John R. Cushing vaulted into city politics Tuesday, gaining more votes for a seat on the City Council than incumbents Barbara Holt and Harold Shafter.
Cushing, who is a senior account executive with Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., led Holt by 229 votes and Shafter by more than 1,000.He said an aggressive campaign, 32 years of doing business in Bountiful and a distinguished list of endorsements made the difference.
"This was the first time I've done something like this. I didn't know what to expect," he said.
Prominent business leaders and former City Council members encouraged Cushing to run. He made the decision after speaking with Mayor Bob Linnell and current council members, he said.
"The city has been good to me, and I felt it was payback time. A lot of people encouraged me to run," he said.
During his four-year term, Cushing hopes to encourage development on Block 29 that complements development already completed on Main Street and the Tabernacle block. He also believes the city's Redevelopment Agency should assist downtown development only when private enterprise has failed to succeed in a given area.
Voters returned Shafter for a third term. He said Tuesday's election was a "hard one to figure out." Todd R. Taylor pushed close to Shafter several times while results were being tallied but came up short by 565 votes.
"He put a lot of signs out the past two days, and I'm not surprised he did so well," Shafter said.
Shafter has said residents should realize resolving questions related to Block 29 is not an easy task and "rapid" answers aren't available.
"If we were as quick to praise the good projects as we are to ask, `What are we going to do on Block 29?' this process might be reversed."
Barbara Holt will return for a second term. Voters cast 4,045 ballots in her favor. "I really didn't know what to expect, but I'm excited to be back," she said.
Holt, who first ran for a City Council seat in 1986, doesn't plan to change her stance on issues affecting residents, she said.