Sucher, Anzaldua advance to mayoral runoff

Gonzales mayoral candidates S.H. “Steve” Sucher and Isaac Anzaldua have advanced to a June 14 runoff election after complete but unoffical returns Saturday night.

Meanwhile, Gonzales ISD District 1 trustee Gloria Torres will be re-elected to the board for another term after she withstood a challenge from Elisa Molina.

The five incumbents in the Gonzales Healthcare race all won re-election Saturday night in a very close race as well.

And Gonzales County voters easily approved tax increases to help fund the Gonzales County Emergency Service Districts No. 1 and No. 2.

Gonzales mayor

Sucher received the most votes with 324, including 226 in early and absentee voting, but it was not enough to avoid a June 14 runoff with Anzaldua, who came in second with 271 votes, including 174 in absentee and early voting. Todd Bright was just behind with 235 votes, including 161 in early and absentee.

In order to avoid the runoff, Sucher would have needed one vote over 50 percent, which would have been 416 votes.

“The campaign has been an humbling and invigorating experience,” Sucher said. “I am thankful to everyone who participated in the process, and grateful to those who voted for me. My focus now is to give everyone the best reasons to make the right choice and vote for me in the runoff."

“Gonzales is speaking. What more can we ask for?” Anzaldua said Saturday. “I was hoping to be one of the favored by Gonzales. They came out to vote and honored to be in that selection of who they think can do the best job for the city.

“I am excited for city of Gonzales. This is monumental moving forward. With great expectation, we look forward to June 14. We are Gonzales.”

“Although I came up short in the election, I’m humbled at the amount of support and would like to take the time to thank everyone who voted,” Bright said on a Facebook post. “Thank y’all from the bottom of my heart and let’s get out and support Steve Sucher.”

Gonzales ISD

Torres took a large lead in early and absentee voting and ended up receiving 177 votes overall, while Molina received 63 votes overall.

Gonzales Healthcare

Incumbents Tim Markham, Kerry Morgan, Sascha Kardosz, Gene Reed and Stephanie Kodack were all re-elected to the GHS board. Markham had 900 votes, while Morgan had 888. Kardosz had 794, Gene Reed had 745 and Kodack had 736. David Malaer had 699 votes.

Gonzales ESD 1, ESD 2

Voters approved the Gonzales ESD adoption of a local sales and use tax at a rate not to exceed three-eighths of a percent by a vote of 1,076-624. Meanwhile, voters approved the Gonzales ESD 2 adoption of a local sales and use tax at a rate not to exceed 1 1/8 percent by a vote of 1,017-632.