As the late hours of Election Day came to a close, results in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board of Education remained very close to call, with only 21.33 percent of precincts reporting results, but Malibu candidate Craig Foster appeared headed for a seat on the board — and the local history book — as early tallies showed him in second place.
As The Malibu Times went to press, preliminary numbers showed solo Malibu candidate and Advocates for Malibu Public Schools (AMPS) president Foster solidly in second place behind incumbent Laurie Lieberman. If the tallies remain consistent, Foster would become the first person to represent Malibu on the Santa Monica-centric board since 2008.
As of 11:20 p.m. Tuesday night, Foster had earned 16.45 percent of votes in the seven-candidate race, behind Lieberman’s 21.1 percent. To earn a seat, Foster needed to finish in fourth place or higher
“We could always run a better campaign, but man, we couldn’t have done more than we did,” Foster said, speaking from his home just after 11 p.m.
“I’m just grateful for the possibility that this means that Malibu will have a school board representative for the first time in six years,” Foster said, “I’m happy, I’m optimistic, and I’m looking forward to starting to get to work on all the stuff i talked about in the campaign.”
Foster earned endorsements from AMPS as well as the Santa Monica Daily Press and The Malibu Times. Foster was not endorsed by Santa Monicans for Renters Rights, the influential group that endorsed him during his last run for school board in 2012.
Results at 11:20 showed Richard Tahvildaran-Jesswein, Oscar De La Torre and Ralph Mechur in a close race behind Foster, with Patty Finder and Dhun May further behind in votes. The top four vote-getters will earn a seat on the board.
Tahvildaran-Jesswein, a first-time candidate for the school board, had earned 15.94 percent as of 11:20 p.m., with incumbents De La Torre behind at 15.83 and Merchur with 15.63. Only 37 votes separated De La Torre and Merchur at 21.33 percent precincts reporting.
Tahvildaran-Jesswein and De La Torre have been outspoken in issues important to Malibu voters.
Tahvildaran-Jesswein came out in support for “unification,” or a separation of school boards between Santa Monica and Malibu, during a September AMPS meeting.
De La Torre has spoken several times in support of more extensive PCB testing in Malibu Schools.
Lieberman, an incumbent, has not been as outspoken on Malibu issues.
The four officials elected to the SMMUSD Board of Ed will be sworn in during a January meeting.
Check back for finalized results.
