Holden Will Face Bogaard in Pasadena’s Mayoral Runoff Election

And then there were two.

With all the votes counted in this week’s primary election, Pasadena Mayor Chris Holden edged out a councilwoman Friday for the right to face top vote-getter and former Mayor Bill Bogaard in an April mayoral runoff.

After city officials counted a final 1,818 absentee and provisional ballots from Tuesday’s election, Holden ended up with 25.2% of the vote, compared with Councilwoman Ann-Marie Villicana’s 24.4%--a 178-vote margin.

Bogaard ended up with 43.2% of the vote, leaving Holden with an uphill struggle in the runoff.

About 20,000 ballots were cast in the election, representing roughly 28% of the registered voters.

“We have a mountain to climb and we’re going to take it step by step,” said real estate broker Holden, the 38-year-old son of Los Angeles Councilman Nate Holden.

Villicana, a 32-year-old attorney / Realtor, lost the primary and her council seat because she chose not to defend it in Tuesday’s primary.

She said she would meet with both other candidates before offering any endorsements.

Holden, 38, the architect of charter reform that replaced the ceremonial mayor with an elected one, had been expected to make the April runoff with ease. However, Bogaard’s strength and Villicana’s $150,000 campaign nearly derailed that effort.

Voters will probably face a very different campaign in the runoff. Political observers say that the primary’s potholders and politely worded autobiographies will be replaced by aggressive efforts to expose the opposing candidates’ weaknesses.

Holden said voters will now be able to compare the alternatives without the distraction of other candidates.

Bogaard “is the candidate for the old millennium. I am the candidate for the new millennium,” Holden said. “He wants to turn the clock back in Pasadena.”

Bogaard, a city councilman from 1978 to 1986, said his runoff campaign is already underway and he is seeking to replenish his campaign coffers.

The 60-year-old former corporate lawyer entered the race late after being drafted by longtime civic leaders and neighborhood activists who were unable to convince two other former mayors to run. Political observers say that the primary turned on Bogaard’s coalition of neighborhood groups and former mayors. That support, observers said, overwhelmed the labor-backed Holden.

Looming over the race is the March 29 trial of Holden’s wife, Michelle, on felony charges of having sex with a teenage boy. She and her husband have denied the charges.