Why aren’t Hillsboro city council races more competitive?

There are three open seats on the Hillsboro City Council this year, but the elections are largely uncontested.

Olivia Alcaire, the incumbent for Ward 3, Position A, is uncontested for re-election.

Beach Pace is running for Ward 1, Position A. The current councilor, Darell Lumaco, is at the end of his final term. Pace is also running uncontested. She may have anticipated an opponent, or at least likes to be prepared; her campaign committee has spent almost $6,000 of the nearly $10,000 they have raised so far.

The only contested race is for Ward 2, Position A. Incumbent Kyle Allen is being challenged by John Shepherd and William Fields.  Neither Shepherd nor Williams has a campaign committee, meaning they each plan to raise and spend less than $750 on the campaign. Allen has raised just under $2,000, which is comparable to what he had raised at this point during the 2014 campaign.

To be honest, we were hoping for a little more excitement this year. We’ll probably run profiles of the candidates, anyway, just so you can meet your new city councilors before they’re elected by default.

This article was updated on 8/25/2018 to reflect updated campaign finance data from Orestar and a new candidate filing for Ward 2, Position A.