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Politics & Government

Town and Country, Manchester Residents React to Tuesday's Election Results

Now that the results are in, Town and Country and Manchester residents talk to Patch about those who will soon make decisions for their cities.

Now that the ballots have been counted from Tuesday's election, both Town and Country and Manchester's board of alderman will see changes.

In Manchester, Ward 1 incumbent Bob Tullock lost to Paul Hamill and Ward 3 incumbent Don Ryan lost to John Schrader. Mike Clement ran uncontested and remains the Ward 2 alderman.

Find out what's happening in Town And Country-Manchesterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Voters chose Hamill over Tullock by a margin greater than three to one. Ryan received less than half as many votes as Schrader. This comes after many heated board of aldermen meetings where Tullock and Ryan were often involved in arguments or scolded in comments by residents.

“Bob’s a neighbor of mine, and I was one of the 171 or so people that voted for him,” Manchester resident Martha Sellenriek said. “I think his intentions were good in trying to make people accountable, but I think things got a little bit out of hand.”

She said she appreciatd how Tullock tried to hold responsible those who were in control of spending taxpayer money and referenced the city's new police department as an example. Sellenriek said she thought that the city did need a new police facility but the one that was built “is like the Taj Mahal.” 

Find out what's happening in Town And Country-Manchesterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

However, based on Tuesday's election results, not everyone supported Tullock as an alderman.

“My wife was frustrated with what she read about Tullock, and we were hoping to have Hamill,” Manchester resident Mike Bickel said.

Bickel said that he and his wife used to be “blissfully unaware” about what was going on in Manchester's government. When they became more informed they were not happy with what they discovered.

“Hamill is a good guy. He was the one who went door-to-door and seemed like he wanted to change things,” Bickel said.

InTown and Country, incumbents Lynn Wright, Tim Welby and Fred Meyland-Smith were all re-elected to the board of aldermen, despite a last minute opponent for Welby when John Hoffmann registered as a write-in candidate. John Hoffman’s write-in candidacy for Ward 2 Alderman ultimately failed, though more than 20 percent of the vote was received in the "write-in" category. John Benigas is the new Alderman for Ward 4, replacing David Karney, who initially registered to run for re-election, but later dropped out of the race. 

“I would rather have a choice,” Town and Country resident Merrily Solberg said, referring to the number of candidates running unopposed. “I think it would have been more of an incentive. I mean, who’s going to go out and vote if there’s only one name on the ballot? I wish there would be more interest, more debating and more ideas.”

In other election results, in the first ever St. Louis County Assessor race, Democrat Jake Zimmerman handily defeated Republican L.K. “Chip” Wood by margin of more than 30,000 votes.

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