After three months of campaigning and politicking, candidates in the City of Tomball municipal elections finally saw an end to their efforts with the May 8 election.

Tomball voters chose to retain Gretchen Fagan as mayor while electing Rick Brown to replace Bill Webb on the city council.

Fagan defeated her challenger, first-time candidate Judy Wilson, by nearly 150 votes, 591-443. Fagan took a strong early lead after early voting, according to unofficial City of Tomball results, earning 381 votes to Wilson’s 266.

Election Day tallies pushed Fagan even farther ahead, with Fagan garnering 210 votes to Wilson’s 177.

Meanwhile, City Council Position 3 incumbent Webb was seeking his second consecutive term, but lost to Brown, also a first-time candidate.

Brown won by an even wider margin than Fagan, 613 to Webb’s 411 votes. Early voting was also kind to Brown, who gained a 140-tally margin with 392 ballots cast to Webb’s 252.

On Election Day, Brown picked up an additional 221 votes while Webb received 159.

Overall, 1,040 ballots were cast by City of Tomball voters, which represented just over 19 percent of the 5,432 registered voters in the city. Last year’s municipal election saw 792 ballots cast, a 13.6 percent turnout.

Fagan cites the city’s recent efforts to get the citizens of Tomball more involved in the planning and political process as the reason for the increased turnout.

“A lot of that I would attribute to what we’ve done over the last three years,” she said. “We’ve really engaged a lot of the community. A lot of people had a vested interest and a heightened awareness of how important elections are.”

Fagan said she received a voicemail from Wilson once the results were announced, congratulating Fagan on her win. Fagan said last week she planned to return the call to her opponent.

Wilson thanked her supporters and while disappointed she didn’t win the race, was happy with the votes she did receive.

“I think I made a strong showing as shown in the percent of the total votes show,” she said.

Wilson said her election totals should send a message to city government that some Tomball residents do want things done a little differently.

“The numbers do send a message that we do have a group at least of voters who were voting on the issues that I brought forward such as no tax increase, and the bond issue,” Wilson said. “I would think that would be a strong message as to what the voters may be looking for. I think the numbers speak for themselves.”

Fagan said she was eager to hear from those who supported both her and Wilson in order to work with both parties.

“I would love to hear from everyone of them,” she said.

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