After an hour-and-a-half wait, the winner of the special election for Ames’ 2nd Ward’s seat on the City Council was announced Tuesday night.

At 10:34 p.m., an hour after both candidates had expected the results, Jami Larson was declared the winner.

Larson defeated Erv Klaas for a seat on the Ames City Council. Larson won 63 percent of the vote to Klaas’ 37 percent.

“I’d like to congratulate Erv Klaas for the campaign he ran,” Larson said. “He’s a good person and has many ideas I agree with.”

Larson also thanked people for their efforts in his campaign.

“I’m grateful for all the hard work people put in,” Larson said.

At Klaas’ house, more than 20 people gathered to wait for results.

At 10:28 p.m., Klaas and his supporters listened to election results on the radio.

The station announced with three precincts reporting, Klaas had 44.4 percent of the vote.

The crowd had been optimistic, but after hearing the news from the station, the mood changed. One woman began crying and another woman’s face became red.

After the final results were announced, Klaas shook hands with his supporters and thanked them for their help.

“We worked hard,” Klaas said.

Klaas, a retired ISU ecology professor, had made ecology a major issue in his campaign.

“I think it’s a difficult topic for people to understand and grasp in a short period of time,” Klaas said. “We’ll keep harping away, and I hope one of these days people will wake up to the problem.”

In 2004, Klaas founded and chaired a political action committee called Ames Citizens for Better Local Government. That group has had three candidates it supported elected to the City Council- Ryan Doll, Jim Popken and Dan Rice.

When Klaas decided to run for City Council, he stepped down from his position with the Ames Citizens for Better Local Government.

Klaas supporter Eric Fralick said he was surprised by the result of the election.

“They’re voting for what they think is balance,” Fralick said.

If Klaas had won, four out of seven seats on the City Council would have been controlled by people supported by Ames Citizens for Better Local Government.

Larson will be up for re-election on Dec. 31, 2007.