June 24th, 2008
Cox wins PEC director race

STAFF REPORT

Patrick Cox of Wimberley, the associate director for the Center for American History at the University of Texas, won the sweepstakes for election to the Pedernales Electric Cooperative board of directors in voting concluded on June 21.

Cox prevailed for the District 7 director’s seat in the 20-candidate free-for-all, in which all 220,000 PEC members throughout the cooperative’s 24 counties covering 8,100 square miles were allowed to vote.

The election turned out to be not especially close, though Cox pulled only 15 percent of the 28,798 votes for District 7 director. Cox finished with 4,535 votes, with San Marcos car dealer Chuck Nash coming in second with 3,276 votes.

Cox ran as part of a coalition calling itself CORE (Conservation, Openness, Responsible Management and Ethics), which formed during the PEC nomination process. CORE promised to promote conservation, renewable energy and management oversight.

CORE ran four candidates for the five open director seats, with three of its candidates winning. The other CORE winners were Kathryn Scanlon of Austin for the District 3 seat and Charles Tesar of Austin for the District 6 advisory director seat.

Other winners were James Spellman of Blanco County for the District 5 advisory director seat and James Williams of Austin for the District 2 director position.

Cox is formerly the president of the Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District (BS/EACD), assistant land commissioner for the State of Texas and editor of The Wimberley View.

Following is the list of vote recipients for District 7, in order of the number of votes they received. Vote totals are listed with the candidates’ names.

1. Patrick Cox – 4,535
2. Chuck Nash – 3,276
3. H. Ken Rigsbee – 2,010
4. John Dunn – 1,985
5. Ricky Wright – 1,796
6. Amelia Lopez-Phelps – 1,786
7. Norman L. Macht – 1,713
8. Linda Kaye Rogers – 1,452
9. Sandra Tenorio – 1,343
10. Richard W. (Dick) Schneider – 1,187
11. Sally Hicks Barto – 1,115
12. Herschel P. McCullough – 1,112
13. John Hatch – 1,004
14. Sherry Anderson – 883
15. Lila Knight – 794
16. Robert C. Baxter Jr. – 755
17. Roger Kew – 634
18. Wiley Hopkins – 561
19. Ron Barrera – 465
20. Rosalio Tobias Jr. – 392