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Politics & Government

Voters Choose District 200 School Board Members

One incumbent, Rosemary Swanson, wins and another incumbent, John Bomher, loses.

District 200 voters elected three School Board members Tuesday. The winners are incumbent and top vote-getter Rosemary Swanson and newcomers Jim Gambaiani and Jim Vroman. Incumbent John Bomher lost re-election by 47 votes.

Swanson led all candidates with 4,581 votes. Behind her with 4,041 votes was Vroman.

"It is so rewarding to know that so many people put their faith in me," he said. "It was a team effort, I want to thank all of my supporters. I had so many wonderful people helping me."

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Of the other winners, Vroman said, "I think they're both great candidates. I've known Rosemary for a while. She's a wonderful person. I got to know Jim during the election, I think he will bring a lot of good attributes to the board." Until he is sworn in next month, Vroman said he plans to, "roll up my sleeves and get to know the inner workings of the School Board as well as the big issues and the budget plans."

Newcomer Michael Radencich and incumbent John Bomher lost.

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Lonks, who came in second to last place with 2,885 votes, was happy to have gone as far as he did. "I moved here only a year and a half ago," he said. "When I started I didn't know one person here, so to have gotten these many votes is amazing." 

Bomher, who has been a School Board member for eight years, said there were "a lot of well qualified candidates." Falling just 47 votes short of Gambaiani's 3,832 votes, Bomher received 3,785 votes.

"Congrats to the winners. I'm sure they'll do very well," he said. "I'm looking forward to continuing to support the district and will help out in any way that I can." Thanking his supporters, he added, "I feel honored to have served the district for the past eight years. I want to thank the community for all of their support."

Coming in last in the vote totals were Harold Lonks and Alisha Ali with 2,885 and 1,433 votes, respectively.

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