Landslide Linda: Moore downs Troup to become city’s first female mayor

QUINCY — Quincy has elected its first female mayor in the city’s history as former City Treasurer Linda Moore defeated incumbent Mike Troup in Tuesday’s election.

Moore, who ran as an independent, won 39 of the city’s 42 precincts in garnering 58.4 percent of the overall vote. She ran strong in traditionally Republican precincts, including those in the 4th and 5th Wards.

The vote total favored Moore 4,130 to Troup’s 2,941. The turnout was 20.7 percent. With 7,071 votes cast, it was the lowest total in the history of the city’s mayoral races. The last two mayoral races had 8,133 votes (2021) and 8,688 votes (2017) cast. Every other mayoral race since 1917 had more than 10,000 votes cast except for 1981 when David Nuessen defeated Kenneth Bickhaus 7,817 to 1,904.

Moore is only the third female to run for mayor in a general election. Ursula Flinspach ran as an independent in 1993, when Chuck Scholz successfully won his first of three terms as mayor, also defeating Republican Alderman Bill Hoffman. Nora Baldner ran as a Democrat and lost to Troup in 2021.

Troup is the first mayor since 1933 to fail to win a second term after completing one four-year term.

Republican Emmett Wilson, who won the 1931 campaign over incumbent Democrat Frank Jasper, was upset by 3rd Ward Democratic alderman Leo Lenane in the 1933 mayoral race.  Every mayor since Lenane — 11 of them — has served two terms in office. (Lenane did it twice, winning election in 1933 and 1937, then again in 1953 and 1957.)

The last incumbent to lose was the late Democrat John Spring, who lost to Republican 3rd Ward Alderman Kyle Moore in 2013.

Moore, who was losing her voice as the results came in, thanked Troup of his four years of service. She then thanked the voters and said, “Tomorrow, we’re going to get to work.”

“This would not have happened without you,” she told the room of supporters at Utopia Bar. “Here’s to Quincy. Let’s raise a glass to the best small town in America.”

Troup told supporters at the basement of Tower Pizza and Mexican that he had reached out to Moore to congratulate her and he would work with her on a transition plan. He said the top priority was to work with the aldermen to get the budget done in his last month in office.

“The council has extra difficult work ahead to work with an independent mayor,” Troup told the crowd. “I told my family for months I’m so glad this day has come. It’s not quite the result that I was hoping for, but I can live it. This wasn’t going to be a career for me.”

Moore ran on a pledge to have all of the potholes in the city fixed in the first 100 days and Troup said he planned to hold her to that.

“I’m going to drive around and, by God, I’d better not find a pothole,” he said.

Moore is the first mayoral candidate to win while not running on a Republican or Democratic ticket. Going back more than 100 years, independent candidates George Schmitt (1919), Frank Wells (1985), Flinspach and Jeff Van Camp (2017) failed to win the mayoral race. Joseph McIntyre, a Farmer-Labor candidate in the 1921 mayoral election, finished behind Democratic winner Phil O’Brien and Republican John Thompson.

MRN Editor David Adam contributed to this report.