Wood holds lead over Ketchum
<p>North Idaho College Board of Trustees incumbent, Christie Wood, keeps an eye on the televised national election results while visiting with Sue Thilo during a gathering at Cricket's Steakhouse and Oyster Bar.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - With 18 of 75 Kootenai County precincts reporting at midnight Tuesday, it appeared incumbent Christie Wood could hold onto Seat B on the North Idaho College Board of Trustees for another term.
Wood was leading her challenger, Robert Ketchum, with 8,340 votes representing 59.82 percent of the vote over Ketchum's 5,602 votes equaling 40.18 percent.
Candidates dueling for Seat B, Ron Nilson and Ken Howard, were running neck and neck at midnight.
Nilson, with 6,606 votes representing 50.67 percent, had a slight edge over Howard's 6,432 votes. Nilson's margin of victory at midnight was just 1.34 percent.
Earlier in the evening, Nilson and Ketchum, who ran as a team, were joined by dozens of supporters at Moon Dollars in Post Falls, as they waited for election results.
"This is an incredible community," Nilson said. "Everybody wants the same thing. They want freedom, economic security, and to be engaged in a community where people love each other. That's what we've got here in North Idaho."
Win or lose, Nilson said, he'll be the same person.
Earlier Tuesday, he sent an e-mail message to friends and supporters, thanking them.
"I appreciate what each and everyone of you has done to make me feel I'm worthy of your support. This has been a humbling experience," Nilson wrote. "If elected I will serve this county to the best of my ability. I will represent the students of NIC and the taxpayers who elected me. But if for some reason I'm not elected, I will continue to serve this community with all my heart."
Nilson is CEO/president of Ground Force Manufacturing in Post Falls, and vice chair of the executive committee governing the Kootenai Technical Education Campus high school that will be built on the Rathdrum Prairie.
Wood, a Coeur d'Alene police sergeant and supervisor in the detective division, has been chair of the NIC board since Nov. 2008, and served as a college trustee since 2004.
Shortly after the polls closed Tuesday at 8 p.m., Wood stopped in briefly at Crickets on Sherman Avenue in Coeur d'Alene, to join a gathering of area Democratic candidates and their campaign teams as they waited for the results. With zero precincts reporting at the time, Wood declined to comment.
Wood's challenger, Robert Ketchum, said he believed he and Nilson "made a significant effort to share our message with the public."
"It's in the hands of the voters now," Ketchum said.
Both positions are four-year terms to NIC's five-member governing board.
Trustees are elected at large from within Kootenai County for staggered terms, and receive no compensation for their service.