After eking out a victory in the November elections by a margin of four votes, I was returned to the Broadwater (Nebraska) Village Board (city council) for a four-year term. More follows . . .
I wrote about the election results in my diary Re-Election Result: It Was Closer Than I Thought. In a four-way race for three seats, I came in third (and was thus re-elected).
Five votes were cast for write-in candidates; had they instead been cast for the person who came in fourth, I would have lost to him by one vote.
On Monday night, the county and village attorney (a Republican who was also re-elected) held the Oath/Affirmation of Office for the three of us who stood for election. (Affirmation for me, Oath for the other two.)
I was appointed to the board in December 2012 to fill in for the death of a long-standing board member. So though I was re-elected, this was actually the first election in which I stood for office.
By length of time on the board, that made me second-most senior (but by length of time living in Broadwater, far-and-away the most junior, as I moved here in 2011).
I nominated the current Chairwoman Pro-Tempore (vice-mayor) to be Chairwoman. She won the vote by acclamation (no opposition). She then nominated Ronda Blake (re-elected after her appointment to fill the position of a board member who moved away in 2014) to be the new Chairwoman Pro-Tempore.
Interestingly, in this little conservative village in the very conservative Panhandle of Nebraska, we now have a majority-female village board, and the mayor and vice-mayor are both women. I remain the sole progressive on the board.
I retained my position as chairman of the Flag Committee (charged with proper display of the National Ensign on village flagstaffs, maintenance, parade duties, &c), and was appointed as Sewer Superintendent (I guess things are looking down for me now).