Nothing was chintzy about Nancy Goldberg’s conquest of yesterday’s School Board election.
She thoroughly spanked the field.
In remote theory, Laura Chardiet, who ran second all night to claim the second available chair on the Board, possibly could exchange places with defeated Board President Scott Zeidman, who finished third. Likely, however, that would require an historic re-aligning of the stars.
Thanks to data maven George Laase, we know that Ms. Goldberg’s wingspan of influence and popularity — once believed limited — was anything but parochial.
She won 11 of the 13 precincts, and Ms. Chardiet took the other two. In one, Ms. Chardiet’s margin was a single vote.
Ms. Goldberg nearly ran the table although in the other losing precinct she placed a distant third, 89 to 51 votes.
Mr. Zeidman was third in nine precincts and second in the other four.
Voter turnout was 15 percent. Of the 7,620 votes cast, about one-sixth, or 1,203, voted only for one candidate instead of two.
Ms. Goldberg’s name appeared on 58 percent of ballots, Ms. Chardiet on 51 percent, Mr. Zeidman on 50 percent.
It does not make any difference this afternoon because the election is past and growing cold. But at the final candidates forum, an all-student affair sponsored by the Kid Forum at The Actor’s Gang, the teenagers foreshadowed the election outcome.
They said Ms. Goldberg was their favorite candidate. Ms. Chardiet was the runnerup.
To complete the field, fourth place Robert Zirgulis and fifth place Gary Abrams suffered major falloffs from their maiden outings two years ago.
Mr. Zirgulis dropped from 924 votes to 265, losing two-thirds of his base. Mr. Abrams fell from 499 to 115, about a 75 percent difference.
