Stephanie Luke was easily re-elected to her District 5 seat on the Lake County School Board, while the District 2 race is headed towards a runoff election.
Luke, the board’s current chairman, easily surpassed the 50 percent threshold needed to win outright in Tuesday’s primary election. With 91 of 91 precincts reporting, she had 35,671 votes – or 59.31 percent. Peter Tarby finished a distant second with 12,380 votes (20.58 percent), just ahead of Marie Haubert Aliberti, who garnered 12,095 votes (20.11 percent).
In District 2, incumbent Tyler Brandeburg and former school board member Jim Miller will square off in the general election in November. The two were neck-and-neck in the primary, with Miller finishing less than 1,000 votes ahead of Brandeburg.
With all precincts reporting, Miller had 21,817 votes (35.81 percent), while Brandeburg had 21,025 (34.51 percent). Newcomer Ludy Lopez finished out of the running with 18,081 votes (29.68 percent).
The narrow margin between Miller and Brandeburg means the general election will come down to who gets more of Lopez’s voters. Brandeburg has the benefit of incumbency, while Miller has a huge advantage in fundraising. In the most recent campaign finance report, Miller had raised more than $50,000 in cash, compared with $20,000 brought in by Brandeburg.
Brandeburg, the son of former school board member Rosanne Brandeburg, received a huge boost in June when he was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to fill the vacant seat. Brandeburg was already running at the time of his appointment.
Miller lost his school board seat in 2012 to Brandeburg’s mother.
Tyler Brandeburg is a commercial insurance advisor for Brown and Brown. He volunteers his time with the Educational Foundation of Lake County and is a member of Leadership Lake County Class of 2019. Brandeburg earned his bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Florida.
Miller is a commercial real estate agent and is married to retired Lake County Judge Donna Miller.
Two incumbent board members – Bill Mathias in District 1 and Vice-Chairman Marc Dodd in District 3 –will keep their seats after running unopposed. District 4 board member Mollie Cunningham is not up for re-election in this cycle.