ACC: Two seats still up for Grabs

Julie Ann Nitsch

Pop quiz: If there are four community college trustee races, and there are only clear winners in two of them, how many run-offs must voters endure next month?

By close of election night, two empty seats on the ACC Board of Trustees had been filled. In Place 5, ACC student and employee Nicole Eversmann squeaked out a narrow 51% victory, beating out former Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Com­merce President Thomas Miranda and former legislative staffer Anthony Schoggins. She'll be joined by Latina education activist Nora de Hoyos Comstock, who easily bested Douglas Gibbins for Place 6.

That leaves two seats unresolved. In Place 4, Sean Hassan came first with 45%, but didn't break the 50%-plus boundary, and now heads for a run-off election on Dec. 13. Michael J. Lewis narrowly scraped ahead of George Robinson, and will be Hassan's challenger.

It's a similar situation in Place 9, the unexpected additional fourth race to finish out the unexpired term of retiring trustee Allen Kap­lan. Again, there was no clear winner, and it was actually a considerably tighter result than in Place 4. Going through to the next stage are Guadalupe "Lupe" Sosa (who currently holds Place 6, but deferred her retirement to run in this race) with 40% of the vote, and student and Bernie Sanders organizer Julie Ann Nitsch at 34%. Pushed out of the second-round picture are former Cedar Park Mayor Pro Tem Mitch Fuller, and evangelical Christian campaigner Jeremy Story.