In an election marked by a record turnout and pointed rhetoric, Kerrville voters on Saturday overwhelmingly backed retired pastor Bill Blackburn and his council slate over incumbent Mayor Bonnie White and running mate Gary Cooper.

“We’ve had about three years of controversy and conflict, and I think people are ready to move beyond that,” Blackburn, who campaigned as a unifier, said Monday.

He’ll be sworn in as mayor May 15, along with Judy Eychner, the Place 3 victor over Cooper, and Delayne Sigerman, who was unopposed in Place 4.

The election drew 4,079 voters, for a turnout of 31.3 percent, said City Secretary Brenda Craig, calling it a record for council races, although more voters did cast ballots in a past local referendum.

Blackburn received 62 percent of votes, beating White 2,514 votes to 1,552. Eychner, a local real estate agent, beat Cooper 2,522 to 1,489 votes. Sigerman logged 2,943 votes.

“I’m going to be the mayor of all the people, and that includes those who voted for my opponent,” said Blackburn, a political novice who was active in numerous civic causes and served as pastor at Trinity Baptist Church in Kerrville from 1984 to 1999.

But uniting the community behind the reconstituted council — White and two allies had held the majority for the past year — may prove an uphill battle for Blackburn, who described the campaign as vigorous and exhausting.

Despite asserting that she’s not bitter, White confirmed Monday that she hasn’t contacted Blackburn to congratulate him, and has no plans to.

“There were no issues involved, for the most part, in his campaign. It was all personal attacks and character assassinations against me” by Blackburn’s supporters, she said. “For someone who claims to be a uniter, this is a bad first start. These wounds will take a long time to heal, if at all.”

Young voters likely swung the contests, said White, who took exception to social media commenters who cast her often rigorous questioning on city initiatives as micromanagement efforts designed to slow or defeat them.

“I just think there were a lot of new voters who jumped in on the rhetoric, and it was kind of a ‘days of rage mentality’ to go down and join a movement, if you will … I think they were believing these false stories on Facebook,” she said, calling her backers “very informed, mature voters.”

“I’m pleased with the job that I’ve done,” said White, who served one year as a councilwoman before being elected mayor in 2016. She co-owns Tularosa Interests with her husband, which deals in everything from oil and gas to real estate and commercial development.

Blackburn, who was endorsed by six former Kerrville mayors, estimated he spent $30,000 on the campaign, compared with $7,000 White estimated she spent.

Rejecting critics’ contention that he’ll be controlled by the former officials, Blackburn said, “I’m my own man … I am very willing to get ideas and perspectives from those who previously served, but it doesn’t mean I have to follow those things.”

White said she couldn’t match her opponent’s resources, which also included supporters going door-to-door to campaign for Blackburn, Eychner and Sigerman, a former appraisal consultant and commercial real estate broker respectively.

“They had street walkers, and I couldn’t compete with them and those numbers because I was busy doing the job of mayor,” said White, calling her opponent’s campaign “toxic.”

Cooper, a retired lawyer, said the campaign was light on substantive debates and “got to be ugly.”

“They talked about the City Council being divided, but in the next breath they’re saying the city is running the best it has in 30 years. If it ain’t broke, don’t break it,” Cooper said. “The personal attacks on the mayor just ramped up and up and up.”

Blackburn also came under fire, with critics taking exception to social media posts that included criticisms of President Donald Trump, of evangelical Christians who support Trump and of the Republican party, which he fears “is coming unraveled.”

“Kerrville citizens will be shocked when they come to realize the person who they voted in as mayor is a liberal Democrat who no longer calls himself an evangelical Christian on Facebook,” Cooper said Monday.

Blackburn, a Democrat, noted city elections are nonpartisan and said party affiliation and posts on national issues didn’t phase supporters.

“They just said, ‘Get in there and do the job,’” he said, adding, “I tried to get Republicans to run for mayor, and they all turned it down.”

White said she was offended by Blackburn’s criticism of evangelical Christians for backing Trump, adding, “We have traditionally been known as a very conservative stronghold in Kerr County. Maybe we’re not.”

Eychner and Sigerman, who couldn’t be reached Monday, will succeed Mary Ellen Summerlin and C. Warren Ferguson on the council, respectively.

Zeke MacCormack is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of his stories here. | zeke@express-news.net | @zekemac