The Fayetteville mayor and the mayor pro tem may be political foes this municipal election season, but Mitch Colvin and Kathy Keefe Jensen hold a mutual respect in this race for the city gavel.
They came to the Fayetteville City Council together in 2013.
“My decision to run for City Council in 2013 came out of frustration with the lack of progress and broken promises about Murchison Road investment,” said Colvin, 52, who has served four consecutive terms as mayor. “I had watched on numerous occasions failed commitments and broken promises to revitalize and to reinvest. This area has been home to me and my family for the last 60 years and I wanted to be a part of the solution and not just complain about it.”
Colvin followed in his late father’s footsteps as owner of a funeral home on Murchison Road.
“I grew up in a strong Greek household and was taught the value of public service from a young age,’ said Jensen, 60, who has served twice as mayor pro tem in her six consecutive city council terms. “I moved back to Fayetteville after my husband’s military service because it is my hometown, and I truly love this city. When there was an opportunity to serve on the city council, I thought that my small business background and dedication to our community would be a good fit, so I decided to throw my hat in the ring.
Jensen owns a prom, pageant, and formal wear business on Raleigh Road in north Fayetteville.
Colvin says he, too, loves this city.
“I am honored every day to serve this city and community,” he said.
Colvin announced on June 12 he would not seek a fifth term, saying he wanted to devote more time to his family and his business. He reversed course in an 11th-hour decision on July 18, which caught mayoral candidates by surprise to include council members Mario Benavente, Courtney Banks-McLaughlin, Jensen and former council members Tisha Waddell and Paul Williams, and perennial mayoral candidate Efrain “Freddie” de la Cruz.
“I spoke with so many different residents from all races and partisan backgrounds who asked me to reconsider, as they wanted me to stay the course and finish, because they felt a stability and a steady hand in city leadership was needed in this moment,” he said about his decision. “Particularly, as many council members filed to run for mayor, nearly half of the council members will change just in the mayor’s race. This will undoubtedly shake up the face of our city’s leadership.”
High road of politics
Colvin scored a resounding victory in the Oct. 7 primary in a field of 10 candidates with 47.61% of the votes, according to the Cumberland County Board of Elections, with Jensen earning a runner-up 18.11%, and now Colvin and Jensen vie Tuesday for the city gavel.
“I have great respect for Mayor Colvin and the years he’s dedicated to our community,” Jensen said this week. “My understanding was that he planned to retire from public office, so like many others, I was surprised when he decided to continue serving. That was his decision to make, and I respect it. My focus now is on offering voters a positive vision for Fayetteville’s future.”
While Colvin’s last-minute decision may have damaged Jensen’s bid for mayor, the mayor shares a mutual respect for his opponent.
“Kathy and I came on together in 2013, and I have enjoyed serving with her over the last 12 years,” he said. “I have the utmost respect for Kathy Jensen.”
In an election season that has seen its share of ugliness led by some Fayetteville City Council candidate surrogates, Colvin and Jensen have conducted cordial and civil campaigns and the high road of politics.
“My team and I have been talking to as many voters as we can in the final days of this campaign,” Jensen said. “We know that Fayetteville has low turnout in municipal elections and we need as many people as we can to vote this year. We are calling and have had folks out at the early vote locations. I feel like I have been all over Fayetteville the past months. I will be at the Veterans Parade on Saturday and at the polls. On November 3, I will be putting out signs and making sure we are covered on all bases. Then, November 4, it’s out to the polls.”
In a father’s footsteps
Despite the odds, Kathy Keefe Jensen is not a quitter.
“I am the proud daughter of a Special Forces soldier and was born and raised in Fayetteville,” she said about her father, the late John Keefe, who was a county commissioner. “My father ended up homeless at 17 and had to go into the Army and my mother grew up with soldiers taking over her home and coming to America at 12. Later, she lived with multiple sclerosis for 34 years and my father passed with Agent Orange at the age of 66. Growing up and taking on a great deal of responsibility happened very fast for my brothers and I, but it has made me the person I am today. It has driven my desire to give back to the community that helped raise me.”
A 1983 graduate of Pine Forest High School, Jensen says teachers Kathy Gaines, Laura Gibbs, Victoria Pike, and Cathy Culbreth are among those who have influenced who she has become in life.
“And Betty Dan Gilliam Spencer showed me it’s OK to go after what you want in life, and dress well while you’re doing it,” Jensen said. “Lib Whittington taught me to just walk through the door.”
Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church, she says, also has shaped who she is.
“My church family has been one of the greatest influences in my life,” Jensen said. “Religion, culture, people, and faith carried me through many times.”
And she never has forgotten Bill Crisp, the late city councilman who took Jensen under his wing when she first was elected as the District 1 councilwoman.
“My mentor, Bill Crisp, taught me to listen to the people and to put yourself in the residents’ shoes,” Jensen said. “When God took my father away, God gave me Bill Crisp.”
A mother’s influence
Mitch Colvin grew up in the brick house along Stanberry Drive in the Broadell neighborhood, where E.E. Smith High School’s late educators and leaders like Isaiah “Ike” Walker, Bill Carver, John Smith, John Griffin, and W.T. Brown demanded the best of young people, and anything less than their best was not acceptable.
“There were so many people who I feel played a critical role in my life and development,” Colvin said, “and Mrs. Haynes, another of my teachers when I was younger. But the most influential would have to be my mom. She taught me the value of hard work and self-determination. She has always enforced positive affirmation even until this day.”
He grew up attending his mother’s Greater First Baptist Church in Cedar Creek and today attends Mount Olive Baptist Church along Johnson Street in the Bonnie Doone community.
Visions for a city
Should registered voter city residents return Colvin to another term, the mayor says he hopes to work with the county and the city-owned Fayetteville Public Works utility to expand water, sewer and electricity throughout the city; establish a senior literacy initiative for our aging adults to learn technology skills at senior centers; programs for youth; and a “Heroes Concourse” at the Fayetteville Regional Airport in support of our expanding defense and military presence associated with Fort Bragg.
Public safety, Jensen says, is her number one priority along with affordable housing growth and investing in recreation and young people, i.e., the Fayetteville Cumberland Youth Council.
“Working to revitalize the Fayetteville-Cumberland Youth Council and watch them continue to grow has been one of the most inspiring parts of my public service,” Jensen said. “These young leaders remind us what a community is really about—seeing a need, stepping up and making a difference without waiting to be asked. I’m proud to have supported their work, because they represent the future of Fayetteville: thoughtful, engaged, and determined to leave things better than they found them.”
Epilogue
There you have it.
We will know who our next city mayor is somewhere between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Tuesday, and so will Mitch Colvin and Kathy Keefe Jensen.
“I plan to watch the returns with my beautiful wife, mother, and brother,” Mitch Colvin said. “And possibly my kids, if they are home.”
Kathy Keefe Jensen isn’t certain about her plans for awaiting the election returns. But one thing she is sure of as the mayoral campaign comes to an end.
“But for sure,” Jensen said about her husband, who has put our campaign signs from sunup to sundown almost every day, “I will have ‘Big Jerry’ beside me.”
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
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