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Cape Coral Mayor John Gunter won by a large margin against challenger Tom Shadrach in the race for Cape Coral mayor Tuesday.

“Today the people of our community, a majority, have voted me to be their mayor, and I take that responsibility seriously,” Gunter said. “I thank every voter who voted for me, and I know that we’re going to move our city forward.

“I appreciate their support, and I promise I won’t let them down,” he added.

Gunter had 38,288 votes, or 61.08 percent, compared to 24,401 votes, or 38.92 percent, for Shadrach.

He had declared his victory at his election watch party around 10 p.m. Tuesday.

“Well, looking at the numbers, I’m at about 60% right now, and I know several news agencies have called the race. But I think there’s enough of a cushion that I can honestly say, I thank all our residents who voted for me,” Gunter said.

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The candidates ran on managing the ever-growing city of Cape Coral, which has more than 200,000 residents and focused parts of their campaigns on leading the city through recovery after Hurricane Ian.

“I wish I could snap my fingers and all those issues go away. Unfortunately, we experienced almost a Category 5 hurricane,” Gunter said. “I’m hoping by the end of November we’re going to be in a much better place than we are today, and I just asked our community have patience.”

Gunter, president of Gulf Coast Premier Homes, is a former District 1 council member who replaced the late Mayor Joe Coviello.

John Gunter

He was appointed mayor in a 6-1 vote by the city council in January 2021 to finish out the previous mayor’s term, which expires this month.

His win against Shadrach means he will get his first full term as mayor and be allowed to run for another term in 2024.

To the people who didn’t vote for him, he said: “I will work extremely hard to earn your vote in the next four years.”

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Some of Gunter’s priorities include smart growth policies, public safety, and quality of life for residents.

“I want to make sure we get a plan for the future, whether it’s our transportation, our utilities, expansion, smart growth, having a strategic plan moving forward, and we’re in the process of developing all that now,” Gunter said.

“We’ll finalize that here in the next six months,” he added.

Previously: 2022 Election candidate profile: Cape Coral mayor race

His opponent, though finding the results disappointing, thanked all his supporters for coming out to vote.

“I want to thank them so much for all that support to try to beat the establishment,” Shadrach said. “It shows that democracy does work in our country, and we all did our best, and I thank them all.”

He was also in awe with the number of residents who came out to vote for this election.

“It was a great thing to see. I mean, after this storm, people spending two hours in line when they still got recovery to do, that was an amazing thing,” Shadrach said.

Shadrach, a four-year resident, and retired Boeing defense manager made his first attempt at getting elected to public office.

He ran after seeing projects like the Yacht Club renovations and the Parks and Recreation General Obligation (GO) Bond going overbudget and falling behind schedule.

Some of his priorities included lowering property taxes, stopping wasteful spending, and getting projects like the Yacht Club and city parks done.

He plans to finish out his time on the budget committee and continue making his priorities heard.

Tom Shadrach

He recently criticized the city for not having a plan for repairing the Yacht Club amenities after they suffered severe damage from Ian.

Both mayor and councilmembers serve four-year terms and can serve for no more than two consecutive four-year terms. Cape Coral city elections are nonpartisan, and council members are voted citywide.

Each city council member is paid $32,600 per year, while the mayor is paid $36,600 per year, and payment is adjusted annually by the amount of the Social Security cost of living adjustment.

Current annual pay for the mayor and council members is $41,954 and $37,368, respectively.

Councilmembers and the mayor are compensated for any necessary expenses brought on by their duties in office.

Winning candidates will be sworn in at the next regular city council meeting on Nov.16.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Election 2022: Cape Coral mayor’s race goes to John Gunter