Cambridge Mayor race heads to runoff between State Senator Addie Eckardt and former Commissioner Stephen Rideout
CAMBRIDGE, Md. – The Mayoral election in Cambridge is heading towards a September 20th runoff, after front runners State Senator Addie Eckardt and former Town Commissioner Stephen Rideout failed to gain a majority of votes among a six candidate field.
Rideout led the special election race Tuesday with 468 votes and 35 percent of the vote, with Eckardt falling short with 403 votes and 30 percent of the vote. The race saw a 15 percent turnout from eligible voters according to Town Manager Thomas Carroll.
“15 percent of registered voters showed up for the special election steady all day and normal peaks in the morning and after work and the voting were quite strong people were engaged,” Carroll said.
Rideout tells 47 ABC he believes the voters were motivated on issues of violence and increasing public safety and after-school programming for area youth.
“The fact is for public safety we need more officers which we don’t have and I believe if we offer an annuity, on top of a pension, we can entice those we do have to stay, and we need to increase after-school programming,” he said.
Rideout tells 47 ABC in his work with the non-profit Moving Dorchester Forward and in his experience as a judge in Alexandria Virginia, he found that there are many federal grants available to help communities start and run programming, and says he wants to support those programs from the position of Mayor.
“What I’ve talked mostly about is children, the need for more programming more resources. I’m a member of Moving Dorchester Forward, where we focus on early childhood education and juvenile justice issues,” he said.
47 ABC reached out to Eckardt and did not hear back at the time of publication.
Town Manager Carroll tells 47 ABC, that any voters that were registered for the special election will not need to re-register for the runoff, but says a September 5th deadline is in place for those wishing to register for the first time ahead of the race.
