Mystery Marysville School Board Winner Finally Presents Himself

MARYSVILLE (CBS13) - The identity of a mystery candidate who won a school board seat without campaigning or even being in the state has finally been revealed.

CBS13 made phone calls and we've knocked on doors. But Tuesday we finally met face to face with the mystery man himself.

"I'd rather check in first," Tony Dannible responded when reporter Nick Janes asked if he had a minute to talk.

His reluctance to talk was fitting. We've been trying to track Dannible down for months.

Dannible won a seat on the Marysville Joint Unified School District board without campaigning. How did it he do it?

"I don't know, but I look at things as you probably know as being fate or destiny," he said.

He admits he didn't expect to win a seat on the school board after skipping campaign events. Dannible says he's been studying up ever since getting the news.

"It's, uh, challenging. It's huge. But I can do it," he said.

Tuesday was a series of firsts - his first board meeting, the first time we've seen him in person and the first time he's met his fellow board members.

"It is interesting, though, … that he didn't have to campaign, because when I ran I remember I had to campaign hard," trustee Jim Flurry said.

But the relative unknown does have a graduate degree in education. Dannible stepped right into controversy as the teacher's union is threatening to declare an impasse in contract talks that have stretched on since 2010.

A mystery man no more, it turns out Dannible was doing his homework on us, too.

"No longer the phantom, never felt like I was," he said. "I recognize you though, Nick, trust me. I Googled you."

Dannible says he didn't have time to campaign because his son recently returned from fighting overseas and he had the birth of a grandchild.

Now he'll be spending plenty of time back at school after an election even he says he was surprised to win.