Emdee takes District 5; Avrick and Witkin win school board seats
As the dust settles following the March 3 election, the race is just beginning for the two front-runners in Redondo Beach’s District 3. After outlasting three other candidates in their field, Christian Anthony Horvath and Candace Allen Nafissi will extend their campaigns by a few more months toward the city’s runoff election on May 12.
Nafissi, basking in celebration of Measure B’s defeat and her first-place finish, final race was overcome with emotion.
The last candidate to pull papers and file for the election, she admitted that doubts started to creep into her head in recent weeks. “Honestly, I didn’t even think I was going to win today — I thought I was going to be last, I really did.”
Instead, her 35.3 percent plurality pushed her to the top of the field. Now, her focus is on competing against an opponent who might absorb the votes of defeated opponents who also stood for Measure B. “It’s important to understand that Measure B lost in my district, so I’m confident that all those supporters will stay with me,” she said.
“It’s time for new energy that isn’t associated with the Chamber of Commerce, that isn’t associated with the old boys clubs, and has a new, independent perspective – something you can only have when you’re endorsed by the people.”
Horvath, who followed Nafissi with 34.1 percent of the vote, was unperturbed, and immediately ready to move forward.
“Absolutely nothing about my campaign changes; my issues and my initiative and my visions stay exactly the same,” he said. “I’m not a one issue candidate, and I never have been, so I feel like we’re going to just keep running the same exact same campaign that we have been.”
“We’ll keep walking, keep connecting with people, keep listening to people and keep trying to show that that there is a positive way forward.”
Sandy Marchese, who hosted an Election Night party at her house that featured longtime friend and former mayor Mike Gin, was disappointed but not depressed.
“I’m feeling good. I think it was a good race, and I’m glad that I did it. It was a great experience, and I still love the city of Redondo Beach.”
Laura Emdee expected to run completely unopposed for District 5’s City Council, until those plans were spoiled by the write-in candidacy of Robe Richester, setting her on “pins and needles,” as she said in the hours leading up to the closure of polls.
Her fears ended up unfounded, winning 1,400 votes to 86. “Considering that the average number of District 5 voters in the last 20 years has been 1,200, yeah, I’m feeling OK,” she said, laughing at her concern. “So I was the only one worried, I get it. But you just can’t take those things for granted.”
The race for Redondo Beach’s school board was similarly without question for much of the night. Incumbent Anita Avrick and newcomer David Witkin, running together on a twin-ticket, took the two available seats. The pair each had a comfortable margin ahead of fellow candidate Reetha Garrity, who took 3,537 votes to Avrick and Witkin’s 5902 and 5460, respectively.
Though Avrick ribbed Witkin for beating her in a few precincts, she was proud of her new fellow board member. “He won because he ran a great campaign,” she said.
Incumbent City Treasurer Steve Diels and Incumbent City Clerk Eleanor Manzano, who ran the city’s election efforts from City Council Chambers, ran opposed.
