Butler will be under new leadership next year.

Tom Donaldson easily defeated Mayor Maggie Stock in Tuesday’s election, 1,262 votes to 655, meaning he will become the first Republican mayor in the city since 1985.

“People want change and want something real,” Donaldson, 61, said after learning the results. “They’re going to get it.”

Donaldson will replace Stock, a Democrat, who has served as mayor for eight years. He won all six precincts.

It was the first race for mayor since Stock was elected in 2005, as she went unopposed in 2009.

Stock defeated Republican Drusilla Rensel, 1,667 to 717 in 2005.

A former police officer for Jackson and Franklin townships and for Eau Claire, Donaldson ran on a platform emphasizing the restoration of the city’s neighborhoods, mainly by reducing crime.

“People share the concerns I have about drug-related crime in the city,” he said. “That’s what people want solved the most.”

Donaldson works in Cranberry Township as a mail truck supervisor for the Michigan-based Foreman Brothers Inc.