One Down, One To Go

Posted Aug 27, 2008 by Courtney Cairns Pastor

Updated Aug 26, 2008 at 11:19 PM

Voters elected Hillsborough School Board member Susan Valdes to a second term on Tuesday, but the board’s longest-serving member will have to wait a little longer to see if she gets re-elected.

Valdes won the District 1 school board seat over David Schmidt, a 10-year district employee. District 1 represents parts of northwestern Hillsborough County.

“I feel very humbled by the support of the community,” Valdes said.

The at-large board seat, District 7, remained undecided with none of the three candidates receiving more than 50 percent of the votes on Tuesday. That means the top two vote-getters, incumbent Carol Kurdell and Hillsborough Community College employee Stephen Gorham, will move on to a runoff in November.

The two had run against Jason Mims, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel.

Kurdell said she had hoped to win outright on Tuesday but thought low turnout and a three-way race affected her ability to get enough votes.

“Three people in the race – it splits the vote. You just never know,” said Kurdell, who was first elected in 1992 and has twice been the chairwoman. “You always give it everything you have.”

Gorham saw the results as a message for change on the school board.