BY ALEX SARDAR Asbarez Staff Writer GLENDALE–In what became a surprising evening for many–the Glendale municipal elections ended Tuesday with unexpected returns from a total of 51 precincts.
Although voter turnout increased to 18.8 percent from 1995’s 17.3 percent–the elections became a battle of the incumbents and challengers.
The Armenian National Committee-Political Action Committee’s endorsed candidates had a strong showing–although some were not able to garner the needed number of votes to secure their seats.
For the Glendale City Council seats–the winners were Ginger Bremberg with 6,677 votes (16.7 percent)–David Weaver with 5,723 votes (14.3 percent) and ANC-PAC endorsed Mayor Sheldon Baker with 5,215 votes (13 percent). Other ANC-PAC endorsed candidates Mary Ann Plumely and Rick Reyes came in close fifth and sixth spots.
The Glendale Unified School Board of Education seats were also taken by an eclectic group of candidates–including incumbent and ANC-PAC endorsed Jeanne Bentley with 9,302 votes (25 percent)–challenger Chuck Sambar with 7,957 votes (21.5 percent) and teacher Louise Foote with 6,904 votes (18.6 percent). Dennis Rihn and Henry Sheetz–the other two ANC endorsed candidates came in a close fourth and fifth–respectively.
The Glendale Community College Board of Trustees race–compared to the other two races–resulted in less drastic changes as incumbent and ANC-PAC endorsed Mary Hamilton retained her seat with 9,562 votes (26.1 percent)–ANC-PAC endorsed Victor King came in second with a total of 6,297 (17.2 percent) of the votes–and incumbent Kenneth Sweetnam garnered the third spot with 5,926 (16.1 percent) of the votes.
Rafi Manoukian–chairman of the ANC-Glendale Chapter commented after the elections–"We want to congratulate all of the candidates who won. Spirit of cooperation should be the slogan of the day. As to our friends who did not win this time–this certainly does not signify the end of our working relationship. These individuals still remain the leaders of our community."
