelection bid as a choice between moving forward or backward, and said Landers had no plan to address crime.
Landers, 69, officially announced his candidacy last year, the day after a sales-tax package championed by Scott failed at the polls.
A resident of northwest Little Rock, Landers worked in car sales for decades. In 1972, he opened a used-car dealership in Benton with his father, and other dealerships followed.
In 1995, the United Auto Group purchased Landers' dealerships for a reported $40 million. Landers later went to work for the group under Roger Penske, overseeing the south-central region.
Since then, Landers says he has stepped away from the car business entirely. His bid for mayor represented his first campaign, though he was appointed to the Arkansas Racing Commission in 2016.
His campaign outspent Scott's this year, according to campaign finance reports, helped by $400,000 the auto magnate loaned to his operation in October. Landers' campaign reported spending over $319,200 on television ads alone during the reporting period.
Scott had also been targeted by ads bankrolled by a political action committee of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Republican. For his part, Landers distanced himself from the ads and said he does not cast his vote based on party affiliation. (The mayor's race is officially nonpartisan.)
Henderson works in commercial real estate as an agent with Keller Williams and is also the publisher/president of restaurant blog Rock City Eats. He ran unsuccessfully for seats on the city board in 2018 and 2020.
Schwarz is a perennial local candidate and a longtime advocate for marijuana decriminalization.
Scott was elected in a 2018 runoff over Baker Kurrus. At that time, candidates were running to succeed then-Mayor Mark Stodola, who opted not to run for a fourth term. Now the incumbent, Scott had to defend his administration's efforts, especially with regard to violent crime.
Little Rock is on track to experience a record-breaking number of homicides this year, as killings have reached a level not seen since 1993.
As of Monday, there have been 73 homicides reported so far in 2022, according to the Police Department. There were 65 homicides reported last year, and the five-year average is 43.
While campaigning, Scott frequently acknowledged that homicides have increased, but noted that violent crime overall has declined compared to last year. According to the latest police statistics, the 7% decrease can be mostly attributed to a 10% drop in the number of aggravated assaults.
In light of the spike in homicides, Landers hammered Scott on the number of vacancies in the Police Department and the mayor's use of a city-funded security detail.
The Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge No. 17, endorsed Landers in March. The same police union clashed with former police chief Keith Humphrey, who Scott hired from Norman, Okla., shortly after becoming mayor.
During his three years as chief, Humphrey presided over departmental reforms, including outfitting patrol officers with body-worn cameras, but his leadership was criticized from within.
A series of Humphrey's police colleagues sued him, claiming retaliation in the wake of the administrative appeal of a white officer who fatally shot a Black motorist, then was fired. Humphrey filed a countersuit, arguing that he was the victim of a campaign by the police union and others to force him out.
When Humphrey's resignation was announced last May, Landers said in a video message, "When I called for this resignation months ago, I did so because our community deserves better. This is one step toward making our community safe."
Although Scott originally pledged to name a permanent police chief before the election, Humphrey's replacement has not materialized.
Landers said he would combat crime by recruiting officers to maintain a police presence in all neighborhoods, funding better technology and collaborating with other law enforcement agencies.
He also said he would hire a popular police chief within 45 days of becoming mayor, though he declined to name the individual he had in mind for the job.
Scott's often-rocky relationship with the members of the Little Rock Board of Directors has been on display during policy discussions over the past four years.
Early in his tenure, Scott sought to make the mayor's office more assertive under the city's hybrid form of government, which features a full-time, popularly elected mayor as well as an appointed city manager who oversees day-to-day administrative functions.
Additionally, 10 elected city directors serve on the city board, approving budgets and setting policy.
Shortly after his inauguration, Scott took over the supervision of six department heads from the city manager, but discussions about changing the city's form of government to give the mayor more power never panned out.
When Scott proposed a sales-tax package last year, city board members initially did not embrace it. They eventually voted 6-3-1 to call a September 2021 special election in which voters rejected the proposed increase.
The "Rebuild the Rock" tax would have put $530 million over 10 years into public safety, infrastructure, parks and the zoo, among other things. It also would have funded an early childhood education framework, potentially building on the city's existing community school partnership.
In a recent interview, Scott left the door open to pursuing another tax if reelected, though he said he would have to work with the city board.
During the final stretch of the campaign, events gave fuel to critics who argue that Scott's administration tends to resist transparency while rewarding the mayor's allies.
A new city festival dubbed LITFest invited questions immediately when Little Rock chose to partner with a firm that had recently hired Scott's former chief of staff. LITFest ultimately fell apart days ahead of schedule amid scrutiny of its financing when the city manager terminated the contract on Oct. 3.
On Oct. 25, a deputy city attorney acknowledged in court that the city had failed to fulfill public-records requests from local attorney/blogger Matthew Campbell.
And just last week, Scott was on the defensive because of an allegation from the Ward 4 city director, who said Scott had instructed the city's Planning and Development director to withhold a document from a constituent.
Gallery: Election Night Nov. 8, 2022
