2008 Woodie Awards
District 3 candidates happy with results of Saturday election
Former trustee supports opponent - for now.
By Regis L. Roberts
Issue date: 4/18/08 Section: News
Originally published: 5/16/08 at 7:36 PM CSTLast update: 5/17/08 at 7:02 AM CST
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Freedom Elementary music teacher Anna Bustamante won the District 3 trustee spot by a nearly 17-point margin, 2,285-1,622 against Ricardo Martinez, who served on the board for one year starting in 1997 and again briefly in 2004.
Martinez, however, decided to throw his support in with his opponent for the seat left vacant when Jennifer Ramos resigned to assume the District 3 City Council seat.
Martinez said he originally thought Bustamante was part of a group of "divas" trying to take over the board of trustees and make things difficult for incumbent District 9 trustee James Rindfuss, who won his seat back Saturday by a slim 3.4-point margin, 3,847-3,596.
Bustamante said she and Martinez met shortly after she was interviewed by The Ranger in mid-April.
After realizing Bustamante was related to some of his friends and getting to know her, Martinez said he came to believe she would be a great addition to the board.
He came to see her as a teacher, a wife and mother, and a supporter of the city's South Side and its Mexican-American community.
"Mexicans are terrified of college because they don't know what they're getting into," he said.
Underrepresented communities will need help to prepare for college, he said, and Bustamante knows the needs of these communities as an educator.
By that time, however, Martinez was not able to take his name off the ballot.
To make things easier for his official opponent, Martinez decided not to actively campaign for the position and wrote a letter to the San Antonio Express-News relating his support for his erstwhile opponent.
"He felt I was running for the right reasons," Bustamante said, adding that Martinez did not see Bustamante as a politician.
Martinez said Ramos did not do much for students that he could see, and she was not really active.
While board terms are six years, Bustamante will be serving only the two remaining years of Ramos' term.
Martinez said he wants to see how Bustamante performs on the board, and if he is not satisfied, he will run against her in the next election.
Martinez predicted the day before the election that a large number of voters would turn out to vote against many of the venue propositions that were on the ballot, thus increasing turnout for the trustee elections.
However, turnout was relatively low, and all four of the propositions passed by large margins, according to data from the Bexar County Elections Department. The four propositions will be paid for by extending the county's visitor tax on hotel rooms and rental cars.
Bustamante said she spent her election day picking up yard signs after polls closed and then monitored results from home.
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