Incumbent mayor Cindy Rosenthal defeated Councilman Hal Ezzell in the Norman mayoral election Tuesday.
Rosenthal defended her seat with 53.65 percent of the vote, with all precincts reporting. Rosenthal received 6,798 votes compared to Ezzell’s 5,872 votes.
“I feel really, really good,” Rosenthal said. “I tried to run a positive campaign, not negative. The city has embraced what we have been working on.”
Rosenthal said the victory was a result of everyone’s effort.
“(We did this) with friends and family, support, energy and excitement from people who want to work for our community,” she said.
Rosenthal said her immediate plans are to sleep in this morning.
Former Ward 6 Councilman David Hopper, who served under three different mayors, said Rosenthal was the strongest.
“I think she ran a positive campaign and overcame a lot of negativity,” Hopper said. “I’m one of the people that didn’t vote for her the first time, but I voted for her this time.”
Hopper said that there were a lot of false issues brought up during the election.
“There was talk of deficit budget spending, but that can’t happen (in a Municipal council).” Hopper said. “There were a lot of false issues brought up, and I resented that.”
Debra Levy Martinelli, who did communications for Rosenthal’s campaign, said Norman is very smart for re-electing her.
“We are very happy, but we really didn’t have a doubt,” Martinelli said. “It’s always nice to have some validation. Mayor Rosenthal is the hardest working person that I’ve ever seen.”
In Ward 6, incumbent James Griffith defeated OU law student Matthew Zellner by 30 votes. Griffith received 853 votes, 50.89 percent, while Zellner received 823 votes, 49.11 percent, with all precincts reporting.
“I voted for Griffith,” Hopper said. “He’s done a good job.”
Rosenthal showed enthusiasm when she learned all the incumbents had been re-elected.
Ward 4 councilman Dillingham received 1,303 votes, 72.39 percent. Ward 8 councilman Quinn received 1,176 votes, 56.95 percent.
The Oklahoma Daily is pleased to provide you the opportunity to share your thoughts about this article. We encourage lively debate on the issues of the day, but we ask you refrain from using profanity or other offensive speech, engaging in personal attacks or name-calling, posting advertising, or straying from the topic at hand. To comment, you must be a registered user of OUDaily.com. Thanks for taking the time to offer your thoughts.
You must be logged in to leave a comment. Log in | Register
Shanaynay 2 years, 2 months ago
Isn't it sad that out of a town of about 100,000 only 13,000 voted for mayor?
matthewmurrayday 2 years, 2 months ago
@shanaynay:
13% turnout? I heard the OKC mayoral election was somewhere around 6%. And OKC has 500K-600K people!
katieou 2 years, 2 months ago
Ew, Ezzell is a grease ball. Of course he didn't win.