With all districts reporting their final tallies last week, the three winners of the contested Board of Trustees election race were finally announced after a three-month campaign.

With only a 93-vote margin of victory over his nearest opponent, Eric Gutierrez beat out the other three newcomers for the hotly contested open seat on the Cerritos College Board.

Although three seats were up for grabs, two out of three incumbents were campaigning for an additional four-year term on the Board.

Conventional wisdom states that incumbents usually have the advantage and name recognition in running for political office.

In this case, it proved true as Cheryl Epple and Bob Verderber each reclaimed their seats with 25.4 percent and 24.31 percent of the vote respectively.

According to Gutierrez, the Latino and immigrant demographic is a vast and untapped sector that needs to be brought into the mainstream democratic process.

“My concern was to reach out to those people and get them involved,” said Gutierrez, “after all, that’s part of the American way of life they came to embrace.”

The current Board will continue to meet until December 12, at which point Gutierrez will be sworn in and take his place.

Here are the election results with 100% of the precints reporting:

Cheryl A. Epple 8,460 25.40%

Bob Verderber 8,097 24.31%

Eric Gutierrez 5,871 17.63%

Gary L. Murph 5,778 17.35%

Kevin Fulton 3,009 9.03%

Billy R. Hector 2,095 6.29%