New faces coming to Columbia City Council celebrate election night victories

The Columbia City Council is set to welcome two new faces to its ranks.

Don Waterman and Nick Knoth won their elections in Wards 5 and 1, respectively.

Waterman edged opponent Gregg Bush by 58 votes to secure the victory in unofficial election results. Results will be certified within a week. Knoth had a wider margin of victory 379 more votes than incumbent Pat Fowler, who had suspended her campaign in February.

More: Here are the candidates' final words on affordable housing, public safety

Part of Waterman's campaign has focused on ensuring the Columbia Police Department has a full slate of officers. The work now begins on getting that accomplished he said Tuesday night at D. Rowe's Restaurant and Bar. Other campaign messaging looked at city infrastructure and housing.

"I just want to start getting into the details. It is easy to talk in generalities when you are campaigning, but now it is 'I want to fund the police and where are we going find the funds and find that out,' That will be the challenge. Getting into the details," he said.

Waterman thanked volunteers and donors while speaking to supporters after his win, also acknowledging the support his wife provided and Mike Zweifel for his marketing assistance. He recognized Columbia School Board candidates John Potter and Chuck Basye, who also were holding watch parties at D. Rowe's.

The next steps for Bush are not yet clear, but he does know that he wants to continue to do work that will help improve Columbia, he said during his election watch party at Southside Pizza and Pub.

"I have a lot of skill sets to do a lot of things. There are still things I can offer the city and my neighbors. It wasn't the outcome that I wanted, but it was the outcome of the Fifth Ward," Bush said, adding he learned a lot being in public life since January.

He's not yet sure if he will run for an office again, but does have three years in which to decide if he wants to seek the council seat again.

"The future is not written. ... I am really proud of the campaign I ran. I really am," Bush said. "I still want to advocate for my neighbors, people that are marginalized and that is what I will continue to do here and in every civic sphere that I encounter.

Knoth is grateful for the trust voters put in him, he said in a phone call with the Tribune on Tuesday night.

"I will do my best to live up to those expectations and the commitments I made while campaigning. My next steps are to do my best to catch up and learn a lot about what is going on with our city," Knoth said.

He'll have a couple of weeks to do that ahead of swearing-in later this month.

Along with the council onboarding process, Knoth would like to receive briefs from each city department on what they have on their slates.

Charles Dunlap covers local government, community stories and other general subjects for the Tribune. You can reach him at cdunlap@columbiatribune.com or @CD_CDT on Twitter. Subscribe to support vital local journalism.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Don Waterman, Nick Knoth win seats on Columbia City Council