According to the final election results of the night, voters elected Dave Pine for the open San Mateo County Board of Supervisors seat with 27.2 percent of the votes Tuesday.
After six months of six candidates contending for one spot on the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, San Mateo Union High School District Trustee Pine announced his victory from his Burlingame home Tuesday night.
“I’m ecstatic,” he said while surrounded by family and friends. “It’s been all-consuming for six months…I’ve been working on it every waking minute.”
Tuesday’s results showed Pine closely followed by San Mateo County Community College Board Member Richard Holober, with 26 percent of the votes.
Pine said he expected a close race given the caliber of candidates, including Burlingame Mayor Terry Nagel, Millbrae Councilmember Gina Papan, San Mateo resident Demetrios Nikas and Volunteer Victims’ Advocate and businessman Michael Stogner.
“It’s a fantastic evening,” Pine said. “There’s nothing like a campaign because you work and work and work and your fate is determined in an instant.”
He said his first priority as supervisor is to get the county’s fiscal house in order.
“We have a lot of hard choices to make,” Pine said. “There will have to be cuts made in all areas of county spending.”
For the night, however, Pine was happy to celebrate with family and friends, including his 7-year-old son, Jack, who said he is “just so proud” of his dad. Jack sang a special song to commemorate the evening.
“I’m so grateful for so many people who stepped up to help me,” Pine said. “This has been a major, major team effort.”
However, not all candidates believed the race to be over Tuesday night. Papan said it was still too close to call from her watch party at the Plumbers and Steamfitters Local Union in Burlingame.
“A lot of people voted today and there are still numbers out there,” she said. “There’s a lot of work to be done in this county, and win, lose or draw, we’re still going to be doing that work.”
Papan and supporters were hopeful that thousands of votes may still need to be counted.
Nagel, who was surrounded by about 60 supporters at her Burlingame home as the results came in, was thankful for the support she has seen and the learning experience of a county-wide campaign.
“I want to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart,” she told those gathered at her home. “We gave it a good shot. It was a good education.”
An opening on the board occurred when voters selected former Supervisor Mark Church as San Mateo Elections Officer and Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder last November. A special mail-in election was scheduled to fill the vacancy, ending May 3.
The winner will fill the position until the term’s end in January 2013.
The race focused on the issue of the San Mateo County budget, including county employee compensation and pension, as well as job growth, housing and transportation issues throughout the county.
