Incumbent With Heart Transplant Defeated in Kansas Mayoral Race

Kansas City, Kan., Mayor Jack Reardon wasn’t too upset Wednesday about losing his campaign for a fourth term to school board President Joseph Steineger Jr. two months after receiving a heart transplant.

“I’ve won the big battle,” Reardon said of his life-saving operation.

Unofficial results in Tuesday’s nonpartisan election showed that Steineger received 18,122 votes, compared with 16,434 for Reardon. Both candidates are Democrats.

“Who am I to be bitter or upset?” Reardon, 43, said in a concession speech. “I just am happy that I’m alive and in good health, and I hope I can still be of service.”

Reardon, mayor since 1975, said “there was real concern among the voters on the ability of someone who has a transplanted heart to carry out the duties of mayor, and a lot of concern on my part on whether my health would hold up.”

Elsewhere on Tuesday:

--Wisconsin voters approved an amendment to their constitution authorizing a state lottery and parimutuel betting.

--Missouri voters approved increasing the gasoline tax to 11 cents a gallon from 7 cents to raise $133 million a year for highway and bridge work.

--Madison, Wis., Mayor F. Joseph Sensenbrenner won his third two-year term, defeating Mary Kay Baum, court administrator of Wisconsin’s 5th Judicial District.