by Larry EderIn a highly anticipated election, Stephanie Hightower won the election for President of USATF, with 328 votes to Dee Jensen’s 300 votes. This was a hard fought, and very close election, taking a second vote, in fact……
In the morning vote on Friday, December 5, 2008, the results were Stephanie Hightower wit 304 votes, Dee Jensen with 263 votes and Bob Bowman with 58 votes. Per the constitution of USATF, since Ms. Hightower did not get 315 votes or at least half of the voters.
In the second round of voting, Bob Bowman threw his support to Jensen, and while Jensen did gain votes, so did Hightower.
This election had polarized many. In fact, FinalSprint.com had predicted a win for Jensen after Bowman’s support went to Jensen after the first round of voting.
Hightower improved to 328 votes and Jensen improved to 300 votes. The election was expected to be close, and quite frankly, no one knew how close it would be.
After the election, Dee Jensen congratulated Stephanie Hightower and added that she, Dee Jensen, looked forward to working with Hightower in the future to better the sport. That, in fact, is what is going to be needed. With the huge changes in USATF’s board and organization, there is an historic opportunity for the sport to evolve to a greater presense in the sport world. There is also, with apathy or turf wars, the chance that the changes do nothing to help the sport in this important time.
Runblogrun spoke to Stephanie Hightower after the election and announcement of the results. Ms. Hightower sounded relieved and stressed how important it will be for her to work with all groups within USATF to make the organization poised for future growth.
Run blog Run congratulates all three candidates for running for President and to Jensen and Hightower for stressing the need to work together to move USATF to the next level!
For more on the election, please read Paul Merca’s excellent blog : http://mail.google.com/mail/?zx=th5dpdg3wxai#inbox/11e0a6806c3af33f
