In AAN board elections Sunday, all incumbents in the race were returned to their seats, and four newcomers were elected to vacant positions.

The most contested race was for three at-large seats. Eight candidates were in the running. Paula Routly, co-publisher and co-editor of Seven Days in Burlington, Vt., was elected to serve another two-year term, and Penelope Huston Baer, classified manager at The Santa Barbara Independent, was elected to serve the remaining year in her term. She had been appointed to the seat after another board member stepped down. The only non-incumbent elected to an at-large seat was Bill Bleakley, publisher of the Oklahoma Gazette.

All three of the at-large candidates had been endorsed by the Independent Caucus, an informal group of smaller papers that met during the convention in San Antonio.

Two other newcomers taking office are Jim Rizzi, publisher of Salt Lake City Weekly, who was elected as marketing chair; and Rob Jiranek, publisher of C-Ville Weekly, who was elected as treasurer.

Kenneth Neill, publisher of The Memphis Flyer, was elected Membership Chair. He had been the incumbent Admissions Chair, but that committee was renamed the Membership Committee on Sunday, resulting in a different name for his office.

After voting to make Diversity Chair a permanent seat, members elected Mike Lenehan, executive editor of the Chicago Reader, to that position. Lenehan had served informally in the same Board position for the past two years. Sioux Watson, publisher of Independent Weekly of Durham, N.C., was elected to another term as secretary.

The fourth new member of the Board is the San Diego Reader’s Howie Rosen, who was elected convention chair. The convention will be held in San Diego in 2005. The dates are yet to be determined.

The positions of the winners can be read in a previous election story.