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Easthampton Mayor Michael Tautznik and Northampton Mayor Clare Higgins were returned to office Tuesday night by voters in their respective cities.

Don't count two of the leaders of Hampshire County's two cities out. Incumbent mayors held on to their jobs in Northampton and Easthampton Tuesday.

Northampton Mayor Clare Higgins fended off a challenge Tuesday from Michael R. Bardsley, outpolling him by several hundred votes.

When a machine problem that caused difficulty in reading Precinct 6B's votes was solved, Higgins had outpolled Bardsley by a final unofficial total of 5,034 votes to 4,690 votes.

Bardsley, a long-time at-large city councilor, brought Higgins her toughest challenge in a decade. The two faced off in more than a dozen debates and forums over the last two months.

Bardsley conceded defeat shortly before 9 p.m.

Listen to Northampton Mayor Clare Higgins's victory speech at the Paradise City Tavern
(if you lack a plug-in to hear the audio, right-click here to download it as an mp3 file)

Easthampton Mayor Michael A. Tautznik also won support for another term Tuesday by a wide margin, securing more than 49 percent of the vote in a four-way race.

In unofficial results, Tautznik, the city's only mayor since the post was created, drew 2,543 votes, 585 more than his nearest rival, James "J.P." Kwiecinski, who received 1,958 votes.

Margaret Prendergast received 590 votes and Albert J. DiCarlo garnered 55 votes, according to unofficial results.

Kwiecinski ran an aggressive challenge, stumping door-to-door throughout the city and wearing out two pairs of shoes in the process, he said Tuesday.

A nonbinding ballot question about the future of Northampton's regional landfill won easily in all of the city's wards; with the final precinct counted, almost 64% of those voted against expanding the city landfill over the Barnes Aquifer, with a final unofficial margin of 5,482-3,107.

In other Northampton results:

* In Ward 3, City Councilor Robert C. Reckman lost his seat to challenger Angela D. Plassman, who drew 576 votes to Reckman's 508.

* In Ward 1, incumbent Maureen T. Carney held on to her City Council post, outpolling challenger Andrew J. Vidal-McNair 853 votes to 364 votes.

* In Ward 7, Gene A. Tacy won an open seat over fellow candidate Deborah Jacobs, garnering 936 votes to Jacobs' 731 votes.

Look for continuing coverage of Tuesday's results on GazetteNET and in Wednesday's print edition of the Gazette.