Jerry Clifton wins Newark’s special election for mayor.
Clifton returns to the seat he held from 2019 to 2022. Before that, he served 10 terms on City Council. He will serve the remainder of Stu Markham’s term, which ends in April 2025. Markham resigned in September after 16 months in office. His last day in office was October 18th.
Clifton won by 66 votes with a total of 856. Michael O’Neal received 790 votes, Demetri Theodoropolous – 262 votes and James Carley – 17 votes.
Clifton says he’ll run the city “like a business,” reevaluating if there are city-funded positions they can cut and carrying on a dialogue with the University of Delaware, particularly how to save on credit card fees.
“Y’know, it would be nice to maybe reduce the tax rate a little bit for the neighbors or even work a little bit with Aetna Fire Company to help them along.”
Clifton notes he didn’t campaign door to door because of a rise in COVID-19 cases and his wife’s health concerns, but is grateful the city reelected him, and is ready to get to work on a few key issues.
“Here we are in January and we had a rough budget season last year," Clifton says. "And it was never that rough in the past.”
Clifton says he expects he’ll be dealing with storm damage throughout the city on Wednesday too. Polling in District 2 was extended until 9 p.m. due to a power outage at the Newark Free Library.
