Jabez Choi photo
Hogan (fifth from left) with supporters after Tuesday's win.
(Updated) Gary Hogan will be the next alder representing Beaver Hills’ Ward 28, after the neighborhood’s Democratic ward committee co-chair won Tuesday’s special election to fill the seat left vacant following Alder Tom Ficklin’s unexpected death in October.
Hogan declared victory soon after the polls closed and the machine tallies were announced at 8 p.m. at Hillhouse High School.
He won 222 votes at the machines; his challenger, former Alder Claudette Robinson-Thorpe, won 67. Hogan also won six early votes, to Robinson-Thorpe’s two; and Robinson-Thorpe won all four absentee ballots cast in the race.
That means the final tally was 228 votes for Hogan to 73 for Robinson-Thorpe.
Given that there were 1,833 Ward 28 voters eligible to participate in Tuesday’s race, the total turnout for the special election was 16.4 percent.
Hogan will fill out the rest of Ficklin’s two-year term, which runs through the end of 2025.
Hogan, a retired former housing authority vice president and Livable City Initiative (LCI) deputy director who has lived in Beaver Hills for nearly his entire life, thanked community members for showing up for yet another election — the second this month, the fifth so far this year. This is also the second election Hogan has won this year, after being reelected as Democratic ward co-chair in March.
He pledged to focus on addressing crime and affordability in the neighborhood, and thanked Robinson-Thorpe for the good fight. He said he looks forward to working with her, even now that the race is done.
See below for an earlier version of this story.
Polls Open For Alder Special Election
Thomas Breen photos
Alder hopefuls Hogan and Robinson-Thorpe: Voters are tired.
For the fifth time this year, Beaver Hills residents headed to the polls Tuesday — this time to elect a new alder.
In the first four hours, 3 percent of the electorate had shown up.
From 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, the Hillhouse High School polling place is open for the Ward 28 alder special election.
Gary Hogan and Claudette Robinson-Thorpe, both Democrats, are running to fill a seat left vacant when Alder Tom Ficklin died unexpectedly in October. Whoever wins will fill out the rest of Ficklin’s two-year term, which runs through the end of 2025.
Standing on either side of the driveway that leads to the high school’s Crescent Street entrance Tuesday morning, Hogan and Robinson-Thorpe both recognized that turnout will likely be low — because voters are tired. They had different diagnoses, however, for what may be causing that fatigue.
Hogan, a Democratic ward co-chair and retired former housing authority deputy, acknowledged just how many elections Beaver Hills residents have been able to participate in so far this year.
First there was the March Democratic ward co-chair election (which Hogan won). Then there was the April presidential preference primary. Then there were August primaries for state rep (Democrat) and U.S. Senate (Republican). Then there was the November general election, including for president. And now there’s the special election for alder.
“There’s a lot of fatigue,” he said. “There’s been a lot of elections this year.”
Nevertheless, he’s heard a lot from his neighbors at the doors over the past nine days as he’s been campaigning. At top of mind for voters, he said: “Crime. Taxes. Speed bumps. Affordability.” He pledged to use his wealth of experience — as a Beaver Hills resident, as a public employee, as an engaged community member and leader — to work on addressing all of those matters and more.
Robinson-Thorpe, a former alder, said that voters are tired for a different reason. “I think people don’t believe in the system as much as they used to,” she said. Just look at the presidential election results nationwide for evidence of that fatigue with the status quo.
She said that she and Hogan are quite similar when it comes to their stances on the issues affecting Beaver Hills. “We believe in public safety, in more for our youth,” in finding ways to lower taxes and the cost of living, in pushing for speed bumps.
She and Hogan — both of whom said they arrived at the polling place at around 5:30 a.m. Tuesday — buckled in and prepared for a long, slow day before polls close at 8.
As of around 10 a.m., 54 people had voted so far, as well as four more who had voted early. There are 1,833 voters eligible to participate in Tuesday’s election.
One of those voters, a Winthrop Avenue resident who identified himself only as Ron, said he showed up to the special election because, “If you want to live in a democracy, you always vote.”
He declined to say who he voted for. He did say a top concern of his on Winthrop Avenue is that there are “too much property that’s not maintained the way it should be.” The more properties owned by “absentee landlords,” he said, the more “blight” in the neighborhood.
Tuesday marks the second special election for alder this year, following September’s race in the Hill to replace Alder Ron Hurt following his resignation this summer.
