Reform-backed candidates swept the LA Unified school board election Tuesday night, unseating the board president and swinging the balance of the board toward a reform majority for the first time since 2010, according to unofficial election results.
Steve Zimmer, the board president who was running for his third and final term, conceded before any results from Tuesdays polling were posted. Contender Nick Melvoins commanding lead in the mail-in balloting, at 60 percent to Zimmers 40 percent, prompted Zimmers concession speech not long after he arrived to a subdued crowd at his campaign event in Mar Vista.
Melvoins lead in the hard-fought District 4 race, which encompasses LAs west side, a portion of the west San Fernando Valley and Hollywood, held out as polling results rolled in. With all 19 LA Unified precincts reporting, Melvoin won 57.41 percent to Zimmers 42.58 percent. Melvoin received 30,696 votes and Zimmer 22,766 votes.
In the east San Fernando Valleys District 6, the race for the open seat was closer, but reformer Kelly Gonez maintained her lead. Around 12:30 a.m. Gonez tweeted out that she believed she had won.
Based on the results were seeing, I feel confident that the voters of BD6 have voted to make me your next member of the Board of Education, Gonez tweeted just after 12:30 a.m.
Gonez received 13,079 votes, or 51.47 percent, over Imelda Padilla, who got 12,331 votes, or 48.52 percent. Only 748 votes separated them.
