A draggy count finally confirms it Wednesday morning: Two District 1 School Board candidates face a runoff.
By MELANIE AVE
Published September 2, 2004
TAMPA - Neither woman knew she was headed to a runoff Tuesday night. A computer glitch had tied up voting tallies.
Exhausted, Hillsborough District 1 School Board candidate Janice Torgersen went to bed.
"I slept like a baby," said the retired educator and political novice.
One of her three opponents, Susan Valdes, tried to rest. Instead, after midnight, she headed to the county's Election Service Center to wait out results.
"I couldn't take it anymore," said Valdes, a health care clinic manager. "I was up like 271/2 hours. I finally saw it at 5:11 a.m. It was fabulous."
Valdes received 37 percent of the vote for the West Tampa seat and Torgersen got 29 percent. The two will face off in the Nov. 2 election. They were trailed by retired principal Velia Pedrero and former Hillsborough County Commissioner Joe Kotvas, who each received about 17 percent.
A runoff is necessary because no candidate received more than 50 percent of the votes. The winner will replace Glenn Barrington, 81, who is retiring after 16 years representing the district that has the largest number of Hispanic voters.
By midnight, only four of the West Tampa district's precincts had been counted. Torgersen and Valdes led, but the race could have gone any way.
Kotvas and Pedrero were disappointed but said they felt as though everyone ran a good campaign.
Kotvas, a radiology supervisor who was once imprisoned for accepting a bribe in a rezoning dispute as a commissioner, said it was his last shot at public office.
"The only reason I was running for this was to get something accomplished for the kids," said Kotvas, 61.
Pedrero, 56, former principal of Shaw and Twin Lakes Elementary, was still wondering Wednesday what went wrong.
"I can't explain it," she said.
Valdes, the top vote-getter, raised the least amount of campaign money, $3,660. She had some name recognition, having run unsuccessfully for the School Board in 1996 and the County Commission in 2002.
Pedrero raised almost four times that, $12,000. Torgersen raised $10,000 and Kotvas, $4,100.
Valdes, 39, attributed her showing to simple beat-the-street campaigning.
"We were out there in the community," she said. "I'm accessible. I make myself seen."
Torgersen, 66, and Valdes said they are looking toward November and the best way to spread their message to voters.
Torgersen said her knowledge as a parent of two grown sons as well as a Hillsborough educator and community member gives her the edge. She retired from the school district one year ago after 35 years. She said she hopes to whittle away the achievement gap between white and black students.
"I understand education," she said. "I understand the needs of children in Hillsborough County."
Valdes, who is Hispanic, played up her experience as a parent. She has a son in eighth grade at Pierce Middle School and another in 12th grade at Leto High School.
She said she would bring an outsider's view with business sense to the seven-member board.
"I can relate to the parents," Valdes said. "The children of today are not like children when we were growing up. I bring a different perspective."
