San Antonio’s interim mayor is soon to become the city’s first, elected black female mayor. At her Saturday night victory party, Ivy Taylor said she wants to get back to city business that’s been interrupted by a bruising, six month campaign.
At her confetti-filled victory celebration, Ivy Taylor told a crowd of cheering supporters, “We’ve defeated a political machine.”
Throughout her campaign Taylor cast opponent Leticia Van de Putte as a partisan politician. Van de Putte was repeatedly elected as a Democrat during her 24 years in the state legislature.
“People are tired of politics as usual. They [voters] want to turn the page and have someone who is just a dedicated public servant and not necessarily a career politician. So I think that made the difference,” Taylor told cheering crowd of supporters.
Van de Putte’s campaign manager, Christian Archer, pinned the 52 to 48 percent win for Taylor on a solid turnout among conservative voters who favored Taylor, and on Taylor gaining the exposure that comes from already being on the job as the interim mayor chosen by council colleagues.
“Being the mayor, you know, you’re in the newspaper four or five times every day doing things for the city,” said Archer.
Taylor says she’s now ready to get back to negotiating a contract agreement with police officers who backed Van de Putte.
Van de Putte says she’s offered to assist Mayor Taylor any way she can, and asked her supporters to do the same.
“We need to stop being us and them, North Side and South Side. We need to be one San Antonio and I’m going to be part of that,” said Van de Putte, though she wasn’t specific about her plans.
Taylor will be sworn in for her two –year term on June 24.
