Boyd Wins Runoff for Seat on Seal Beach City Council

Shawn Boyd edged out Matthew Duggan in a close race Tuesday to win a seat on the Seal Beach City Council.

Boyd, 29, a local business owner, garnered 602 votes, or 50.9% of the total. Duggan, 38, a psychologist, got 569 votes.

“I’m really humbled. It’s very gratifying,” Boyd said. “It’s been a long, long campaign. I think the big job now is to take all the divisiveness that’s out there and bring everyone together.”

Duggan could not be reached for comment.

Boyd will succeed Councilwoman Marilyn Bruce Hastings, who is leaving the council after eight years because of term limits.

Seal Beach elects council members by district, so only residents of Surfside and Old Town--3,387 people in all--were eligible to vote Tuesday. Election officials said 1,187 ballots were cast, or 36.1% of the district’s registered voters.

The runoff election ended a bitter personal campaign marked by acrimony on both sides.

Duggan, a member of the Los Alamitos Unified School District board, led Boyd, a businessman, in the March 24 election by only 11 votes. A third candidate, county planner Charles Antos, took 11% of the total, leaving the other two shy of the state-mandated 50% plus one vote required for victory.

Boyd is the second newcomer elected to the council this year.

Neighborhood activist Paul Yost, an anesthesiologist, was elected in March to succeed Marina Hill Councilwoman Gwen Forsythe, also leaving office due to term limits. City Council veteran William Doane defeated incumbent Harry Fulton in the race to represent Leisure World. Fulton had replaced Doane, who resigned in 1996 after five years on the panel.

College Park East council member Patty Campbell, who beat a recall effort by nearly 2 to 1 in the March election, will be the only woman on the new panel. The fifth council member is incumbent George Brown, whose term ends in 2000.

The new council members will be sworn in May 19.