EUGENE (AP) — Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy has held off former mayor Jim Torrey to win a second four-year term.

Piercy led Torrey by fewer than 1,500 votes with almost all the ballots counted Thursday.

Torrey led the state’s second-largest city from 1997 until 2004. He is a former Republican who last year switched to the Independent Party of Oregon.

Piercy is a registered Democrat.

The mayor’s race is officially nonpartisan, but party affiliation does influence voters. Torrey told The Register-Guard newspaper he could not overcome the “blue wave” of Democratic voting in this election.