Fernandez chalks TUSD race up to experience

"Well, I am disappointed at the results, and I wish the winners well," Fernandez said. "I'm not the first one to have lost a race."

With 99 percent of the precincts reporting, Fernandez had captured 7.41 percent of the vote, finishing seventh out of nine candidates.

Candidate Carolyn Kemmeries, a retired TUSD principal, led the race with 23.09 percent of the votes, and Rosalie Lopez, a self-employed attorney and mediator, finished second with 13.9 percent.

TUSD, the second-largest school board in Arizona, oversees 63,000 students in 106 schools and employs about 7,000 people with a $331 million budget.

Because nine candidates vied for two seats, competition was stiff, Fernandez said.

"People make their own decisions," he said. "I think that in this situation it was pretty much a toss up."

Although voters tend to "recognize your name and vote favorably," negative press surrounding the fledging Arizona International College may have had a negative impact to his campaign, he said.

Fernandez, who received local attention last year as provost of AIC, resigned from his post in June when the branch campus moved from the UA's Science and Technology Park at the intersection of Interstate 10 and Rita Road to the UA's main campus.

UA President Peter Likins supported Fernandez despite criticism from 27 University of Arizona professors who signed a petition attacking the former provost, and denouncing AIC as a "huge waste of taxpayer money and an embarrassment for the state, especially the University of Arizona."

Kemmeries' political experience probably helped her win a spot on the TUSD board, Fernandez added. Other candidates were equally situated, he said.

"That (Kemmeries) seems to be the only clear choice," he said. "In a field with that many candidates anything can happen."

Michael Lafleur can be reached via e-mail at Michael.Lafleur@wildcat.arizona.edu.