Jose Martinez and Kolby Urban progressed out of a five-way race in Tuesday's special primary election, and will battle again on Nov. 9, when St. Cloud residents will make a final decision on who will fill Seat 3 on the City Council.
Since no candidate received 50 percent plus one vote of the total, the top two vote-getters will continue their campaigns to fill the seat of Chuck Cooper, who passed away in June, and finish his term.
Urban, a housing contractor, lifelong resident and member of the city’s Economic Advisory committee, fell 44 votes short of that, pulling in 2,142 of the 4,373 votes to lead the way Tuesday with 48.98 percent of the vote. Martinez (1,208, 27.6 percent) ran a clear second ahead of Phil Lantry (698, 15.96), Victor Rivera (202, 4.6) and Daniel Minckler (123, 2.8).
Martinez, a business owner and chair of the non-profit the St. Cloud Proud Foundation, said his plan is to get out the rest of the week, thank those who voted for him, and appeal to those who didn't vote this time around to do so next month.
"There's people who don't vote in the primaries, or just didn't know," he said. "I hope to show them what I'm about."
Urban said he was "very happy" with Tuesday's results.
"We'd hoped we could have won outright tonight but we're happy with the lead we have," he said. "I'm happy all the candidates ran a respectable race. I'm honored to run against Mr. Martinez and, no matter what, the city's in good hands with someone who cares about the city."
love to appeal to those who didn't vote, participating
back to work campaigning and getting the word out, turn out and make a positive difference for st. cloud.
Just 11.35 percent of St. Cloud's 38,567 voted in this election by mail, early voting or casting a ballot Tuesday.
