Cary police announced Tuesday that they're closing, for the second time, the investigation into the 2010 burglary that Wake County school board member Debra Goldman had reported at her home.

Police say all leads have been exhausted in the investigation into the $130,000 in jewelry cash and silver coins that Goldman reported had been stolen. Police had reopened the case Oct. 25, two years after it was first closed, but didn't say why.

The recently leaked police narrative report had rocked both the school board and the state's political scene. People were talking about how Goldman had named fellow board member Chris Malone as a possible suspect in 2010 and that Malone had said they had a romantic relationship, which she has denied.

It's still uncertain who leaked the report to the media as Goldman ran for state auditor and Malone ran for state House.

Wake County school board member Chris Malone issued a statement today announcing he would resign Dec. 31 to take his seat in the state House.

Also in the statement, Malone makes an unspecified apology to those who are disappointed in his personal conduct. That could be in reference to the romantic relationship with board member Debra Goldman that he told Cary police about in 2010 but which she denies.

Here's the statement:

Should the Wake County school board fill Chris Malone's soon-to-be-vacant seat with a person from Eastern Wake?

As noted in today's article, some Eastern Wake leaders say the vacancy should be filled by a person who would be strong voice for the region. Malone's district includes most of Eastern Wake and also Wake Forest and Rolesville.

Area leaders say they want things such as more resources, magnet schools, electives and other programs to help with the high percentage of free-and-reduced-lunch students in the region's schools.

There are some interesting new post-election consequences for the Wake County school board.

As noted in today's article, board member Chris Malone says he's waiting until Lori Millberg concedes the state House 35 race before resigning his seat. Malone is also deciding not to respond to the 2010 police report and board member Debra Goldman's repeated public statements that his remarks about having a heated relationship with her are untrue.

You've also got board member John Tedesco now contemplating not seeking reelection next year after going through his life savings in his bid to become state schools superintendent.

Barring an unexpected change of events, the next step will be when Chris Malone resigns his seat on the Wake County school board.

Tuesday night's election totals had Malone with 50.57 percent of the vote to Lori Millberg's 49.43 percent for the state House 35 seat. He had 22,039 votes to her 21,544 votes.

The only votes left to count are the absentee ballots that were mailed in. Millberg, who says she won't concede yet, would need a lot of the absentee ballots to go her way to get within the one-percentage point margin to ask for a recount.

The initial results indicate that Chris Malone is the only Wake County school board who will advance to state office this year.

With 16 of 18 precincts in, Malone is leading tonight in the state House 35 race with 55.63 percent of the vote over former school board member Lori Millberg. But school board member Debra Goldman is losing in her bid for state auditor and board member John Tedesco is losing his run for state schools superintendent.

In terms of Wake County commissioner, with 122 of 200 precincts reporting,   Paul Fitts and Dale Cooke are winning. If they prevail, Republicans would increase their lead to 6-1 on the commissioners.

UPDATE

With 178 of 200 precincts in, Fitts and Cooke have seen their leads shrunk to slightly above 50 percent.

With 187 of the 200 precincts in, Betty Lou Ward and Caroline Sullivan have now taken narrow leads, which if they hold up would keep the Democrats with three seats on the seven-member board.

The initial results indicate that Goldman and Tedesco did worse in Wake County than they did statewide.

The final Wake County results are in and Malone hung on for a narrow victory, getting 50.57 percent of the vote.

For the commissioners, the counting of the early voting totals sharply shifted the races in favor of the Democrats. Sullivan got 57.04 percent to Cooke's 42.96 percent. Ward got 56.84 percent while Fitts droped to 43.16 percent.

Relations among the Republican members of the Wake County school board could be rough going forward if they don't win their bids for state office today.

For instance, you've got board member John Tedesco, the nominee for state schools superintendent, declining to tell WTVD whether he voted for board member Debra Goldman for state auditor. This comes after Tedesco excised mentions of Goldman from his Facebook pages.

You've also got Goldman having filed paperwork with state elections officials in February saying that in the event of death or incapacitation that she wanted 25 percent of her campaign funds going to Duane Cutlip's campaign. Cutlip had unsuccessfully run against board member Chris Malone for the GOP nomination for the state House 35 seat.

Today's election for seats on the Wake County Board of Commissioners and the bids for state office by three school board members will have both short-term and long-term implications for the school system.

If Republican school board members Debra Goldman, Chris Malone and John Tedesco win their respective state campaigns today, they'll have to resign with the board's Democratic majority filling the vacancies.

The chance to potentially increase the majority to 8-1 after today would allow the Democratic board members more latitude, such as waiving policies or rules that require a two-thirds vote. It would also give the new board members a heads up for next year's election.

Wake County school board member Debra Goldman is getting some backlash over having secretly recorded an October 2010 meeting at her home between her and board members John Tedesco and Ron Margiotta.

Tedesco and Margiotta, the board chairman at the time, were trying to keep Goldman's support for the zone plan. A few days later, Goldman would join with the Democratic minority to kill the zone plan.

"I was shocked that she recorded it without telling us,” Margiotta said Monday. “It shows you just how unstable she is that she would tape her conversations.”

Just a day before the election, Wake County school board member Debra Goldman held a press conference this morning to respond to the 2010 police report and to attack her opponent for state auditor, Democratic incumbent Beth Wood.

The official purpose of the meeting was for Goldman to share with the electronic media the recordings she had had played to the N&O on Oct. 27. While the news conference means the questions about the 2010 report will get more coverage today, it means that Goldman is also guaranteed that there will be coverage of her attacks on Wood.

Goldman said she wanted to show "that I'm not a caricature that some members of the press have tried to color me as, that I am a real person."