In our latest podcast, we briefly discussed the challenge that school
board candidates face in achieving name recognition. As these types of elections usually play out,
the candidate who creates the most controversy benefits from getting their name
batted about. As the saying goes, “I don't care what the newspapers
say about me as long as they spell my name right.” The theory being that when an uninformed voter goes into the booth and
sees a list of unfamiliar names, they are more likely to pick the name they've heard before, without considering what the context was that they heard it, good or bad.
Bad candidates often get more ink, in some cases if only for their very badness.
To counter this candidates
are often reduced to standing on the side of busy roads waving signs.
This is a pretty
poor method for picking the people who oversee our public school system and one
of the largest employers in the county.
I’ve decided to try
something different this time around. Instead of writing and talking about the candidates that I
don’t like, I’m going to ignore them. I won’t write anything about them nor
will I mention them on the podcast. Instead, I’ll focus my energies on the
candidates that I believe will best serve our students, our teachers and those
who labor to keep our public school system one of the best in the nation.
Unfortunately you
can only vote for three of the four but that’s okay. Pick your own favorite
three. All four of them are exceptional and each of them would serve our county well.
I plan to write
more about these four in the next 54 days. In the meantime, you can check
out their excellent interviews conducted by the HoCo League of Women Voters. Here’s David Gertler, Ellen Flynn Giles, Jackie Scott and Janet Siddiqui.
The League also
interviewed the other two candidates. You can find out about them on your own. Around
here, for the next 54 days at least, it’s just G's and S's.
