Incumbents reign
Voter turnout increases in ATC elections, but only one newcomer wins
By André Coleman 06/10/2010
Voter turnout was up by 52 percent in Saturday’s Altadena Town Council elections, where incumbents retained seven of the eight open seats.
Diane Marcussen defeated incumbent Susan Goldman 53-33 in census tract 4613, where people rarely vote, according to Altadena Town Council Election Chair Bob Meyer.
“Last year, there were six votes in an unopposed race,” Meyer told the Weekly. “This year, there were 88 votes. I think that’s very impressive.”
In all, 730 ballots were cast throughout the community, which was way up from last year’s election in which only 484 people bothered to vote.
“I think the turnout was up because we had four competitive races. People worked hard to get the vote out,” Meyer said.
In other races, incumbents Okorie Ezieme defeated Brian Fuller, 113-49, in census tract 4602. Tecumseh Shackelford defeated Brent Musson 109-81, in census tract 4610, and Town Council President Gino Sund retained his seat with a 166-35 victory over Dwight Equitz.
Shackelford said that even though the 18-member board is only an advisory body to Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich, there is much work to be done.
“I want to work make our neighborhood safer,” Shackelford said. “There was a drive-by shooting in my census tract on Saturday. We need to sit down with the Sheriff’s Department and talk about this issue. To me this is one of the biggest issues in Altadena.”
Four other incumbents, Alice Wessen, Sandra Thomas, Allen Wasserman and Ruth Neilan Edwards ran unopposed.
The Town Council will approve the election results at its June meeting, and the winners will be sworn in next month.
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