Fayetteville Mayor Lioneld Jordan begins re-election bid

Lioneld Jordan speaks on the steps of the Old Post Office Building on the north side of the downtown Fayetteville square Saturday afternoon.

Todd Gill, Fayetteville Flyer

Fayetteville Mayor Lioneld Jordan officially announced his plans to run for a second term before about 100 cheering supporters on the downtown square Saturday afternoon.

As a lifelong resident of Northwest Arkansas and 39-year resident of Fayetteville, Jordan became mayor in 2008 after winning a runoff election against former mayor Dan Coody. He previously served on the City Council as a Ward 4 alderman for eight years and was vice mayor for four years.

Mayor Lioneld Jordan

Jordan, who campaigned in 2008 on a platform of open government, echoed those sentiments on Saturday.

“I have a deep faith in the collective wisdom of our community and I trust the people to get it right and to make the right decisions when they have all the information,” he said. “That is why I have made open government a keystone of my administration, and have devoted significant resources to facilitate both public access to information and informed public participation.”

Jordan said he knows politicians are expected to make big promises about what they’ll do if elected. But, he said, “as most of you know, I have never been a great politician.”

“No one will love this city more or work harder to keep it sound, though,” he said. “I get up and come to work every morning with one thing on my mind: How can I make our community even better and help everyone have a brighter future?”

Jordan is so far the only candidate to announce a bid for the mayor’s seat in the November election.

As for the City Council races, nothing has changed since our last report, as far as we know.