Anthony Ricciardelli and Rick Smith won Plano's two runoff races on Saturday, adding to the Plano City Council two voices skeptical of the city's high-density development efforts.
Smith, president of a home theater company, earned 53 percent of the vote to defeat incumbent Councilman David Downs for Place 8 on the council. Ricciardelli, an attorney, picked up 53 percent of the vote, surpassing fellow candidate Ann Bacchus for the Place 2 seat.
None of the four candidates replied immediately to requests for comment late Saturday.
In a series of written questionnaire responses in February, Ricciardelli stressed one of his priorities was to maintain Plano's suburban character.
"With our remaining land, Plano must focus on land uses that are consistent with the character of the community that we all know and love, not on high-density development projects," Ricciardelli wrote at the time in a statement to Community Impact Newspaper.
Smith touched on similar issues in his campaign, writing in a similar piece in November that the city should "limit the runaway growth of massive apartment complexes."
In the May 6 election, Mayor Harry LaRosiliere won re-election and Kayci Prince earned a council seat outright.
In an email late Saturday to Community Impact Newspaper, Downs said it was a pleasure and an honor to serve the city in various capacities for the last eight years.
"I'm proud of running an issues driven and fact based campaign," the outgoing councilman wrote. "I pray for those on council and those newly elected that they will remember to look to the future and to represent the entire City. I can't begin to list all those I need to thank for their support & encouragement. Just know that anything I was able to do or accomplish came through the efforts of many."
Posted at 7:18 p.m.
David Downs[/caption]
Rick Smith led incumbent Plano City Council Member David Downs in early voting shortly after polls closed on Saturday, and Anthony Ricciardelli led Ann Bacchus.Plano voters cast 11,977 ballots this year in early voting, dwarfing the early voting total from the 2013 runoffs nearly five-to-one.
With zero election-day precincts reporting, here are the early vote totals for the two Plano City Council runoffs:
Place 2
Ann Bacchus[/caption]
Ricciardelli—52.25 percent (6,648 votes)- Bacchus—47.75 percent (6,076 votes)
Place 8
- Rick Smith—52.62 percent (6,518 votes)
- David Downs (incumbent)—47.38 percent (5,869 votes)
