Mike Bell next Toledo mayor

FOX TOLEDO NEWS - Just after 11:30 p.m. late Tuesday Democrat Keith Wilkowski conceded a very tight Toledo mayoral race to Independent candidate Mike Bell, the city's former fire chief and the state's former fire marshal. Next door in Oregon, voters elected Independent Michael Sefarian to replace Democratic incumbent Marge Brown.

Mayor-elect Bell will be sworn into office Jan. 4 while and Mayor-elect Sefarian will be sworn in Dec. 1.

“Running as an independent without a machine has been a challenge, but we’ve had great volunteers and people get the word out there. I had great support from family and friends. It’s a thrill to win,” Bell told FOX Toledo media partner the Toledo Free Press moments after declaring victory.

Mayor-elect Bell replaces three-term Mayor Carty Finkbeiner who decided not to seek re-election. Brown has been mayor in Oregon since 2001 and has been politically active since 1989 when she was elected to city council.

Just like the Sept. 15 primary, Seferian dominated Brown 4,446 to 2,822, a 61% to 38% margin.

With 100 percent of precincts reporting unofficial results, Glass City voters gave Bell 52 percent of the votes while Wilkowski received 48 percent of the votes.

Shortly after polls closed, absentee and early voting returns showed Wilkowski with an early advantage over Bell in Toledo's mayoral race. But as the evening wore on, Wilkowski's lead began to shrink.

An update at around 10:20 p.m. from the Lucas County Board of Elections flipped the lead into Bell's favor, a lead he would not lose.

"Battling Keith, he was a worthy opponent and I have total respect for him," the mayor-elect said. "I still consider him a friend. As I said before this was about fighting for the issues. He had his ideas and I had my ideas. But as a person, he's a great person and so I have no issues with Keith Wilkowski."

With 92% of the city's returns posted online, Wilkowski called Bell at 11:36 p.m. to concede and congratulate the mayor-elect on the race.

"A few minutes ago I placed a call to Mike Bell, and I talked to my high school classmate," Wilkowski said during an after-election party at the UAW Local 12 hall. "I told him congratulations on a race well fought and that he has won. I told him that he should know that he will have my full support in his efforts to help improve Toledo."

Bell defeated Wilkowski 35,118 to 31,987.

Last week Mayor-elect Bell said he was going to take a vacation the day after the campaign.

"I'm going to take a break, but I will be back fairly quickly," he said during his election night party at The Docks. "We'll start working on our transition team, we'll start working on a group of people (Wednesday) and we'll propose that transition team so we can start focusing on being ready Jan. 4."

As he looks toward January, Bell said he looks forward to his role as mayor.

“I’ll be reaching out to the surrounding areas and also to people internally to get them involved and bring the city to where it needs to be,” the mayor-elect said.

In other Lucas County races, Bill Connelly won Toledo Municipal Court Judge with 24,567 votes. Connelly finished over Ian English with 19,451 votes and Mark Davis with 16,881 votes.

Joe McNamara, George Sarantou, Rob Ludeman, Phillip Copeland, Steve Steel and Adam J. Martinez were elected to fill the six at-large city council seats.

McNamara, who led the votes with 36,879, told Toledo Free Press, “it’s an honor and privilege to be re-elected. I look forward to working with the new council and new mayor.”

McNamara, the city council president, said the 2010 budget will be “a real challenge” for the new council as well as making sure the city has the resources to maintain public safety.

Sarantou echoed McNamara’s concerns for public safety.

“It’s very gratifying that voters expressed their continued confidence in my leadership. I will continue to work on budget issues and preserve the fine police and firefighters we have here in Toledo. As well as work on work on jobs for Toledoans,” Sarantou told the Toledo Free Press.

Sarantou received 35,411 votes, Ludeman had 34,792 votes, Copeland finished with 28,654 votes, Steel had 26,113 votes and Martinez had 25,362 votes.

Bob Vasquez, Brenda Hill and Larry Sykes were elected to fill the three vacant Toledo Public Schools Board seats.

“It’s very humbling to win. It allows me to follow through with some of the things I’ve started already. It allows me to continue to work with the business of Toledo, bring the presidents of the universities together and bring financial stability to the district. I also have the chance to focus on bringing the performance of the under-performing schools up,” Vasquez told the Free Press.

Sykes was re-elected to the board after two years being off it.

“I’m a public servant. I asked people to re-elect me, the people know my commitment and passion and the people spoke. There is nothing more important to me then our children,” Sykes told Toledo Free Press. “I look forward to sitting down with