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In Hotly Contested, On-Again Off-Again PCC Trustee Race, Newcomer Sandra Chen Lau Prevails Over Incumbent Ross Selvidge

Published on Wednesday, June 6, 2018 | 5:52 am
 

Late in April, incumbent Pasadena City College Board Trustee Ross Selvidge all but dropped out of the District 1 race against his challenger, newcomer Sandra Chen Lau. Selvidge spent the entire month of May on the sidelines: no telephoning, no mailers, no campaigning.

But Selvidge’s name was already printed on the election ballots.

Suddenly last Thursday, Selvidge jumped back in the race with only days to go. He mass-mailed a flyer which landed in mailboxes last Friday and he urged supporters, many of whom were upset he had essentially withdrawn earlier, to get out the vote.

Selvidge’s last-minute jumping back into the race didn’t win him his seat back, but he still managed to pull in almost 41% of the vote.

At 3,669 votes, he ended up trailing Chen Lau’s 5,290 vote count.

Chen Lau never stopped campaigning during the run-up to Tuesday’s election.

In April, after Selvidge stopped campaigning, she told Pasadena Now that Selvidge still held “all the advantages of incumbency. So it is still possible to lose this race if we let our guard down.”

The Area 1 seat represents the City of La Cañada Flintridge, West Pasadena and the western portion of Altadena.

When she announced her campaign in March, Chen Lau said she was proud to be part of a generation of women stepping forward to provide new leadership.

“I decided to run because I believe so strongly in PCC and its mission,” Chen Lau said. “I’m an example of a student whose life was turned around by community college, and I want future students (including my own two kids) to have the same opportunities I had – or better!”

Chen Lau praised PCC as an excellent school, but also said it has serious problems.

“I want to congratulate my opponent for a hard-fought campaign, and for his service to PCC,” Chen Lau said in a statement early Wednesday morning after it became clear she had won the seat. “I’m very grateful for the trust that voters have placed in me. And I am eager to begin work with my new colleagues on the Board of Trustees to make a great school even better.”

“In the days ahead, I look forward to actively engaging with all the college’s stakeholders, and with all those in the larger community who value and depend on PCC,” Chen Lau said.

 

 

 

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