Novasel, Brown to vie for District 5 supe seat
By Kathryn Reed
Sue Novasel and Kevin Brown, as the top two vote getters for El Dorado County District 5 supervisor, will be squaring off in November.
They never relinquished their lead as numbers started coming in just after 8pm June 3.
With all precincts reporting, Novasel garnered 27.46 percent of the vote (1,135 votes), Brown 19.06 percent (788), Angela Swanson 17.83 percent (737), Kenny Curtzwiler 17.68 percent (731), Gerri Grego 12.07 percent (499), and Teresa Piper 5.68 percent (235).
Either Kevin Brown or Sue Novasel will be the next District 5 supervisor.
Certification of the vote usually takes about a month so provisional ballots can be counted, which means the numbers are unofficial at this point and could change.
Norma Santiago was termed out, thus creating the opening.
“I want to say how honored I am to have our community’s support. I will continue to work hard during this campaign for District V and I promise to be a strong voice for all of our communities throughout the district,” Novasel told Lake Tahoe News.
She and her husband were out until after midnight picking up campaign signs.
Brown said Novasel was one of the two people he thought he might be facing five months from now.
One thing he is alarmed about is the low voter turnout in this particular race compared to other races in the county. Getting people to the polls, he said, will be a big goal in November.
“We did knock on doors. We made phone calls, but the money was scarce with six running for the spot,” Brown told Lake Tahoe News.
This seat is no longer a Tahoe-only district. It now stretches to Pollock Pines, where Brown resides.
Novasel is a longtime Meyers resident.
One thing they have in common is both are school board members.
What remains to be seen is if Swanson will run for City Council to retain her seat on that body. Swanson said she would only speak through her campaign manager, but provided no contact information for him.
There will also be a runoff for the District 4 supervisorial seat. Howard Penn finished with 1,737 votes or 21.87 percent, while Michael Ranalli tallied 1,708 votes for 21.5 percent.
Not sure how Kenny and Angela had the same number of votes, yet different percentages. Must be new math.
Brown is the clear choice for November but the best news is that Swanson was not able to fool the voters, I only hope she runs for reelection to the council so we can fully expose her.
How wonderful. We have two candidate who ran clean campaigns, who are true community philanthropists, and who I’d imagine would make good Supervisors. Now we just need to decide who would make a great Supervisor. The residents from Pollock to Tahoe should vote for the candidate who researches the most, who knows the most, who does the best at the future debates, and who truly demonstrates they want to be Supervisor for the ability to help the entire district, not just their home town, and not their own self-centered political interests.
Was it a typo of 731 to 731 votes for Kenny and Angela that led to the original report of different percentages garnered by each candidate? The change of 737 to 731 votes for Angela and Kenny respectively makes the math work. Thanks for the clarification.
As Andrew pointed out, we’re fortunate to have two quality candidates from which to chose in November. Congrats Kevin and Sue!
However, based on how important this election was to the future of Tahoe, I find it mind-boggling that there are so few comments regarding the results.
What a pathetic turn out of voters. I hope the people who complain on here voted. If you don’t vote, don’t complain.