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Gaithersburg Mayor Sidney A. Katz was re-elected Tuesday by a wide margin and two city council incumbents also enjoyed victory.

"I'm very, very pleased and very honored and very thankful that people came out to vote and were so very, very kind to me," said Katz, who said he thought "the best" he could do was a 60/40 split in his race against opponent Richard Koch, a Kentlands resident and regional real estate developer. The "very best" he thought he could do was win by a 70-30 split, he said.

The mayor won with 2,621 votes or 73 percent of ballots cast, while Koch received 998 votes or 27 percent, according to unofficial results.

The Board of Supervisors of Elections is expected to make the results official tonight at City Hall.

"The first thing I'm going to do is to do what I always do, which is to get back to work for the City of Gaithersburg," Katz said after watching the results come in with his wife, other candidates and their families at City Hall.

"I'm disappointed, but I'm good," said Koch, 55, who was making his first bid for elected office. "I think it's always hard to beat the incumbent, but someone's gotta try and I would do it again if the opportunity were available."

Residents also re-elected Councilman Michael A. Sesma, 56, a neuroscientist at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda with 2,579 votes and Councilman Henry F. Marraffa Jr., 71, a longtime businessman and contractor who received 2,284 votes. Deer Park resident and businessman Tom Rowse, 39, received 1,399 votes.

Katz, Marraffa and Sesma will be sworn in Monday.

Voter turnout was the city's highest ever, with 3,629 residents casting ballots. The previous record was 3,438 votes in 2007. The city has 28,098 voters, said city spokeswoman Britta Monaco.

Rocking the vote

Katz, 59, has been mayor since 1998 and an elected leader in Gaithersburg since 1978. He owns and operates Wolfson's Department Store on East Diamond Avenue, where his family has sold workmen's shoes and clothing since 1905. The former city councilman was appointed mayor in 1998, when his friend and mentor Ed Bohrer died. He faced an opponent in 2001 and ran unopposed in 2005, when 2,388 of 2,681 residents who voted cast ballots supporting him.

Katz attributed Tuesday's win to a positive campaign and said he will consider carefully issues and resident suggestions that surfaced during his campaign.

He said he "handed out more signs than we've ever handed out before" and sent 10,000 flyers to city voters last week, including an endorsement signed by Sesma and council members Jud Ashman, Cathy Drzyzgula and Ryan Spiegel. About 400 yard signs endorsing his re-election dotted the city. The mayor did not go door-to-door soliciting votes, but does voter outreach daily working for the city, he said.

Koch spent the last week going door-to-door and hitting the airwaves.

He appeared for live interviews Oct. 26 and Monday on Spanish music radio station WLXE 1600 AM with talk-show host Georgy Rosario, whose two-hour show has a deep following in the Latino community.

Carlos Solis, an Olde Towne businessman who ran for City Council in 2007, endorsed Koch on the show and rallied Latino community leaders around Olde Towne to support Koch.

Also Friday, El Tiempo Latino, a Spanish-language newspaper, published an article featuring Koch. He bought a 60-second radio commercial in Spanish that ran eight times a day Friday through Tuesday, he said.

Koch estimated that he had spent about $8,000 on advertising, including the $1,000 radio spot, most from his own pocket.

Increasing turnout

On Tuesday, several people said they were voting for the first time in city elections.

"I just moved to Gaithersburg two years ago so it's good to get involved," said Amy Sklut, 29, who said public safety is on her mind.

"To keep the area safe, I think. That's the biggest concern — cutting crime," she said.

Building business and increasing employment were a key concern.

"I'm concerned that we need to attract and retain businesses here and we need to keep our tax base up," said Ken Smondrowski, 40, a Lakelands resident whose daughter attends Rachel Carson Elementary School and said overcrowding is always an issue.

Brian Ddumba, 34, a six-year city resident who lives in Potomac Oaks Condominiums said his key concerns were employment and job creation. Ddumba voted at City Hall, as he has in previous elections.

Betsy Bart, 75, of Deer Park said she is interested in maintaining the city's low tax rate, an issue on which all the candidates agree.

"I don't want to see my city go into debt unnecessarily," said Bart, a lifelong city resident. "I just don't want to see them spending willy-nilly."