Idaho Falls Mayoral candidates ready for runoff election

The campaign continues for two Idaho Falls Mayoral candidates. Last night’s election ended in a runoff. The two candidates have about a month of campaigning left to go.

Current Mayor Rebecca Casper received 47 percent of the vote, but she needed 50 percent plus one to win. Barbara Ehardt came in second place with 27 percent of the vote. The two will go to a runoff election to decide who will be the next mayor on December 5th. Both candidates are ready to continue speaking to the voters about their goals if elected.

“I wasn’t surprised that there was a runoff at all,” Ehardt said. “It was what we actually anticipated. It’s very difficult to unseat an incumbent, we know that. And with the option of the runoff, I definitely figured that it would be me and I would be doing this for another four weeks. So, I guess I should embrace that.”

“We’re looking at a runoff,” Mayor Casper said during a live interview election night. “And that gives us about four more weeks to make our message a little clearer to the voters and pick up those few remaining votes.”

A runoff election will also be held in Blackfoot the same day, December 5th. That will be between current mayor, Paul Loomis, and his opponent, Marc Carroll.