The voters of Columbia have chosen their mayor after months of competitive campaigning. Current mayor Barbara Buffaloe will serve another term.
Voters decisively re-elected Buffaloe Tuesday by a margin of more than three thousand votes.
According to the Boone County Clerk's office, voter turnout this year was one and a half percent higher than turnout in the last mayoral election in 2022. Fewer people chose to vote on election day this year, but the number of absentee ballots tripled.
The election was highly publicized, especially after candidate Blair Murphy received a $25,000 donation from Citizens for a Better Columbia, a political action committee whose treasurer appeared to be deceased.
In all, Murphy reported raising more than a quarter of a million dollars for his campaign, while Buffaloe reported bringing in only about $70,000. A third candidate, Tanya Heath, raised less than six thousand dollars.
Heath said she believes her showing would have been better with a bigger budget.
“Did I ask people for money in the fall?” Heath said. “No. Should I have asked people for money in the fall? Yes. I only had one fundraiser and so I had to be very strategic with the money that I was given.”
Buffaloe said the amount of money in the race made her anxious.
“When we have a lot of money spent, it means that it creates a barrier for people supporting their community (and) running for local government,” Buffaloe said.
Public safety
Murphy and his supporters tried to turn the race on a narrative about public safety in the city. The City of Columbia’s 2024 community survey showed 84% of respondents feel safe in their neighborhood during the daytime. But only a third of respondents felt safe walking downtown.
Even in defeat, Murphy said city staffing issues, including in the police department, need to be addressed.
“When I hear about shortages and stuff, it just doesn’t make you feel as comfortable and safe as I was when I was a kid,” Murphy said. “And that’s what I want to get back for everybody.”
However, Buffaloe believed the city’s crime has been misconstrued.
“Even though crime statistics are down, hiring is up [and] investment is up because of the conversation around it, there’s been a lot of misinformation,” Buffaloe said.
According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol crime dashboard, violent crime in Columbia has been trending downward since 2021.
Matt Nichols is the president of the Columbia Police Officers Association. In September of 2024, the organization made a series of posts encouraging people to run against Buffaloe and sitting city councilors – all of whom won their races Tuesday.
“The fear of crime is very real,” Nichols said. “It doesn’t matter what crime stats say. Statistics can be manipulated by anyone. The reality is crime is too high.”
State advocacy
Buffaloe said she wants her second term to help Columbia overcome obstacles imposed by the federal government.
She plans to keep working with entities such as the Missouri Municipal League and the Department of Mental Health and Human Services to address mental health funding, but says it’s been hard.
“How do I help put our voice out there?” she said. “It’s kind of sad to think that Jefferson City often doesn’t care about Columbia’s voice. They view us as this outlier, even though we are the fastest growing city in Boone County.”
In the end, Columbia, blue dot in a red state, chose to give its mayor three more years.
