Cunningham wins LISD trustee race, must resign

By Lew K. Cohn

Managing Editor, The Highlander

The voters of the Llano Independent School District elected two trustees in Saturday's election, but will find themselves having to elect a new trustee again next year.

Ron Cunningham won his re-election bid for Place 5 LISD trustee in final but unoffical returns, but he will be forced to resign from the LISD Board of Trustees because he won the Republican Party nomination for county judge in the March primary.

Cunningham jumped out to a lead in early and absentee voting and claimed a 298-262 victory over his challenger, Dean Campbell. There were 29 under votes in the race, but even if all had gone to Campbell, he would still have finished seven votes shy of Cunningham.

Because he defeated incumbent County Judge Mary Cunningham (no relation) and has no Democratic opponent in November, Ron Cunningham will be the next county judge and, by law, cannot hold both his new paid county position and his unpaid school district trustee seat. He will be sworn in as county judge on Jan. 1, 2019.

Ron Cunningham had filed for re-election to his school board position during the filing period, but his win in the March primary came after the deadline to withdraw from the school district race and after the deadline to cancel an election, according to Cindy Ware, Llano County elections administrator.

Once Ron Cunningham resigns from the Llano ISD board, the rest of the board will likely appoint a successor who will serve in his stead until next year's school board election in May, when voters can choose who will fill out the remainder of the unexpired term.

In the other Llano ISD race, incumbent Place 1 trustee Rob Wilson ran unopposed and received 505 votes. Wilson and Ron Cunningham will be resworn in at the next LISD school board meeting.

Kingsland MUD

Ken Martin narrowly defeated David Howard to become the new Place 3 Kingsland Municipal Utilities District (MUD) director in final but unoffical results from Saturday's joint local election.

Martin received 59 votes to 54 for Howard and now will succeed incumbent Place 3 director Charles Henicke, who did not seek re-election.

Incumbent Place 4 director Larry Denney and Place 5 director Lorean Sindelar ran unopposed for their places on the board. Denney received 87 votes, while Sindelar received 85 votes.

Kingsland MUD directors serve a four-year term with elections taking place in May of every even year.