CALDWELL, Idaho — After 24 years, and a month of uncertainty leading up to a runoff election, Caldwell will have a new mayor. Jarom Wagoner routed John McGee in Tuesday's runoff.
Wagoner defeated his fellow Caldwell City Councilman by a tally of 2,634 (83%) to 549 (17%), according to unofficial results.
In January, Wagoner will replace longtime Mayor Garret Nancolas, who chose not to seek a seventh term as Caldwell’s mayor.
Wagoner is a municipal planner-turned elected official, who was appointed to a vacant seat in the Idaho House of Representatives in 2017 and was elected to the Caldwell City Council in 2019. He has more than 15 years’ experience as a planner for various Treasure Valley agencies, including Canyon County, Ada County Highway District and the city of Caldwell, for which he was a senior land use planner over six years.
“I believe that all this experience has helped prepare me for the opportunity to be the mayor of Caldwell,” Wagoner said during a candidate forum last month.
“Caldwell is the place to be,” but Caldwell’s success has created its own problems, he said. He plans to update the city’s comprehensive plan map — a development guide — to account for growth issues, such as traffic congestion.
In the Nov. 3 election, Wagoner and McGee were the top two vote-getters, with Wagoner pulling 46.7% of the vote and McGee taking 22.5%. But since neither candidate drew 50% of the votes in the five-person race, a runoff election was scheduled per Caldwell city code which mandates a runoff between the top two candidates if one does not collect more than 50% of votes.
On Nov. 9, McGee filed a petition to have his name withdrawn from the race and Wagoner declared the winner. The petition was denied, as previously reported by the Idaho Press.
McGee said at the time that he requested to withdraw because of the large percentage of the vote in favor of Wagoner and also to save taxpayers the expense.
A runoff election costs about $30,000, Caldwell City Clerk Debbie Geyer previously told the Idaho Press.
Citing state and city code, Geyer and a city attorney decided McGee’s withdrawal attempt was “not effective” and “insufficient” to remove him from the runoff ballot. State code says a candidate must withdraw from a race 46 days prior to an election. And neither Caldwell nor state code mention what should be done if a candidate attempts to withdraw from a runoff.
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