Eugene Mayor Jim Torrey easily reclaimed his position in Tuesday night’s local primary election and, with only 45.4 percent of the total votes counted as of midnight, Bonnie Bettman led Tracy Olsen in the City Council’s Ward 3 race.
Voters, however, seemed undecided on the issue of compensation for the mayor and the council: Measure 20-29 was barely failing 50.4 percent to 49.5 percent.
Breathless anticipation filled the election air at the Lane County Fairgrounds as about 400 people awaited the results of the local primary election. Mayoral candidate Lazar Makyadath, whose platform included having a party every weekend in downtown Eugene, said the overall voter turnout appeared to be low.
“I guess everyone’s still partying and they forgot to vote,” he said.
Partying or not, voters made sure that Torrey defeated Makyadath and five other candidates by a landslide to keep his position with 71.2 percent of the vote.
“We were hoping to get 55 percent of the vote,” Torrey said. “If we had gotten one point over 50 percent, we would have been very excited.”
Bettman was positioned to win the race for the Ward 3 seat with about 57.3 percent of the vote.
“I want to focus on the issues of affordability, livability and allocating scarce resources,” Bettman said of her anticipated future plans as councilor. “I want to continue to insure that all citizens have a voice in decisions that are made in city council.”
Torrey re-elected, salary in doubt
Daily Emerald
May 16, 2000
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