Incumbent hangs on in Lane College board vote.

Byline: Greg Bolt The Register-Guard

Incumbent Paul Holman appears to have edged out challenger Rich Cunningham in a close race for the Zone 1 seat on the Lane Community College Board.

In late election returns, Holman held on to a 210-vote lead to beat Cunningham with 41.9 percent of the vote, compared with Cunningham's 41.2 percent. The combined unofficial totals, including voters in Douglas, Linn and Benton counties, gave Holman 11,700 votes and Cunningham 11,490.

Florence magazine publisher Rob Spooner had 4,714 votes.

Holman, a Florence real estate broker, maintained a lead of about 400 votes in Lane County most of the night. But Cunningham, a former insurance broker, gained ground in the other counties.

Holman was appointed to the Zone 1 seat in 2002 and won an election against the same two candidates in 2003. While expressing surprise at the strength of Cunningham's support, Holman said Tuesday night that he thought his margin would hold up.

But Cunningham said the race was still too close to call late Tuesday.

"I'm certainly not going to concede or claim victory tonight," he said. "We lost this race a couple of years ago by a little over a thousand votes, and I think we're in a dead heat tonight."

Cunningham won the support of both the classified employees and faculty unions at LCC as well as the Building Trades Council. He said that support was crucial to his effort to unseat an incumbent.

He also presented one of the boldest ideas for LCC, a partnership with the University of Oregon and local hospitals to bring a medical school, and a nursing and medical technologies school to Eugene.

The LCC board also gets two new members who ran unopposed, Pat Riggs-Henson and Susie Johnston. Holman said he doesn't foresee major shifts in board direction.