Essex mayoral race ends as close one

By Shelbey Hernandez

 

Ron McDermott has been announced as Mayor of Essex for a fourth term with two of his competitors not far behind.

It was a flashback to the 2010 municipal election when McDermott beat Ron Rogers by 227 votes. This time, it was a three-way race between McDermott, Rogers and previous Ward 3 Councillor Bill Baker who was 172 votes away from Rogers and 399 away from McDermott.

A little more than 50 per cent of those eligible voted this election. Last time, there were three candidates for mayor including Rogers, McDermott and Paul Miner. This year, there were four, including Andy Comber, a former Essex Free Press journalist and a former Harrow News reporter.

Many people were present at the Harrow arena to hear the results including acclaimed Ward 4 Councillor Sherry Bondy, Rogers, newly-elected Ward 3 Councillor Bill Caixero and previous Ward 3 Councillor John Scott.

According to Bondy, McDermott’s win was mainly due to where the candidates lived. Since Rogers and Baker both lived in Colchester, the votes were split almost evenly between the two.

“All three of them ran really hard campaigns. It was so close,” said Bondy. “It could have been anybody’s race all along so I just think in the end, geography was what sling-shotted McDermott in again.”

Although Bondy said the race was determined because of geography, Rogers said if it wasn’t for Baker, he would have won. However, Rogers admitted that he hasn’t seen a breakdown of which wards Baker had more supporters in.

The incumbent McDermott, who has been mayor since 2003, said Rogers ran a great race and was closer this time, but the addition of Baker assured his victory in the end.

“He closed the gap even before that. I was very confident that I would win, but Ron made it really close, closer than last time,” said McDermott. “With an extra body in there running against the incumbent, that favours the incumbent.”

Responding to Rogers’ comments, Baker said he could easily argue that if it weren’t for Rogers, maybe he would have won. He said instead of focusing on his competition, maybe Rogers should be focusing on the people. He also said just because he was late getting in the running, doesn’t mean he isn’t qualified to do the job.

“It’s about ability to do the job and I… felt I had the ability,” said Baker. “…But I’m not focusing on that.”

Rogers and Baker said they are unsure if they will run for mayor again in the future. Both candidates said if they could have changed anything about their campaigns, it would have been having more time to meet people.

Rogers also said he is mostly disappointed because he feels he has a lot to offer. He said he had a lot of great ideas which he doesn’t think will happen with the new council.

Moving forward, McDermott said the new council members must come together and work as a team. To everyone who ran, he said all candidates should be congratulated for wanting to represent their municipalities. The new council will begin to work sometime in December.