SAN BENITO — Three votes.
M.L. Garcia won her San Benito Consolidated Independent School District election by a three-vote margin, landing her a seat at Place 5 on the school board. While the election was close, she was happy.
“I’ll take it anyway,” said Garcia, 63, whose 1,284 votes defeated Mario Silva.
“I feel victorious,” she said. “I just feel overwhelmed.”
She wasn’t sure whether Silva would request a recount.
“If it happens, it happens,” she said. “The others were close, but not as close as mine.”
Silva, 64, wasn’t sure about a recount. He was having dinner with his supporters.
“I need to sit down with my supporters and see what they think,” he said. “I owe it to them. But it was a good race, a close race.”
Garcia, a retired teacher, named several reasons why she’d won the election, one of them being teachers’ pay raises.
“Overall, the teachers have spoken,” she said. “Some of the teachers that voted for me, they spoke. I need to go in there with an open mind and just check everything out. I feel like we need to give them some kind of a raise, something they can hang on to.”
Orlando Lopez, 41, won his bid for Place 4 with 1,512 votes, a sound margin over Chon Lopez Jr., who received 1,055 votes.
“My family and everybody prayed a lot,” Orlando Lopez said. “We need to bring stability and harmony back to our district.”
He made mention of the recent resignation of Superintendent Adrian Vega.
“We need to bring a strong leader to our school district,” he said firmly.
He also said the issue of teachers’ pay raises played a key role in his election.
“Teachers haven’t received raises in more than six years,” he said.
Incumbent Angel Mendez also won a close race against Joe D. Gonzalez. Mendez’s 1,289 votes took a narrow lead over Gonzalez’s 1,279 votes to stay in Place 7.
“I definitely feel relieved,” said Mendez, 50.
“That pretty much keeps me in to continue the momentum that we started,” he said. “Every election is a challenge, because there are different variables that play in every part of the election.”
Victor Rosas was jubilant over his defeat of incumbent Oscar Medrano for Place 6. He felt his position on health insurance for teachers and other school district employees won the election.
“The insurance is extremely expensive,” said Rosas.
His 1,303 votes defeated the 1,260 votes received by Medrano.
“I am very happy and thankful,” Rosas said. “I wish my opponent the best of luck. We are friends. It was a tight race.”
