Todd survives primary challenge

2010-07-22

By Martha Barksdale

"There are a lot of folks who didn't think this would happen," Bob Todd said Wednesday afternoon, the day after he won re-election to the Post 4 seat on the Fayette County Board of Education.

Todd handily defeated Republican challenger Charlie Cave, 6,785 votes to 4,232. No Democrats are running, so Todd has the seat for another four-year term.

This will be the third term for Todd, a retired educator both in the classroom and in administration. He served on the board of education for one term in the 1990s and was elected again in 2006.

"I listened to the people," Todd said. "and what they were saying was that they are concerned about money--how it has been spent, how it was going to be spent."

Todd said the board of education will have to be careful about finances, but "employees and staff should be reassured that we will do everything to maintain programs."

He said he wants the board to become more accountable for how it spends taxpayer money. "We have accountability standards for our students and administrators."

In his post-election remarks, Todd stressed the necessity of the board working together for the betterment of the system as a whole.

Todd's campaign started explosively, when he said the poor decisions of some board members were partially responsible for the school system's financial problems. Those remarks, reported in this newspaper, caused a brouhaha at the next board of education meeting.

While the Post 4 board of education seat has been decided, the Post 5 seat will be determined in the November voting. Republican Sam Tolbert is facing Democrat Laura Dillon Burgess. Post 5 incumbent Lee Wright decided not to seek re-election.

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