But whether he will campaign against Lou Ann Crowley or Geoff Badenoch may be up in the air: The two candidates finished three votes apart, Crowley in second place and Badenoch in third.
"I'm grateful, I'm humbled and I think we're going to spend the next six weeks or so continuing to articulate our message," Engen said at about 10 p.m., when the final, unofficial results were posted.
Badenoch will ask for a recount, he said Tuesday night.
"The people who voted have a right to know," he said. "Both her supporters and my supporters have a right to know."
Crowley, who said she would ask for the same thing if the numbers were reversed, said she and her supporters were "thrilled."
"There are so many emotions," she said. "Tomorrow, we have to get started."
Crowley, who also serves on the City Council, was disappointed in Tuesday's
23 percent voter turnout.
Engen drew 2,591 votes, 32.3 percent of the total; Crowley won 1,583 votes,
19.74 percent of the total; and Badenoch drew 1,580, or 19.71 percent.
City Councilman Clayton Floyd came in fourth with 1,000 votes, or 12.5 percent.
"I'm disappointed," he said. "But the electorate said what they wanted to say, so you have to go there. I wish Lou Ann well."
Floyd speculated the liberal, Democratic vote turned out 100 percent, and average-person, more conservative voters turned out at lower levels.
The mayoral news was not good for conservatives, said Floyd supporter Don Nicholson, also on the council.
"I think this is a liberal, Democratic town," he said. "And both Clayton and Jerry (Ballas) are known Republicans."
Nicholson was pleased that John Hendrickson prevailed in the Ward 2 City Council race.
Ballas, also on the City Council, came in fourth in the mayoral primary - with 7.9 percent of the vote. Businessman John D'Orazi drew 7.8 percent.
Missoula County Clerk and Recorder Vickie Zeier called the voter turnout "steady" through the afternoon. Traditionally, the busiest time at the polls is 5 to 8 p.m.
Among the early glitches was getting people to understand they could only vote for one candidate for mayor - even though six choices were listed on the ballot, and two would move on to November's general election.
"At first, people complained they should be able to vote for two, since two are going on to the general election," Zeier said.
The precinct counters rejected ballots with more than one marked, and voters got the chance to vote for one candidate.
The candidates all spent Election Day as a busy, normal day. The four candidates who sit on the City Council had committee meetings from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
"You can't ignore your council duties," said Ballas.
Ballas voted at 7:30 a.m. and did some bookkeeping for his architecture firm before committee meetings. He worked in a meeting for a client after the council work until 5 p.m. He planned to go to a rosary for a relative at church in the evening and then to the courthouse for results. He was upbeat and ready to hear what the voters said.
"I did everything I could reasonably do," he said, "tried to get my information to the voters."
Floyd spent the morning at his office at Floyd Insurance making a few calls to get out the vote. He did a piece of insurance business.
"There is a certain calm once you get to this point," he said. "You know you've done all you can. I'm a great believer in destiny. I'm on a course here."
"At this point, I have no regrets," he said. "We've been out and talked to people, we've run a good clean campaign."
Badenoch went to work Tuesday morning, then went home and spent a couple of hours making calls to remind people to vote. In the late afternoon, he posted himself in front of the Wilma Theater to wave at people. On Monday, he did the same at the corner of South and Higgins avenues, at the former Malfunction Junction and at the downtown post office.
"I'm cheerful," he said Tuesday afternoon. "You can thank my mother for that. She taught me how to cope with situations. You decide how you're going to view it. There's always something more important going on, and there's always something less important going on."
"In retrospect," Badenoch said. "I could have done more. I could have started earlier. I may have started too late to catch John (Engen), for instance."
Badenoch didn't declare his candidacy until the first week of June. Engen declared first, in the first week of February, followed by Crowley later in February, Floyd in March, Ballas in April and John D'Orazi just before filing closed June 30. Badenoch was waiting for a display of leadership from the four candidates on the council, he said.
"And I just didn't see it," he said.
Engen was voter No. 8 in his Precinct 98 at 7:05 a.m. He went to a board meeting from 7:30 to 9 a.m., spoke to KNS Radio and went to committee meetings. In the afternoon, he tried to do a little work. He planned to serve food to his supporters at his campaign headquarters from 5 to 7 p.m.
Like the other candidates Tuesday afternoon, he was relentlessly cheerful.
"What else are you going to do?" he said.
Also like the other candidates, he felt he and his campaign volunteers had done as much as they could.
"You can probably always do more," he said. "You're constrained by a number of things, like the rest of your life. I'm still a Missoula city councilman, and I'm happy to do that. I've got a business."
"This is the longest job application I've ever been through," he said. "That must mean the job is worth it. I think it is."
Crowley, too, worked at her job at Adventure Cycling on Tuesday and worked at council committee meetings. She spent the evening at home with friends and supporters.
"It's been a journey," she said. "Until you do it, going all the places and talking to everybody in town, you don't know how it broadens and changes you."
"People called us last night (Monday) and today and wished us well," she sad Tuesday afternoon. "And the night before. That meant so much to us."
John D'Orazi worked all day at his Auto Broker Center and spent the evening at a family birthday party for a 6-year-old. He took his mother to vote at Prescott School in the morning and voted himself at Russell School at lunchtime.
He'd like to have campaigned more, he said, but he has a full-time job.
"I think I got my message across," D'Orazi said. "For a first run at a political position - talk about my team, grassroots - we've done a good job. People have called me and said I've really brought out some issues."
D'Orazi feels good about everything in the campaign, he said.
"On the whole, it was a very good learning experience for me," he said late Tuesday afternoon. "We'll just see what the voters say. "I've done my part. I've tried. That's bottom line."
D'Orazi won't run for office again.
"I don't think there'll be any elections for me in the future," he said. "This was a one-time shot for me."
Reporter Ginny Merriam can be reached at 523-5251 or at gmerriam@missoulian.com
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