Bailey, Bussells eye finish line in Columbia at-large race after large field cut down
And then there were two.
A seven-person field for an at-large seat on Columbia City Council — the largest field in this year’s municipal races — was whittled down significantly during Tuesday’s election, and now public health researcher Dr. Aditi Bussells and attorney Tyler Bailey are headed to a Nov. 16 runoff election.
Bussells finished first in the seven-candidate pack for the citywide seat with 5,841 votes (32%), followed by Tyler Bailey, who had 4,689 votes (25.7%). The top two finishers are headed to a runoff because no candidate in the race received more than 50% of the vote.
Heather Bauer finished third in the race, with 19% of the vote, and in an email to constituents on Wednesday said she would support Bailey in the runoff.
Bussells said she was pleased with how the Tuesday round of voting went, noting she led throughout the night as the votes rolled in.
“There wasn’t a single point (Tuesday) night where we weren’t in the lead,” she said. “The question being asked wasn’t ‘Are we going to make it to the runoff?’ It was ‘Who are we going to be up against in the runoff?’ That was a special moment for me as a first-time candidate to not even have that conversation, because we were doing so well. ... All of the hard work we have put in for the last nine months has really resonated with voters across the city.”
Bailey said he was enthused about how well his campaign did on election day and said he was “humbled” to get votes from “across the city, from Greenview all the way to Kilbourne.” He said he always expected the race was going to a runoff.
“Everybody who participated (in the race) I think brought something very meaningful to the dialogue,” Bailey said. “Voters had a lot of choices to make of qualified people on election day. I was optimistic and hopeful that I could win it (Tuesday), but there was always a plan that this would be a situation where there could be a runoff. But I was pleased with how we performed.”
With the field pared down to two, Bussells and Bailey are now focusing on getting their messages out to voters ahead of the runoff.
Bussells said some of her top issues will include bolstering economic development in Columbia, enhancing accountability in government, and working to improve public safety in the capital city.
She said boosting the economic environment in Columbia can ripple out in many different ways.
“It goes back to making Columbia a place where we can bring in more opportunities for hard working families,” Bussells said. “The city can really make a difference in terms of bringing in resources, making our communities more equitable, growing opportunities to start a business here, and bringing more investment into Columbia.”
Bailey said he will focus on recruiting businesses that will help retain young adults in Columbia, improving infrastructure in the capital city, and working to reduce crime.
He said addressing gun violence will be a priority, and that shoring up staff shortages at the police department is critical.
“We need more police officers, and we need to keep them here, retain them in our department and pay them well,” Bailey said. “But we also need to address it on the community level. ... We are losing so many young people to gun violence, and it is going to take more than the police to address it. We need to fill those vacancies in the police department, but also implement new policies, and possibly committees, on the community level to curb gun violence.”
