Sarah Bunch / Staff photo
Sarah Bunch defeated Tracy Hoskins in the Ward 3 runoff election Tuesday night to replace outgoing Alderman Martin Schoppmeyer on the Fayetteville City Council.
Bunch, 53, is a local real estate agent who spent six years on the Fayetteville Planning Commission where she served two terms as secretary and one term as chair.
Final unofficial results showed Bunch received 1,232 votes (63%) and Hoskins received 732 votes (37%). Election officials are expected to certify the results later this week.
Bunch and Hoskins were part of a three-person race for the Ward 3, Position 2 seat in the Nov. 8 general election. A runoff was set after the two emerged as the top contenders with Bunch taking 4,183 votes (48%), followed by Hoskins’s 3,119 votes (36%), and Benjamin Harrison’s 1,350 votes (16 percent).
In Arkansas, a candidate must win a 50 percent majority of the votes or receive more than 40 percent and be ahead of the runner-up by 20 percent to avoid a runoff.
Before the general election, the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce announced its endorsement of Hoskins, while Schoppmeyer backed Bunch. After the election, Harrison and Ward 2 Alderman Matthew Petty announced their endorsement of Bunch.
Ward 3 includes several neighborhoods in northeast Fayetteville, including the Rolling Hills Drive corridor, and the Huntingdon, Candlewood and East Oaks subdivisions. Gulley Park, Fiesta Square, Lake Fayetteville, and the Northwest Arkansas Mall are also in Ward 3.
Bunch will be the only new member of the City Council to be sworn in early next year when the upcoming term begins.
Sarah Marsh defeated Paul Phaneuf in Ward 1, Matthew Petty beat Gary McHenry in Ward 2, and Alan Long defeated Nathan Allen in Ward 4 during the general election. Marsh and Long will each serve a second four-year term, while 2017 will mark the beginning of Petty’s third term on the council.
Fayetteville Mayor Lioneld Jordan will also serve a third consecutive term after defeating Tom Terminella and Ron Baucom.
Other Washington County runoff results
In the West Fork mayoral runoff, Heith Caudle received 218 votes (55%) to defeat Mike Nelson, who received 177 votes (45%).
In Springdale (where some voters cast ballots in Benton County), Colby Fulfer received 992 votes (67%) and Eric Ford received 497 votes (33%) in the Ward 1 City Council runoff. Also in Springdale, Jeff Watson received 867 votes (59%) and Kathryn Birkhead received 604 votes (41%).
