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Election 2015: Tornek elected first new Pasadena mayor in 16 years
Pasadena City Hall is shown on Jan. 23, 2010 in this file photo.
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File photo by Ross Berteig/Flickr Creative Commons
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Terry Tornek, a real estate developer who served as Pasadena's city planner in the 1990s, has been elected the first new mayor of Pasadena in 16 years.
Tornek garnered 55.5 percent of the vote in Tuesday's election, edging out city Councilwoman Jacque Robinson, according to unofficial election night returns from the city clerk's office.
City Clerk Mark Jomsky said about 900 provisional ballots remain to be counted and final election results will be released Friday, the Pasadena Star-News reports.
But as the preliminary results came in, Tornek said he was "excited" and "very grateful in terms of the response we appear to be getting," according to the Star-News.
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Tornek will replace current mayor Bill Bogaard.
Bogaard's decision last fall not to run for a fifth term created a wide-open contest that drew six candidates. He was the city's first directly elected mayor, according to the Star-News.
Tornek was the first to declare his candidacy and started campaigning more than 18 months ago, the Star-News reports:
He was endorsed by the environmental advocacy group the Sierra Club. He strongly cares about land uses.
Tornek raised the most money during the campaign. Campaign finance documents show he has raised nearly $200,000 since last June. Many of his donors were from individual Pasadena residents. He also received money from real estate firms and investors.
Tyron Hampton edged out opponent Calvin E. Wells with 51.4 percent of the vote.
Hampton is a Pasadena Unified school board member, Wells a retired fire chief.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to Jacque Robinson as a "former" councilwoman. She gave up her seat to run for mayor, but she is still serving out the remainder of her term. KPCC regrets the error.
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