Vote counts in Newport-Mesa Unified race favor challenger to appointee

Voters in Newport-Mesa Unified School District’s Trustee Area 5 — which represents three schools in Newport Beach — cast ballots to fill a school board seat vacant since December, favoring Andrea McElroy for the position, according to preliminary results Wednesday.

Ballot totals updated by the Orange County Registrar of Voters as of press time indicated McElroy was leading the two-candidate contest with 2,797 ballots, or 54% of the vote, over challenger Kirstin Walsh who had so far secured 2,381 ballots in her favor.

The contest pit Walsh, 54, a licensed occupational therapist and mother of two Newport Harbor High School students, against McElroy, 55, mother of a former NMUSD student and owner of an activewear brand for women.

Both candidates sought to fill a vacancy left by former Trustee Michelle Barto, who left the school board in December after she was elected to the Newport Beach City Council.

Newport-Mesa’s Board of Trustees initially appointed Walsh in a 4-2 vote to fill out the remainder of Barto’s term, after interviewing four candidates, including McElroy, during a Jan. 27 special meeting.

However, a special election was called in March, after a petition garnered enough signatures to essentially repeal Walsh’s appointment. The move is estimated to cost the district between $444,695 and $493,802, a sum a district spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday will be covered with general fund reserves.

McElroy and Walsh did not have much time to campaign after submitting papers to the county registrar during a three-day filing period in March.

From there, the two Newport Beach residents had less than three months to communicate their priorities and intentions to 19,076 registered voters residing in the trustee area, which incorporates Newport Elementary, Ensign Intermediate and Newport Harbor High.

Walsh received endorsements from the four NMUSD trustees who appointed her in January — Ashley Anderson, Carol Crane, Leah Ersoylu and Michelle Murphy — along with former Newport Beach Mayor Nancy Gardner.

McElroy was backed by the two trustees opposed to Walsh’s appointment, Krista Weigand and Lisa Pearson, along with Barto herself, current Newport Beach Mayor Joe Stapleton, the Republican Party of Orange County and its chair, former Newport Beach Mayor Will O’Neill.

The race became heated last month, when a retired judge who’d reportedly donated to Walsh’s campaign but was not active in it released to local media outlets details of several lawsuits filed against McElroy, some for nonpayment of rent and others related to past business enterprises she ran with her ex-husband under the surname Young.

McElroy alleged the leak was part of a “smear” campaign against her, a claim Walsh denied in an interview with the Daily Pilot.

Walsh, who on Wednesday was cheering on son Milo at a USRowing Youth National Championship in Florida, did not comment on the results, saying she and her family were waiting for further election updates that evening.

McElroy declined to answer questions about the race but thanked her husband, Thom, campaign team and district voters for their support.

“This process has been about giving Area 5 voters the chance to speak, and they have,” she said in a message. “Kirstin ran a spirited campaign, and it will be my responsibility to represent our entire community. Time to get to work.”

Despite McElroy’s lead, he preliminary results are not final. The Orange County Registrar of Voters estimated Wednesday there were still 3,360 ballots left to process between the school board race and two ballot measures in Huntington Beach.

Additional updates will be made starting Wednesday at 5 p.m. and then weekly from there during the registrar’s canvass period until the last official results are posted at ocvote.gov/results/current-election-results.