Claremont Insider: LACONTE AND MOWBRAY WIN

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

LACONTE AND MOWBRAY WIN

Incumbent Hilary LaConte and returning former Sam Mowbray were elected to the CUSD Board of Education in yesterday's election.   LaConte received 3,123 votes, or 43.1%.   Mowbray got 2,630, or 36.3%.  Joseph Farrell, who was the outsider candidate, got 1,488 votes - good enough for 20.6%.

You can see the actual results here.


As we thought, turnout was pretty light.  A total of 7,241 votes were cast, but since voters could vote for two candidates, that means that the number of ballots possible was around half that, or about 3,620, which would be 15.1% of the 23,949 registered voters in the district.   The actually turnout was a little higher, since some people would have cast only one of their two possible votes.

That's probably an accurate barometer of community interest in the election, which is unfortunate because, humility not being their strong point, we can count on LaConte, Mowbray and the board misinterpreting the vote as a huge endorsement of their governing philosophy.  That will translate into more of the same, including closed door discussions that verge on violations of the state's Brown Act and another hugely overpriced school bond in a year or two.

Turnout for the Citrus College Board of Trustees Area 2 seat was almost as low in the CUSD election.  A total of 4,369 votes were cast out of a total of 26,298 registered voters for that district.  That's a turnout of 16.1%.  Incumbent Sue Keith creamed her opponent, Tracy Rickman, and received 3,328 votes, or 76.2% of the total cast.