Supervisor Jim Patterson eked out a victory in the 5th District race against challenger Debbie Arnold on June 3, winning by 288 votes in a race that saw 11,249 cast.
The victory—the race was too close to call definitively in New Times’ last issue—cemented a shift on the board toward candidates who have publicly embraced so-called smart growth principals.
Arnold ran a well-funded campaign, outspending Patterson by about a 2-to-1 margin.
This article appears in Jun 12-19, 2008.