After three weeks of waiting for ranked-choice voting results, the results are in: Charles Maughan will be Corvallis’ next mayor.
Winning by an apparent 34 votes, it was unclear as of deadline whether there would be a hand recount. Results need to be certified by Dec. 5.
Early election results after the Nov. 8 General Election showed a tight race between two Corvallis mayoral hopefuls: former Ward 2 (downtown) Councilor Charles Maughan and Council Vice President Andrew Struthers Corvallis’ Ward 9 (northeast). A third contender, former Ward 2 Councilor Roen Hogg, had considerable ground to make up for a win.
Unofficial results updated late on Election Day had Maughan slightly ahead at 38%, with Struthers at 34% and Hogg at 26%.
This is the city’s first election in with ranked-choice voting, meaning a candidate needs 50% plus one vote to clinch a win.
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Because that didn’t happen outright, voters’ second choice candidates came into play. After tabulating second choices from Hogg supporters, unofficial results released at 5:17 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 1 put Maughan at 50.09% of votes, with Struthers at 49.91%.
Final tally: Maughan with 9,890 and Struthers with 9,856. Of Hogg’s 5,504 votes, Struthers received 2,741 and Maughan received 2,007.
“I give all the credit to my supporters and my team,” Maughan said. “It’s always been about people and not about me.”
Surprised by the closeness of the votes, Maughan said that goes to show Struthers ran a pretty good race. He said they agreed from the jump to keep it clean and run on the issues.
The three even took time to chat after a debate, so there’s no hard feelings, according to Maughan.
“Politics shouldn’t be about name-calling and talking bad about people,” Maughan said. “Simply focusing on voting records and the facts is all you should have to do.”
Maughan said his immediate plans include working with Mayor Biff Traber on a smooth leadership transition and connecting with councilors to get a sense of their priorities and what the individual communities want. Traber chose to not seek reelection.
The three mayoral candidates drew more than $25,000 in political contributions, the largest of which was $7,000 given to Struthers in two payments from a Realtors’ political action committee.
Corvallis City Council members approved ranked choice in January, following in the steps of Benton County, where voters passed a measure installing ranked choice in 2016.
Ward 9 also saw a three-way race in which there was no clear leader taking more than 50% of the votes.
Three novice candidates sought to represent northeast Corvallis: Tony Cadena, Nyssa Towsley and Cliff Feldman. The seat became a free-for-all when Struthers decided to vacate it to make a run at mayor.
Early unofficial results updated at 11 p.m. Election Day showed Cadena leading the pack with 44.1% of the vote, trailing by Towsley at 33.2% and Feldman at 22.2%.
Updated results incorporating the ranked voting now show Cadena with a clear win at 57.5% of votes. Towsley has 42.5% after Feldman supporters’ second choices were distributed.
Cadena is retired with a background in finance and business education. His top issues include building up the local housing supply, economic development with long-term sustainability and improving livability. He previously said local government should focus on public safety, infrastructure and education.
Cody Mann covers the cities of Corvallis and Philomath. He can be contacted at 541-812-6113 or Cody.Mann@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter via @News_Mann_.
