Louis Belcher
Louis D. Belcher (born 1939) is an American politician who served as the mayor of Ann Arbor, Michigan, from 1978 to 1985. He won office in an unusual "special election" of 1978, held after lengthy court wranglings over the disputed 1977 mayoral contest, and went on to win three more two-year terms as mayor.
Early career
Louis Belcher was born in 1939. In 1971, Belcher first ran for mayor of Ann Arbor, losing in the Republican primary to Jack J. Garris, who was then defeated in the general election by Democrat Robert J. Harris.
Contested election of 1977
In 1978, normally not a mayoral election year in Ann Arbor, Belcher became mayor under unusual circumstances. In April 1977, he had run as the
After the Supreme Court ruling on ballot secrecy, several issues remained, including the validity of a handful of absentee ballots. Mayor Wheeler and Belcher settled the case by agreeing to a new, special election. The new election was held in 1978, with Belcher winning and becoming mayor.
Belcher's subsequent mayoral terms
In 1979, Belcher ran for reelection, taking the Republican nomination unopposed and defeating Democratic candidate James Kenworthy in the April general election. Belcher went on to win two more terms, defeating Democratic challengers Robert G. Faber in April 1981 and Leslie Morris, who was attempting to become the city's first female mayor, in April 1983. At the time, his seven-year incumbency was the longest that a single person had held the Ann Arbor mayor's chair since the administration of Mayor William E. Brown, Jr. from 1945-57.
As mayor, Belcher was responsible for several initiatives in the areas of energy policy, historic preservation, and economic development. In 1981, Belcher established the Mayor's Energy Advisory Board (known since 1985 as the Ann Arbor Energy Commission), as an effort to develop ways for the city to become more energy efficient. In 1979, Belcher persuaded the city council to step in to save the
References
Further reading
- Mayors of Ann Arbor page at PoliticalGraveyard.com